Skechers GOrun

When the wife first told me she wants to get a pair of Skechers Shape-Ups for her runs, I went like what? Skechers? Really? They sound like a drawing pad company to me, let alone a running shoe brand. But she was persistent and went out and bought one. I was still skeptical. I mean, let's be real here. Skechers are not really known for their running shoes.

But she found the shoes to her liking. Her knee issues went away after using the shoes for a few weeks and she enjoyed the bounce and push off the Skechers Shape-Ups offered. Each to her own I suppose. As long as she was happy and the shoes actually helped her run better, that was all that mattered. But heck, I wasn't going to go out and get one for myself.

That was until they released the Skechers GOruns, the very same shoe that Meb Keflezighi used for his Men’s Olympic Marathon trials in Houston clocking a personal best. Granted, the version Meb used was customized for him (which is the same with all shoe companies and their sponsored athletes) and not exactly the very same shelf models being sold worldwide but it has the same technology inside.

I was still on the skeptical side but the fact that Meb was endorsing it for Skechers piqued my curiosity a little. The shoe wasn't launched here yet. The wife was patiently or rather impatiently waiting for it to arrive.

Last week, I was passing by the Skechers KLCC outlet on one of my working rounds and it just so happened that the shoe was launched only the day before. I called the wife to tell her. She was excited to hear the news. She's done a heck of a lot of research on this shoe and she's been waiting for the launch for quite a while now.

To be honest, it looked pretty good. Now here was a Skechers shoe that actually looked like a real running shoe. Once I picked it up though, I knew that I just had to buy this shoe to try it out. It was amazingly light at 6.9oz based on the men's size 9 and though my current favourite, the Green Silence was the same weight, this shoe somehow had an even lighter feel to it. I'm a sucker for light weight shoes these days.

I'm envious of the wife's color theme, unfortunately the men's don't come in lime green

With the wife's enthusiasm and excitement being somewhat contagious, I picked her up the moment I got home and we went out and got ourselves a pair each. The wife was giving me this, 'you're actually buying a Skechers after all that mocking of my previous Skechers shoe' look the whole time I was trying it out in the store ... hahaha! Ok, ok, I admit, I had to eat humble pie. The Saucony's are just going to have to wait a little while longer before I buy them.

The GOrun is Skechers foray into the minimalist trend that also doubles as a 'racing flat'. The first thing you'll notice about the shoe when you put it on is that it has this protrusion inside that pushes against your arches. It feels a little weird to walk in but once you start running in them, you'll hardly notice them. The shoe fit nicely around my feet and has a breathable, nearly weightless synthetic upper mesh. Though the tongue was stitched on to eliminate slipping, sliding your foot in was not an issue with the stretchy uppers and the soft non-conventional heel counter at the back didn't induce any slipping either. It was a nice snug fit.

The heel counter that I thought was pretty cool. Notice the mesh that helped with cooling

The soft smooth and seamless integrated OrthoLite anti-microbial sockliner helps inhibit odor and prevent slippage and is perfect for those who prefer sockless running. The shoe has a roomier toe box which I found to noticeably reduce friction and allowed the toes to spread, grip and push off a little easier unlike my Brooks Launch which has a much tighter toe box. The shoe has a rocker look as you can see in the picture below unlike the more conventional minimalist shoes that I've seen.

The 'rocking horse' look. Notice the distance the heel and toe is from the ground

The shoe is made in such a way with the heel section at an upward curve to help cancel out the need to heel strike. Even though the shoe has a 4mm heel drop, that upward slant makes it feel much higher. Now, the shoe is designed that way cos it 'forces' you to run with a mid-foot strike making heel striking 'virtually' impossible. Even though there is a 4mm heel to toe drop, your heel actually sits lower in the rear of the shoe with the midsoles rising a few millimeters higher to form a kind of arch near the front of the heel and dropping towards the forefoot.

The Resalyte outsole is really flexible, extremely lightweight and soft with significant cushioning in the midfoot section. I would have preferred a slightly more rigid outsole though, especially for speedier runs. A host of round pods or 'GOimpulse sensors' as Skechers refers to, are found on the bottom of the outsole acting as surface anchors. The sensors, which you can see from the picture below are made from high abrasion rubber for added traction and extended durability.

The somewhat similar pods not unlike the Pure Connects

Overall, the shoe shows a lot of promise but bear in mind, this shoe takes some getting used to. If you're a midfoot runner, then the transition is so much easier but someone who heel strikes a lot need to take things easy and slowly transit into the shoe. Do a couple of slow easy miles, get a feel of the shoe before even attempting to take it out for a much longer run. But bear in mind, this shoe is not for everyone.

Anyway, the true test of any running shoe is how well it actually performs when you take it out for a run which I will be doing in the coming days. Do come back and take a peek of how the shoe performs.
 
Last but not least, I would like to thank Skechers Malaysia for kindly giving both the wife and me each a pair of GOruns and the opportunity to review it for them.

Note: 
The shoe in the pictures above were purchased by us but Skechers Malaysia so kindly gave us each another pair to review and test. The writeup you read here and future performance reviews of the shoe are based on my own personal opinion and is in no way influenced by Skechers Malaysia.