![]() The holy grail of midsoles is to provide both a soft cushion and a firm platform for stability and push off. What’s Innovative: Under Armour introduced their HOVR technology last year, but it comes into its own in the Infinite, which uses more of the energy-return foam in a full-length mid-sole layer. Photo: Brad Kaminski Under Armour HOVR Infinite Other Highlights: The booty-like upper stays out of the way, and coddles your heel and ankle. “It was enough to protect impact without losing the feel of the road.” “The cushioning was just right,” said a tester. On the run it provides this sensation for your feet, coddling the contours without sinking in too much, with a quick, bouncy return that, combined with the toe rocker, gets you off the ground and back in the air quickly. It reminds us of high-end packing materials you’d find around expensive scientific instruments, materials that cushion while holding their shape to protect the sensitive cargo. How They Ride: The HyperBurst foam feels different than anything you’ve tried before, even to the touch. “Also, thicker than normal cell walls are what provides the runner with higher resiliency and durability.” Skechers molds the foam into a simple, single-density design with a low heel-toe drop and a pronounced rocker shape from heel to toe. “The larger-than-typical bubbles is what makes this foam so light, since the large bubbles displace the solid mass of more typical EVA,” says Kurt Stockbridge, Skechers footwear development vice president. But Skechers saturates the EVA with heated and pressurized liquid CO2 that then returns to its normal gaseous state, expanding the foam by creating thousands of gas-filled bubbles trapped within the midsole. HyperBurst begins as EVA foam, the same material that has been cushioning running shoes since the 1970s. What’s Innovative: The GORun 7 Hyper moves Skechers to the forefront of innovation due to its new, ultra-light, ultra-bouncy HyperBurst foam. Photo: Brad Kaminski Skechers GORun 7 Hyper Other Highlights: The comfortable heel is a form-fitting cup, molded in a bra factory. The segmented sole shines the most during the transition from mid to forefoot, where the arch is supported independent of the ball of the foot, and each toe feels cared for and engaged in the stride-all the way from the first to the oft-ignored 5 th one. One tester who has had ankle and shin pain found no trace of it running in the Predict RA. The feel is firm underfoot, but not stiff, making the shoe supportive while not at all controlling, with a comfortable, smooth ride from landing to toe off. How They Ride: The shoe seems to deliver as promised. ![]() The result is a sole with 10 “platforms” that can adapt independently, cushioning and supporting when needed as forces change throughout the stride-just as the foot does. The Predict RA, instead, removes the torques by “decoupling” the sole with deep grooves on both the outside and inside of the shoe that echo the major joints of the foot. Most shoes to date have tried to reduce these forces by blocking them with firmer materials in strategic places. But we need cushioning to protect our feet from hard surfaces and that cushioning platform introduces distance from the ground and squishiness underfoot, which contrive to torque our feet out of their stable paths. Truth is, shoes themselves are largely responsible for instability in running: A bare foot on a firm surface is the most stable you’re going to get. What’s Innovative: The Predict RA reimagines how a running shoe interacts with your foot, creating stability through geometry rather than density. These five exciting new models win our recognition for their innovation. Now, every year we see radical new designs that continue to redefine what a running shoe is and how they look and perform. Then came the great disruption, a battering of the status quo from minimalism, maximalism, innovative new materials and an increasingly overwhelming body of research that says shoes don’t work like we used to think they worked. Not long ago, every brand seemed to make the same shoe, with minor modifications year after year. Five Most Innovative Models of 2019 (so Far) We divided the shoes into three categories: Most Innovative, Inspired Updates, and Feels Like Old Times (Only Better). We tested dozens of new running shoes and reviewed 13 models we recommend as training partners this spring.
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