HOKA  Clifton PRO Road-Running Shoes - Women's

Never thought I'd be writing a review for shoes that I once judged as too expensive and horrible colors. But after a stress fracture in both feet a few years ago and going through a pair of shoes every month I decided to put a generous giftcard to work. Those were my 2024 Bondi 8's which held up to 8100 miles over 18 months. They still felt ok when I slipped out of them into another brand shoe for 3 days. The toe rubber began to peel from the fabric and my little toe was starting to let me know it was planning on busting thru soon. So for 3 days I went back to a brand new pair of my pre-HOKA experiment. Day 4 I thought I had sprained my foot and decided to just put the old Bondis back on and start looking for new HOKAs. Life got in the way of serious shopping and then the realization that I had re-fractured the foot (not a bruise, not a sprain). Wore the giant boot for a few weeks, but as a 15 mile a day dog walker that boot wasn't working out smoothly. Finally bought a pair of Clifton 10s in a light color which felt good and stiff enough to replace the boot, but that cream color was never going to hold up to pack walking. So found these Clifton PROs in blue and these feel even better than the C-10s. For the record, color palettes matter and the giant rubber heel on the new Bondis looked silly. These feel and look good - enough that I will probably buy a few more pairs. Yeah, never saw this review in my future. Try them from REI and return if you hate them.