On  Cloudrunner 2 Road-Running Shoes - Men's

This is a review of the Cloudrunner 2 running shoes by the Swiss company On. I’m relatively new to serious running, and during the two weeks I was testing these, I ran mostly 4- to 6-mile easy runs, a couple of race-pace repeats, and a hill repeat. These shoes were good for easy to moderate pace, but they didn't have the spring of a race shoe, and that's absolutely okay for what they are. I’ll start with stability, since that was my favorite part of these shoes. Each stride felt planted and secure, moving from heel strike through to push off. I’m sure this has to do with the shoe’s splayed heel, wide sole (especially around the forefoot) and secure uppers. The shoes made me feel confident. I also liked the fit of the toe box. I like a little room up in front, and these shoes provided that. I don’t ever want that room to come at the cost of looseness around the forefoot, and that was not a problem here. The shoes were secure across the mid and top, but my toes never felt scrunched or jammed at any point. The cushion in the sole was also just right for me. I don’t like to feel like I’m running on balloons, and these gave me a lot of feedback from the ground while providing enough cushion to soften the impact--it felt firm without jarring. The drawback of these shoes for me has everything to do with the shape of my foot. When measured, my feet are right between a narrow fit and a regular. Because of this, I’ve found that some brands work better than others for my foot shape. I was able to lace these shoes snuggly around my foot (some regular sizes slip around when I turn, but not these), but it meant that the fabric at the bottom of the laces had to fold over itself. Sometimes this isn’t a big deal, but with these shoes, that folded fabric started to dig into the top of my foot. I really felt it on longer runs especially. So in summary, these are great shoes that just didn’t work for me. If you have a regular to wide foot, you may find that they’re perfect for you.

*I received these shoes for free in exchange for an honest review.* First impressions: These are very well-made shoes. Materials feel high quality and stitching inside and out is neat and tidy -- gives the impression that these will likely be more durable than most. I do worry a bit about the soles, which are foam with a layer of rubber glued to parts of the bottom, as I've seen rubber like this peel off of shoes from other brands. Time will tell. When first trying them on the immediate reaction is that they are CUSHY -- they earn the "cloudrunner" name with a very soft feel. I've got a pair of Hoka Recovery Slides, and these feel softer than those. Walking: I put in a few miles of walking on city streets with a backpack, and found that the softness is initially nice for this use. But over a long distance it ended up being bad for my feet overall. With such a springy sole, my foot was free to twist a bit with each step (a problem I've spent time correcting), and the result was sore knees after my long walk. So while it saved some soreness in my feet, the cushioning was too much and caused pain elsewhere. Running: These are running shoes after all, so I put in a few miles running on pavement as well. Here the cushion feels less like walking on a cloud, but more like running on slightly springy ground. The closest thing I can think of might be the rubberized surface at a playground. Each stride sinks in a bit and bounces back out. As with walking, for the first part of the outing this was quite nice - no pain while running on a hard surface. But by the end of the first mile I was annoyed by the sensation. The cushion saps a bit of energy from each stride, almost like running on sand. Verdict: I think these are very niche shoes -- if your main concern is to cushion yourself from hard surfaces, and you don't have any gait issues, and you don't mind losing some energy to the cushion, these are the shoe for you as they are so well made. But I think many people may have some issue with these on longer outings. I strongly recommend trying these on and giving them a real test before purchase. The initial impression is likely to sway many because they do feel very comfortable out of the box, but you may find that it solves one issue while causing others.