The record
The instrument,
not the advert.
There is no shortage of race shoe reviews. There is a real shortage of anyone willing to put a number next to the price tag.
Super shoes now cost £150 to £450, last as little as 120km, and are sold on a “4%” figure that came from a laboratory study of fast runners and describes running economy rather than finish time. Most people buying them have no way to work out what they are actually getting. That is the gap this site exists to fill.
What is here
- A calculator that estimates what a given shoe saves you over your race, at your pace, against the shoes you already own — and what each second ends up costing.
- A legality instrument for the World Athletics stack-height limits, with every shoe drawn to scale against the 40mm line and an honest answer on whether the rule applies to your race at all.
- An index of 28 current racers with the measurements that decide whether a shoe suits you, including realistic competitive life rather than marketing durability.
How it stays honest
No brand pays to be included, ranked, or described a particular way. Every shoe in the index is there because it is a current race shoe, and the ordering is whatever the numbers say for the filters you have set. Shoes that are poor value are shown as poor value, including ones we link to.
The site earns through affiliate links to retailers. Those links never affect inclusion or ranking, and the disclosure page explains exactly how that works. Shoes with no affiliate relationship at all are ranked identically to those with one.
The full model is published on the method page, including the assumptions we are least confident about. Estimates are given as ranges because the underlying research reports ranges.
Corrections
Specs change, prices move, and new models land constantly. If a figure here is wrong, please say so — corrections are the whole basis on which a reference site earns being trusted.
Built in London · not affiliated with any shoe brand or World Athletics