Out with the old and in with the... Skechers...?

Right around when my New Balance Zantes started to hit about 300 miles, I figured I should start looking around for a new pair of sneakers since running shoes tend to have a limited lifespan. It had occurred to me that I should just buy another pair of the New Balance and call it a day, but with an almost limitless number of choices and options out there, I figured it would be worth it to try out a different pair.

Oh boy were there a lot of choices...

I decided to narrow down the candidates to shoes that fit (snicker snicker) the following criteria:

1. Lightweight
2. Supportive midsole
3. 4 to 6 mm heel-to-toe drop

So that limited the choices down to about a million pairs of shoes... sigh...

Image courtesy of Boston.com 

I had narrowed the choices down to Brooks or Hoka based on reviews and feedback from other runners and was about to call it until I read an article about Meb Keflezighi who won the 2014 Boston Marathon... in a pair of Skechers...

Whaaaat....?

I never ever associated Skechers with performance of ANY kind. In fact, the only notable thing I recall of Skechers is the company getting sued for false advertising on their shape up shoes. However, after looking into their Performance brand, it sounds like their Skechers Performance department warranted a consideration.

I poked around Amazon (which is something I do 5 times a day) and actually found a pair of GoMeb performance running shoes for $45. This made the decision fairly easy since, if they stunk, I could still use them to mow the lawn and not feel so bad about it (I’m looking at you Under Armour HOVR Sonic).

I have to say, I was very surprised by these shoes. They are extremely lightweight and supportive enough for a half marathon distance. They have a 4 mm drop so it helped me with my heel striking. I was impressed.

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns though. The laces that came with the shoes were essentially twine, I couldn’t remove the insoles and replace them with my own, and 13 miles is definitely their limit in terms of support and comfort. Those shortcomings though were more nit picky than anything else.

The only knock I have against Skechers as a brand is that their naming for their performance shoes is terrible. It seems like they have two major performance models; GoMeb and GoRun. However, if you look under those models, there are so many sub-models (?) that you can’t really make heads or tails of it. GoMeb Speed 5? Razor 2? GoRun Ride 7? Helicopter turbo jet Optimus Prime 2?

One of those may have been made up...

Naming goofiness aside, I’m sold on Skechers Performance shoes and, as long as I can figure out which pair fit my needs, I will consider them first when I need to buy my next pair.

Although if they did name a pair called “Helicopter turbo jet Optimus Prime 2” I would probably buy those just because...