The Importance of Perception and Preference in Choosing Running Shoes

If you're in the running shoe world at all, you know cushion and softness are the name of the game. Every shoe brand claims that each new version of their shoes is softer than the last, but what does it even mean for a shoe to be "soft"? How do you compare the softness of one shoe to another? In this episode, Nathan, Matt, and David do just that. They take a list of 10 of our favorite shoes from the past year or two (like the Brooks Hyperion Max, Asics Novablast 4, Nike Alphafly 3, and more) and see how their cushioning stacks up. No spoilers here, so you'll have to tune to see how the rankings turned out!

Chapters

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:06 - Defining "softness" in shoes
• 14:23 - #10: the firmest shoe
• 17:15 - #9
• 21:11 - #8
• 22:48 - #7
• 26:38 - #6
• 30:12 - #5
• 36:46 - #4
• 40:20 - #3
• 43:21 - #2
• 49:29 - #1: the softest shoe
• 1:00:30 - Wrap-up