Saucony Grid Type A4 - Brief Review

I tried the new Saucony Grid Type A4 at lunch today. For what is it worth, here are my thoughts although I only walked in the Saucony and did about 2-3 minutes of running at 9:00 pace on the treadmill.

1. Good room in the toe box. Pretty wide for a running shoe. Slightly wider than the Mizuno Wave Universe 3.

2. Pretty flexible shoe.

3. Minimal support in the arch area. Much less support than the Mizuno Wave Universe 3. You can almost fold the front to the back.

4. Pretty light at about 7 oz. or a hair under.

5. 4mm heel differential which didn't seem to bother me much.

6. Decent ground feel, obviously much better with the insole removed.

7. Could potentially be the best of the running shoe. When I say "running shoe," I'm not including true minimalist footwear like VFFs, Evo, Feelmax, etc.

8. Definitely a move in the right direction by a major shoe company.

So with that said, did I buy a pair? No, although I thought about it. However, I couldn't justify buying any running shoe when the Evo has been spectacular. And no trading running shoe or racing shoe provides the type of flexibility, ground feel and zero drop like the Evo (of course, other than other true minimalist footwear). All I need is a trail shoe so I'll wait and consider the Inov-8 F-Lite 195 since it only has a 3mm differential but I'll need to see how flexible the shoe is and, if it's flexible, especially in the mid foot/arch area, then I'll give it a try.

The other thing is loyalty. I'm going to stay LOYAL to the companies that promoted barefoot-like running from the beginning . . . Vibram, Feelmax, Terra, etc. Even if the major shoe companies decide to offer good minimalist footwear, I'll stick with the niche/small companies that entered this space first.

On another note, this store also had KSOs and Bilika's, but women's only. That's progress at least.

HHH