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The Run Testers Awards 2025 | The best running shoes, watches and headphones of the year
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The latest episode of the podcast is our annual Run Testers Awards ceremony. We pick our top picks for running products across a range of categories: Race shoes, daily shoes, cushioned shoes, trail shoes, watches, headphones, and the audience award for best running shoe.
Download, stick your headphones on and make the best of that long run.
Big thanks to Fear of Tigers for the killer intro music. You can listen to more of his stuff over at https://www.patreon.com/fearoftigers
Product links: Occasionally, we use affiliate links on products we feature. If you click on these links and buy a product we do receive some money in return - but this doesn't come at a cost to you. Our use of affiliate links does not affect what we say about products and if you'd rather not use the links you can find the items using the search engine of your choice.
Garmin Forerunner 970: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/aWoJPNM/
Coros Pace 4: https://coros.com/pace4
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2: https://www.beatsbydre.com/uk/earbuds/powerbeats-pro-2
Apple Airpods Pro 3: https://www.apple.com/uk/airpods-pro/
Adidas Adizero EVO SL: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/9ODnB4O/
Asics Megablast: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/bxkAVeG/
Nike Vomero 18: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/KNOdDOe/
Puma Magnify Nitro 3: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/EJDGpoV/
Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/bxlvkNa/
Asics Metaspeed Sky Tokyo: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/kV0Zo3W/
Asics Fuji Lite 6: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/1eEzqbD/
Merrell MTL Matryx Adapt: https://sportsshoes.prf.hn/l/K3wPvwn/
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Transcript
Introduction to Run Testers Awards 2025
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, Tommy from The Run Testers and welcome back to a special episode of the podcast where we will be doing the Run Testers Awards 2025.
Selection Process for Favorite Products
00:00:11
Speaker
This is where we go through all the stuff we've tested over the past 11-ish months and we pick our favourites and our runner-ups across a wide range of categories including running watches, running headphones and shoes.
00:00:25
Speaker
Right, let's dive in and see what won the awards in 2025.
Host's Personal Running Highlights of 2025
00:00:37
Speaker
Hello, gentlemen, how are we doing? ah Hello. Hello. Good evening. It's been a long time since we've done a podcast, actually. This is the big one.
00:00:48
Speaker
Is this thing even on? I don't know yet. That tap is coming through loud and clear. Too loud. This is the podcast of all of our podcasts. This is the awards podcast where we go through all of the shoes and the headphones and the watches that we've tested over the course of 2025. And we've picked our top pick and we've got a runner up for each one.
00:01:13
Speaker
And we've also got the... Yeah.
00:01:24
Speaker
well definitely by far the the most votes i had to count for um for that category so people very very vocal about their their ps this year but so before we start the awards Let's just talk a little bit about 2025 for you guys.
00:01:40
Speaker
and my My question to pose to you is, what is your running highlight of 2025? As in your highlight. It's not Harry Styles finishing the marathon. Unless it had a massive emotional effect on you.
00:01:54
Speaker
Kieran tearing up listening to one of his songs. I don't know his songs. all yeah and All of them. I was listening to all of them. yeah I was seeing how many Harry Styles songs I could listen to in the time it took him to run the marathon.
00:02:07
Speaker
Good times. I was just amazed by the amount of articles I read where people were trying to fudge him in as a headline to get the SEO out of it even though it wasn't really about him. surprised there was that much appetite to read about it.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, go on then, Kieran. what What was your highlight this year, apart from Harry Styles? I think my my highlight still has to be... It's difficult. It's between the Comrades, probably, and Dublin, where I've run a PB in Dublin.
00:02:33
Speaker
Comrades is always a highlight because it's just ah it's just such a kind of massive, kind of joyous race. and I think, actually, probably my highlight of all the highlights, though, was the fact that I've done three Comrades and I've finished them all, I think, within...
00:02:47
Speaker
It's something crazy like one minute of each other. So I've done a 48, 49 and 50 on the up and down year. So they I slotted into the middle this time. So I'm basically just like a metronome on that course.
00:03:00
Speaker
Which had better weather, Comrades or Dublin? Yeah, I mean, it depends on friends whether you like to be really cold and wet. I've never spoken to a man less happy to have PB, just only complaining about the weather for the first two hours afterwards.
00:03:14
Speaker
it was so cold. it was so when when When I was messaging, I could barely feel my thumbs getting in there. My favorite thing is after that, actually this is a low light. I booked a gym in the city, which was to do like a gym pass to go and have a shower. So everyone does it so they're nearer the pubs can go straight to the pub.
00:03:29
Speaker
It's about 700 Irish blokes in this gym change room, queued up for ages to get to the front, to the queue, to the showers. Finally got where there was going to warm shower, stepped in, pressed go on the water, freezing cold, absolutely freezing cold. I should have just gone straight to the Lithium and got him that. It would have been better. But it's a great Dublin, great race. I'd love to go back and do it when the sun's shining.
00:04:00
Speaker
But this is a race that the after party, the pubs were just packed and you could see people were settling in for a proper good afternoon and evening weekend. probably more lively than anywhere I've ever been.
00:04:11
Speaker
London has a bit of it, but this was, yeah, it was going to, I had to fly out, but you could see it was going to be an interesting... Did you have a Guinness the airport? I had Guinness, I actually had a couple of Guinness in a pub and then I had another Guinness at the airport, yeah, so... okay Good, not not a bad highlight, not bad highlights. Mike, your year's been a little bit different. Yeah, I wouldn't say there's not been many highlights. I've not raced a lot. I've had injury kind of situation to battle and and know life stuff getting in the way as priorities. But I've done a couple of races. I did a couple of races ah with you, Tom. um the big ones ah The big ones. The big ones, big ones.
00:04:51
Speaker
so yeah I mean yeah it's not been a great year for racing for me it's definitely been interrupted hopefully fingers crossed it'll be a lot better next year so what you're saying the A6 Wembley 10k that we did because we got to watch what was it an Oasis band? Noasis noasis I mean that was noasis was it it was someone else don't look back in anger or something It was great having pints at what?
00:05:19
Speaker
9am? 10am? Yeah, when it was quite good. ah So yeah, it was ah it's been definitely been a different year, been a challenging year, but um I've enjoyed following you guys. I mean, I went and managed to catch Nick when he was doing London, when there's kind of horrible hot conditions. and yeah So it's been a different one, but hopefully yeah I'll have a little bit more racing in the tank next year. So let's see.
00:05:43
Speaker
Go on then, Nick. PB Central. It actually has been in me a nice year. Yeah, I've got quite a few highlights. know what I'm going to pick out. good i've done I've run a marathon PB in Seville. That was great.
00:05:55
Speaker
ran a faster marathon Loch Ness, but downhill. So, of course, Seville. Seville's the fastest one, really. But I wasn't in Seville, and that was the... but I mean, the after party in Loch Ness was definitely better than it was in Seville. Me and Tom watching...
00:06:08
Speaker
I can't remember what we were. Oh, the Ryder Cup. Actually, it wasn't that fun because it looked like we were about to throw away the Ryder Cup and getting quite tense, but we didn't win it, so it's fine. I actually think it's probably a bit more local stuff. I got a couple of firsts this year that are really important to me. on I got my first individual county medal and I represented Essex for the first time. So I think actually the Brighton 10K...
00:06:25
Speaker
One of the best races I've ever done in that I went i went sub 32, got a PB, represented Essex. That was just this weekend with Tom as well. Tom was there, so that was good. and Stayed at Tom's house night before. That was very nice. Saw all his Lego. So it all kind of combines the walk through Burgess Hill with Tom. So that all adds up to just a very was favorite Lego?
00:06:45
Speaker
too much Lego Mike. It's really like honestly. He's just looking at it. Just came in the room in the morning. was just staring at it. I hadn't slept a week. So yeah, that was a very fun all-round experience, I would say.
Introduction of Awards Categories
00:06:57
Speaker
And yeah, I'm not very good at like 5K, 10K. So to really do that race well and wrap a good home straight, I really enjoyed that. But probably Seville was the best actual running, but that was best all-round experience. really enjoyed that.
00:07:11
Speaker
And you, Tom? Yeah. Same? ah No.
00:07:17
Speaker
Jogging another race in Brighton didn't do it for you. Well, I've not got any PBs this year. I've not really done any big events that I've wanted to tick off the bucket list. I did Manchester Marathon and I did Loch Ness. So think this year, I'd probably say Loch Ness because I really enjoyed that marathon.
00:07:33
Speaker
That was a lovely trip. We had very good weather and um it was just a lot of fun all around. It really is a sensational race weekend, Loch Ness. in the marathon was really fun. The year we did it, Mike, it was colder than Dublin and wetter. And that was even before we started. did it that year. wasn't that bad. Endless complaining. It was very easy. Pin bags on. Pin bags on, I think. was very cold at the start that year. It's always cold at the start. But you are in the Highlands.
00:07:56
Speaker
yeah well If you keep picking, if you pick Dublin November, you've expect a little bit of chill Told me it would be glorious. It was just watching the buses pull away and lock as they kicked you off.
00:08:07
Speaker
And the only bit of warmth disappearing into the distance. I was yeah so exposed. You probably say that about like Spanish marathons. You've still got three t-shirts. Yeah, you're still wearing three t-shirts. Yeah, Seville, chilly too chilly for me. Well, let's do some awards then.
00:08:38
Speaker
Hello gentlemen and welcome back to the awards, the annual awards we do to talk through the best running shoes and watches and headphones that have been out over the past, well, 11 months because we do this in November.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, but we take into account stuff from last December,
Announcing Best Running Watch
00:08:55
Speaker
don't we? Yeah, and if anything that basically didn't get a chance to be added into the last awards, we included in this. But normally there's only like one or two things that crop up that are really stand out. And I think you'll see that in this and in these awards. um So i think it's safe to say that this year... ah It's been a funny year for releases. I think some categories of the awards have been really standout.
00:09:19
Speaker
We've got some that were very, very easy for us to to vote on. And a few were a bit tricky because we couldn't quite work out what was a standout ah product in those categories. Is that safe to say? Yes.
00:09:31
Speaker
yeah Okay. Thank you. Confirmed. Confirmed. Thank you. So we have ah eight categories um of shoes, watches, and headphones. And we also have a couple of categories at the end. One is the brand of the year. So we talked through um the brand that we think has made the biggest impact this year. And also we have the audience shoe of the year, which is the one that all of the audience vote on. via Instagram and um and via YouTube. So let's kick it off with Best Running Watch.
00:10:12
Speaker
Nick, do you want talk us through what we look for in the best running watch category? Yes, sure. Well, really, really good running watches is our aim here. Accurate watches, watches with new features, innovative new features, ideally a bit of value if you can, durable designs, attractive designs.
00:10:30
Speaker
Probably we are towards lighter weight watches in general, I would say, as running doesn't necessarily need the big heaviest watch on your wrist all the time but of the time we're just looking for the watch is going to offer the most features at the best price we can get it really Okay, good.
00:10:45
Speaker
Nice. ah So what's the winner? The winner this year is the Garmin 40970. Garmin has released a lot of watches this year, it's fair to say, and prices have gone up, I think, across the board. But this is a watch that has everything that Garmin does, really. Apart from LTE and satellite connectivity, which you're now getting on the Fenix 8 Pro, the 40970 does everything you're getting from the more expensive Fenix watches. It's got Better design in the previous model, a harder design with a sapphire screen. It's got a flashlight built in. It's got some interesting new running stats like running tolerance. And this is all on top of what you're already getting from Garmin, which is best-in-class tracking and training analysis and exceptional navigation tools. Good-looking watch. nice and niceweight Nice and lightweight compared to stuff like the Fenix 8 Pro as well. So it's pretty much the perfect package if you can afford it as a running watch. you know It is expensive, but there's nothing there you're lacking, really, that you you can never want for features of this watch. And it is coming in. a little bit cheaper than some of the very expensive Garmin watches out there.
00:11:38
Speaker
Glowing report.
Best Running Headphones Award
00:11:39
Speaker
Anything else to add from anyone else? Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, we obviously test a ridiculous amount of watches over, you know, all the time, you know, we're testing and this is the watch I look forward to going back to the most. And as Nick kind of alluded to, know, general, Galway's watches have gone up in price, but I think in terms of delivering all of the kind of features that we want and expect to see from a running watch tonight, particularly, you know, I'm happy to make some of the compromises we do see with the 970 compared to previous versions of the watch, I think, to
00:12:10
Speaker
show that it is a really kind of standout watch and it's definitely the one that's been the favorite for me this year yeah all all of the above and basically you know you can tell but i'm when i'm sort of currently not testing or i'm testing up alongside you know i've got it on my wrist right now and if you're picking it out of the big pile of watches that we're testing and it stays it's a good sign i'm quite surprised that this one has stuck with me as well because normally i would go for something that's a bit more rugged maybe has that sort of longest level of battery life but i think as the all-round package It's just a really nice watch to wear, does everything you need. And actually, even though the battery life is shorter than some of those, it doesn't need charging kind of all the time, which is a rich as a bonus.
00:12:52
Speaker
Nice. And Nick, what was our runner-up in the watch category? So runner-up for us this year is the Corus Pace 4, one of the most recent releases out there. I would say if the 40970 is the watch I wear the most outside um outside of testing new stuff like Mike and Kieran, it's the watch I'd go to, it's the watch I'd love to have.
00:13:08
Speaker
Corus Pace 4 might be the watch I'd actually buy if I didn't have anything here because it offers a really... good amount of bang for your buck. It's ah now got an AMOLED screen, which is the big upgrade compared to the Pace 3. It's an exceptionally lightweight and small watch, which is just great for wearing on your wrist. Still packs in pretty good battery life despite having that AMOLED display you know and a pretty small design. you're still going to get several days of use comfortably with the oars on screen on, in fact.
00:13:30
Speaker
and it's really accurate for me. Like ah the GPS has been in line with watches that cost but literally five times as much and that kind of thing. you get a decent level of training analysis, quite an easy user interface. It's the watch I'll be recommending to people to buy pretty much for throughout the coming year. I think the only rival it has actually the Corus Pace Pro, which is a little bit pricier and has maps, but that's not a new watch. So the Pace 4 is the one we picked for ah second in this category. And I think...
00:13:52
Speaker
In a year when we have seen really big rises in the prices of running watches, I think a lot of Garmin watches are almost priced now to be bought at their sale price down the line because the the ticket price coming out is so expensive. The Pace 4 is a good value watch and that's really nice to see and certainly something that I think merits a runner's up spot.
00:14:16
Speaker
Okay, so on to some more tech. my Mike, ah best running headphones. What have we gone for? yeah so why why What do we look for first? So i I think we'd be in agreement in terms of what we look for in a pair of headphones that are a good fit for running. I think the first thing would be fit I think that's the most important thing over everything else. You know, if it doesn't stay put when you're running, when you're racing, when you're training, then, you know, it's not going to be one we're going to look to use.
00:14:43
Speaker
um Other things, you know obviously you're looking, you want sound quality. They are headphones. You want that sound quality to deliver in all of the environments that you're going to be running in. And I think, you know, Battery life is also an important thing. you know You're going to be charging a bunch of other things as well. You want to think less about you know charging your headphones. That's definitely something we look for. And any kind of new extras that might kind of you know improve or enhance that running experience as well. But definitely, I would say that kind of fit in design, kind of that overall sound quality and delivering good battery life overall.
00:15:14
Speaker
Okay, lovely. So what have we gone for? so our top pick is the beat power Beats Powerbeats Pro 2. Now this is obviously the follow-up to the Beats Powerbeats Pro which hasn't been updated for years but it's definitely a pair of headphones or a range that has definitely you know stuck in terms of popularity. So This year we've seen an update to the Powerbeats Pro 2. There's some big updates here in terms of the design. It's still got that airhook design, which is still very secure and very reliable.
00:15:43
Speaker
We're seeing an improvement in terms of sound performance. You've got that ANC, there's active noise cancellation, the transparency modes, which we found worked. really well and the overall sound performance is very good as well. There's an improvement in battery life from you know the Powerbeats, the original, which had very strong battery life as well.
00:15:59
Speaker
And there were also was the introduction ah the heart rate sensor, which we've seen in other headphones. We also have now seen in another Apple product as well. Now we had a mixed experience with this, but I think both And I think, you know, I think maybe Nick is probably in agreement with this. I think it's a feature that while it's not been perfect, where I'm kind of happy to kind of overlook, we're happy to overlook, given that the other aspects ah that these headphones work really strongly.
Best All-Rounder Running Shoe
00:16:24
Speaker
And I think, you know, if it came to, ah you know, a race, you know, some kind of harder sessions, you know, these are a pair of headphones that ah I think we can kind in general agree that we could trust.
00:16:35
Speaker
yeah I'd say overall, that i think these headphones, we'd probably rate them higher if they didn't have the heart rate feature on them at all, because yeah it was just a bit of a pain to use, not that accurate. But all the other things are exactly what we look for in running headphones, really. And that ear hook fit is so reliable. If you struggle with in-ear headphones like i do, or just in general, people just want the most reliable fit, the hook is hard to beat. And then you are getting you know good slate of features around it.
00:16:58
Speaker
right, so what was the runner up, Mike? So the runner up was that other kind of set of earbuds that do also include a heart rate sensor or was you know introduced this year, and that was the Apple AirPods Pro 3. Now again, you don't have that ear hook design and some might find that you fit a little bit more problematic, but I think if you can get the fit to work for you,
00:17:16
Speaker
and you're looking for a pair earbuds that can work for kind of everyday use um and for running as well, then these kind of offer a really good overall experience. and now more durable than the previous AirPods Pro. and They've got improved active noise cancellation if that's something that you like. um You do have a heart rate sensor, which I think in general we have found has performed better than it did on the Beats headphones and actually in general to the other um headphones that have tried to do heart rate tracking from the ears. This is probably been the best example of it. And there is again, also an improvement in battery life overall. So if you can get that fit to work, you're looking for something that can, you know, you only have one option for a pair of earbuds to use everything, then these would be ones to look at.
00:18:10
Speaker
Okay, so on to the first of all, road shoes. And this is um this is the one probably that we discuss, well, that is is the easiest one to to to vote on most of the time. Nick, this is the best all-rounder running shoe or daily trainer. We lump those together in this one. What do we look for in an all-rounder or daily trainer in this sense, Nick?
00:18:33
Speaker
So we're looking for high level performance across a range of runs. not A shoe that's got to be comfortable, but versatile and approachable. So you can put it on every day. shoe you look forward to pulling on every day really, no matter what you've got lined up or even if you don't have any kind of plan when you're going out the door.
00:18:47
Speaker
shoe that, yeah, that can really run the gamut of what you might approach in daily training. So it's not a pure cushion shoe that's just for easy runs. It's not like a pure speed shoe that you're only really comfortable taking up fast runs. It's something that can do a bit of everything.
00:19:00
Speaker
ideally at a reasonable price although to be fair i think our runner-up is not a reasonable price ah um and yeah it's just a shoe that makes the joy of running every day even more joyous okay so what what do we think what was the top slot i actually don't have extra spreadsheet runner but assume it's the adidas evo so Okay, good. Good. ah yes Yeah, he'd ask Adesiria by Selton. Obviously, i'm I'm looking at the spreadsheet right now. And it is, I mean, this is a shoe that came up right at the back end of last year. So we didn't really get to consider it for last year's rewards. And it's just a phenomenal orange. It's been a word of mouth sensation. I think it's fair to say it's, Really light, extremely light. It's got a Lightstrike Pro midsole, really nice bouncy foam you've got here, but it's still quite resilient. It's not the most stable shoe, but a shoe that I've been very happy running around at easy paces in. I think lots of runners have been throughout the year. It just has that kind of ride where it feels like you're
00:19:52
Speaker
just kind of skipping over the ground and just moving really well, really fluidly at any pace. And it is certainly very fast, definitely a great racing option even, but then you can throttle right back to your easy runs, recovery runs and do them in the shoe as well. So it's just all around a great performer and a shoe that's fun to run in at any pace. And it's really extremely good value. Like we've seen a few shoes this year that are bringing premium phones to these lower price points. and this is a classic
Best Cushioned Shoe
00:20:13
Speaker
example of this. It's 130 pounds, $150 for a fantastic all-round shoe that's yeah just great and one that i've used a lot this year for various marathon training blocks love that shoe it's uh also can find it significantly cheaper in sales and stuff sometimes and for for a cheaper price than that it's an absolute steal it's um it's quite often the shoe i will tell people uh friends who are into running who want to train a bit harder that that's a great option to go for without spending loads of money It's also the kind of shoe that makes a lot of other shoes look a bit silly. So when other shoes come out and they go like, well, this is the price, you well, the Evo sells this price. It basically sets a standard that you have to really justify spending a lot more money on a shoe if it's the Evo sellers that cheap.
00:20:55
Speaker
yeah That's the thing I'd say. It's the biggest compliment. I had it a little bit later than you guys, but the biggest compliment I think to pay it is that brands are reacting to it. And I think that's because Adidas have found ah a kind of a really kind of good sweet spot here for performance and price and versatility, think. And it's yeah it's a shoe that i've yeah I've enjoyed running in as well.
00:21:15
Speaker
Okay, so speaking of ah great shoes at great value, ah this is probably a great shoe at the other side of the scale. What was our runner-up there? So this is the Attex Megablast. Now, this a shoe I think, yeah even though we were predisposed to like, that's great value, really fun looking shoe. This is a shoe I think were probably predisposed to maybe not like because it is so expensive. Like it's, you know, it's wild. It's really yeah classic example of running shoe inflation. But It has been so good to run in the Meg Blast. I think it is the most versatile running shoe on the market, more than the EOSL because you get a bit more cushioning and stability for easy runs. like
00:21:46
Speaker
Pretty much of the box, I took it away for a week and it's the only running shoe took with me just in every run in it. and I've done everything from like i a 1630 park run to just a full recovery run like on slightly dodgy terrain even. and just loved it every single time it's got a really responsive fun ride a very fast transition it's a bit blocky at times at the back but you can still run really quick in it and for all we've moaned about the price and every single video i've done about the mega blast or inverses we've complained about the price and i think that's a fair complaint like it's not necessarily the shoe we go and recommend everyone to go and buy because it is so expensive but if you have it it's amazing and like it is extremely versatile and it can just do everything durability seems really good as well and just all around a great running shoe just just a little disappointing it is so expensive
00:22:27
Speaker
Okay, so from Daily Shoes on to our...
00:22:38
Speaker
Cushioned shoe of the year category. Mike, how do we look or choose cushioned shoes? Well, yeah, i mean, I think this is fair to say this has kind of been one of the category of shoe that's kind of grown the most over the last few years. And I think there's probably a few things that we would look for. I think most people would look for in a cushioned shoe. i think comfort would be a priority. This is going to be a shoe that you'd be hoping to spend a lot of time in, maybe not your hardest and fastest ah kind of time, but definitely everything else in between. You're going to want something that's very stable as well. If you're going to spend a long time in it, if you're going to do long runs in it, that
00:23:12
Speaker
That's something you definitely look for. And obviously protection, good protection. you know You're probably getting a good stack of foam underneath your feet to do that and really kind of giving a good balance of all those things and making a shoe you can use for your daily runs, but also you can definitely kind of soak up a lot of your mileage in a kind of training block if you're you know kind of building up to training for a race.
00:23:32
Speaker
Okay, hitters. What won that category? Yeah, so this was an interesting one for us. So we've gone for the Nike Vomero 18. Now, we had a bit of a debate about this. We talked about all of the Vomero shoes. Obviously, there's now kind of three shoes in that Vomero line, the Vomero Premium, the Plus, and now the Vomero 18. Now, the Vomero 18 is the most affordable shoe. It is the one that has a kind of mix of Zoom X and React X um in the foam. It's cheaper but in terms of being a shoe that you can do a lot of your kind of sessions in it it really does ah do a really good job it's a good shoe to kind of do your long runs your daily runs uh and in terms of that stability it definitely ticks that box i think in terms of that ride it's got a it's got some of that kind of nice zoom x bounce that we like to see but it's definitely kind of delivered in a very controlled fashion and like we see a lot of uh the kind of night shoes the outfits got a great outsole on there as well.
00:24:28
Speaker
And it sits at a very good price point, definitely when you compare it to the premium and the plus as well. it's yeah and just ah it's It's one of those shoes, I think, from the last generation to this one, it it feels like ah it's transformed. It's like a totally different shoe. yeah um It's now one of the shoes that when we're not testing, and this is a massive compliment to it,
00:24:50
Speaker
When I look down, if I want to go and just have an easy run, I'm not testing a pair of shoes. Which shoes am I going to pick? The Vermeer is still a shoe, the 18, that I'm still putting on. Again, it's another I think it's another suitcase shoe. You can whack it take that as your only shoe, and you can cover quite a lot of your training if you're traveling.
00:25:05
Speaker
I just think it's really easy. There's other bonuses to it as well. If you're looking for a shoe you can just wear outside when you're not running. if you're traveling it can do that as well because it actually looks quite nice as well so I just think the change the change in gears from the last generation to this I haven't tested the other two in Femera range but the 18 for me sort of really standout stands out partly because of that Yeah, it's maybe lost a little bit of that uptempo edge from the previous shoes that we have tested on the channel. But I think in terms of what it has got instead of that, I think it offers something still that's very strong, just you know doesn't quite sit in the same category as previous from Ares. And then as someone who has tested the other Vermeiros in line, but not the 18, I just go and say, so i think in general, this a very strong line from Nike now. And actually in the UK, Nike are very good value at the moment as well, I think. And the US think their prices are more in line of other people, but the Vermeer Plus, I haven't tested the 18. Sounds similar to the 18, but more ZoomX. And I love the Vermeer Plus. And i I still think if you guys had tested that, you'd love it as well.
Best Race Shoe
00:26:03
Speaker
So that's definitely a shoe to consider. And the Vermeer Premium is a bit silly, but unbelievably comfortable and bouncy. And that's quite expensive, but...
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think Nike's had actually a very good year on the training. So I think the Pegasus line is okay, but the Vermeer line is really, really good. And I think all the shoes in it could be contenders for the best cushion shoe. Okay, so what was our runner-up in this category?
00:26:21
Speaker
So our runner-up was the Puma Magnifying Nitro 3. Now I'm going to hand that over to Nick, who's the only one who has tested this, but this is the shoe we've gone for in terms of runner-up position. I think so Christian shoes, I think it's important say that we had a lot of shoes we all liked, but actually yeah not many of us had tested all of them. So we ended up with quite a split vote, which is why we've had a bit trouble picking it. So there were some other good shows like the Hurricane five s good shoe.
00:26:43
Speaker
The Hoka Arahi 8 was a big surprise hit and we all love that as a stability shoe. But Magnify Nitro 3 I think is worth shouting out. I think Puma in general has done Adidas has done with the Evo SL this year, which is to bring premium phones in at good prices. So with the Magnify Nitro 3, getting a nitri-infused Piba foam on a really comfortable cushioned shoe at a good price, especially again here in the UK. Nice level of comfort, nice level responsiveness. think it's just a really good all-round shoe and a bit more cushion than the Velocity Nitro 4, which we also rate really highly, but maybe might not be seen as cushions enough for some people.
00:27:13
Speaker
And great grip always wi with Puma. Always great, especially this time of year.
00:27:25
Speaker
Okay, so on to probably the biggest category in the awards. It's the best race shoe 2025. Kieran, it's probably quite obvious what we look for in these, but give us an overview race shoes and how we how we pick them.
00:27:40
Speaker
we We basically choose this one in whichever shoe Nick has run a and then that goes top. and then No, I mean, but in all seriousness, we are looking for our our performance in this. We're looking for shoes that are going to deliver you know a real punch efficiency. They're going to be shoes that we are all happy to go and chase our fastest times over, hopefully over a range of distances, not just the marathon, but...
00:28:02
Speaker
Everything from a mile, maybe up to the marathon distance. But I think it's fair to say we sort of have a focus on that kind of marathon distance. and lot of the shoes we pick will perform well for the 26.2. to And we are looking for shoes that yeah we we might not have such a sort of focus here on price. And some of these shoes, actually, we're looking for performance over the price and the value element maybe dwindles a bit. as great if it comes in at a good price, but some of these are going to be up there when we're talking about, um yeah. Yeah.
00:28:31
Speaker
price and what we get out them but um yeah so we're basically looking for shoes that we've all also gone and hopefully run pbs in as well and a lot of the picks on this list we've kind of put them out there in the real world conditions and used them and they've paid back um in that real world testing as well yeah quite easy to pick race shoes if you've done a lot of races in them because you can really find out which ones make a difference on the day um and there were quite a few ratios released this year but what was our top pick kieran So the one we've gone for as the top pick is the Puma Fast R3. Now, this is a shoe that, you know, it delivers kind lab-tested efficiency. You know, there's a bit of science and a bit of research to back up the performance of this as a shoe that not only responds for faster runners, but actually pretty much all runners will respond to.
00:29:19
Speaker
But I think the proof of that kind of pudding was us taking out and using in the real world. It's it's such a lightweight shoe. it offers really, really good punch and propulsion. You can kind of feel the efficiency gains as you're kind of reaching the sort of latter stages of a marathon. I found this out and really kind of well during London. I ran the first half in ah in a marathon PB, in a half marathon PB, sorry. And then I really needed to hold on. Puma Fast just sort of didn't get me to PB, but held me through. I recently went and ran an actual PB for the whole marathon in Dublin as well.
00:29:51
Speaker
in the shoe. And I think it just delivers everything you're looking for in terms of ah of that kind of race shoe energy. You want kind of snappiness, you want good response, you want a feeling of propulsion, but there's control as well. And you just want it to feel like it's giving you that little bit of leg sparing energy when you're sort of deep into those races. So the the fast R3, I think, ticks all of those boxes.
00:30:11
Speaker
I also say it's a shoot that really delivered on the hype. We heard rumblings about it, then Kieran went and lab tested it. We were hearing what you know behind the scenes what he'd thought of it and then you get it and it really held up to all those things. The first one did it, I went and did a blind test where I basically ran at a steady effort with my watch just showing time and my heart rate and I checked the pace afterwards and it was just so much faster than I thought I was running. and It's quite rare to get that feeling sometimes now because we're our a bit we've tested race shoes for so long and we have really good idea about the kind of pace we run, especially at that stage of marathon training block. But yeah, I was really impressed with it. It's very, really feel the effect it's having on your foot strike and the way it rolls you through onto that elongated plate. So yeah, it's really interesting shoe.
00:30:52
Speaker
Okay, and ah probably not surprised to ah big shoe fans watching this, but what was the runner-up, Kieran? So this one was the ASICS Metaspeed Sky Tokyo. And again, I'm going to hand this one over. I've run in the Edge Tokyo and again, ran a PB in that shoe and really loved it.
00:31:10
Speaker
And I think the jury's still out as to know which of these two shoes you might sort so prefer or run best in. i I'd kind of put them almost in the same category in terms of the performance, but we've gone with the Tokyo, I think, because um more of us have sort run in and really enjoyed it. so Yeah, Sky and Edge, both fantastic shoes. Unbelievable, actually even lighter than the Puma. I love the Sky, Tom's tested the Sky.
00:31:29
Speaker
Like, I think you've got to just try them both. I wouldn't go on what ASIC says, but try and both. And one of those is going to be, one the but that's my favorite
Favorite Trail Shoe Award
00:31:35
Speaker
racing shoe. I run my you know, raath and half marathon recently in it. And, just super bouncy unbelievably lightweight just great shoe and the edge is two if you prefer that feeling yeah i prefer the tokyo to the fast r3 just because it is it just feels a little bit bouncier it's a little bit more cushioned or so so in lot ness i didn't use the pubo just because of feared how i'd feel going down lots of downhills in particular in that shoe and i think uh the yeah this guy tokyo gives you a little bit more cush while still being yeah supremely light
00:32:09
Speaker
Now, this is a category that has a slightly different name than some of the ones. This is our favourite trail shoe. Kieran, why do we have a favourite trail shoe and not a best trail shoe? I mean, we've we've got no confidence in our picks, Tom. No, it's... I think, to be to be fair to us...
00:32:29
Speaker
We probably spend more time testing road shoes than trail shoes. i think in the UK where we are, we're probably sort of slightly limited to, in terms of our access to the sort of really difficult, tricky technical terrain and trails that many of the people who would do sort of and core trail running shoe reviews have.
00:32:46
Speaker
as their bread and butter would be out on those trails. So we're sort of testing shoes that are probably a smaller pool of of the core shoes, trail shoes, and we're probably testing them on terrain that's a little bit more kind of runnable and approachable and accessible, which is great. You know, this this category probably speaks to people who maybe run the trails kind of more occasionally rather than a sort of out tackling kind of big steep sort of alpine climbs and really tricky cluttered technical descent. So I think within this, we are looking at shoes that maybe can cross over from the road commute to the trail. They will handle the more runnable terrain underfoot, compacted paths, grassy fields, light coastal paths.
00:33:25
Speaker
those kind of things, you know, forest forest trails. So from our pool that we're picking, it's probably a little bit more limited. So we go for a favourite, our best, because we haven't been quite as expansive in our overall testing. But what we're really looking for, I think, is something that's a really good utility trail shoe that most runners could use in the kind of terrain that they might be using if they occasionally venture off-road rather than they're going out to tackle the UTMB next week. and So what is our top pick for favourite trail shoe then?
00:33:53
Speaker
and We have picked the Asics Fuji Lite 6 for this one. And basically this shoe, I think it sort of stands out because it ticks all of those boxes we've sort of just talked about. It's nice and light. It offers a really good balance of of cushion and protection, but you still get a good ground connection. It can really easily handle moving from sort road and firmer terrain onto things that are a little bit softer. It's not going to tackle kind of really kind of slick mud, but...
00:34:19
Speaker
It's a really approachable trail shoe that I think, you know an affordable price that is nicely versatile that most people could sort of lace up and go and run if they're moving from their sort local forest or maybe into, you know, maybe a park run that's got kind of mixed terrain that you want to have some grip and traction. It's just really sort of easy, balanced, nice comfort, nice grip, nice and lightweight. And I think it just performs across that kind of whole gamut of things that we'd look for in a trail shoe.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, well, at the FUJILIGHT 6, I put that in as well because it's one of the few trails that I've really properly tested. So I've done it on the downs. I've used it around where I live. But I also actually went out to the Alps ah in Switzerland. And at one point, I was running with Tom Evans downhill.
00:35:05
Speaker
ah quite fast in that shoe and it was it it it really does it it feels like a very natural nippy shoe to me but it it's got a nice it's not on loads of cushioning but it's got plenty just to to really cover you a distance so it's a really nice all round shoe and I've tried out a few of the other Asics Trail shoes like the Speed and they're nowhere near as accessible as this one it's just ah yeah it's a great it's a great option for pretty much anyone i I imagine who runs on those sort of varied trails apart from mud won't deal with wet boggy mud uh okay so what's the what was the runner-up that we picked so the runner-up we picked is maybe a slightly sort of left field choice it's a wild looking shoe and it's got a wildly sort of long name it's called the merrill mtl adapt matrix um which we yeah maybe we shouldn't have awarded it based on that name alone but this this is a shoe that has got a really big
00:35:57
Speaker
stack of nitrogen infused foam. When you look at it out the box, it looks like it's going to be a wild beast, but actually what it's really good at, and I think one of the reasons we put it in here, is that it's excellent when you're moving from road to trail and it it offers a really good amount of cushion with that kind of high stack, but also doesn't entirely kind of leave you feeling sort of
Brand of the Year Award
00:36:19
Speaker
devoid of control. So you're getting some really good energy. It's a higher energy trying to kind of trail shoe, lots of cushion, which for me, it's a bit more kind of of a fun and lively sort of version of like a Mafate from Hoka.
00:36:31
Speaker
And I found the grip really good. I think once I went half a size up and once I got the sizing right, it offers a really nice kind of spacious, fit i think really works for ultra as well i think this is a shoe that definitely has that really ample cushion that could leave you know help you take on you know 100k runnable sort of trails and give you lots of comfort over that kind of long haul as well it's yeah and it' it was a bit of a surprise i really wasn't expecting to like this shoe but it's one of those that can again it can handle a really good kind of mixture of terrain i wouldn't necessarily pick it myself for going on anything particularly cluttered where you need kind of really sort of precise foot placement it's a bit wide and a bit big for that but if there's anything that you can kind of attack you're getting a bit of kind of road shoe energy from this shoe but taken to the trails yeah nice i agree there's a shoe that you don't want to judge by don't judge it by its cover because it looks like a very strange shoe and it probably puts people off but it's very accessible quantifiable shoe that probably work will work for a lot of people
00:37:36
Speaker
Okay, so on to our brand of the year category. Now, this category is really about a brand, any brand from across ah running products that we think has really stood out over the last over last year. And that can be through...
00:37:52
Speaker
the releases of various products can be for creating something that's quite inventive and new, or it could just be consistency. um And in the past, we've seen different reasons for um for picking brands for for this category. ah But the first one, the winner of this year's brand of the year ASICS.
00:38:08
Speaker
um And I think certainly from my perspective, it's probably because of that consistency and improvements to the line. I don't think there's anything amazingly stand out because i already it had a pretty solid range of shoes. What what are your views on ASICS being the the brand of the year?
00:38:24
Speaker
I think for me, they've just got they've got shoes pretty much across the category that are either best in class or very close to it. you know they There's not really much weakness across the whole range.
00:38:34
Speaker
and andve I think they've added to that. you know There's a shoe arrived. this I really like the Sonic Blast as a new addition to the lineup as well. and I think recently when ASICS puts a shoe out, most of them are landing well in you know, if not actually kind of sitting at the top of the pile.
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah, they've they've they've been, think, the best brand for the last three years. i think we voted for Hope last just because they'd made so many positive changes to their lineup, I think. But ASICS still probably has the lineup you'd go to. If you had one brand you could use every, yeah only you only use shoes from, it'd be ASICS every time. and Not only have they improved on existing favorites like the Metaspeed Sky Tokyo. I think they made Nova Blast bit better as well. But they've brought in the Metaspeed Ray, which is a sensational shoe. It's a really fun and impressive, the lightest racing shoe we've tested, even like the Adios Provo 2. They've brought in the Mega Blast, which is too expensive, but really interesting new shoe. Sonic Blast, I'm not such a big fan of, but Kieran really likes it. you know it's And they've got so many good materials. You can see them continuing to just make loads of great shoes. like They didn't update the Super Blast this year or yeah the Magic Speed, and we'll see what they do with those lines. So they've just got...
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah. yeah The key is what Kieran says. like there's There's not a single category shoe where you wouldn't be very happy to running in a NASIC shoe. Yeah, the Mega Blaster and Sonic Blaster are ah probably the best examples of where they've they've got the Super Blaster 2. They could have made the Super Blaster 3 and stuck with that. They haven't. They've tried out some new shoes that are slightly different. And also, ah the the trail section, that've they've got a lot more investment into the trail side of the business as well. So they've got a lot more shoes on that side and a lot more changes to and to to to that.
00:40:03
Speaker
part of i did nearly kill kieran in the lake district though didn't they one of their shoes think i think i'll run in the yeah the meta fuji i mean they're great shoe it's probably it's probably more that i'm i don't have the gift in order to take that to raid in that in that shoe than some of the kind of elites i mean the other thing is the tech performance socks i mean we need to talk about that because they're socks are free that i do like a tiger as well yeah i like to feel like a tiger yeah Yeah, they're good socks. um okay The runner-up for this category was ah Puma, which I think is a little bit of a different winner than Asics, or a different ah part of this category is Asics, because ah they probably haven't had a similar year to Asics. They're supposed choose out the Puma Fast R3, which have been big big um names on our list. But what what do you think to ah Puma being runner-up?
00:40:50
Speaker
I think they've made some really important moves for the industry in general this year. Like I think the FastR3 is just a very innovative shoe and it's really come out and established itself as one of, if not the best racing shoe in the market. i mean, that's as competitive as an area of the market as it gets and Puma just knocked 100 grams off a shoe they already had and made it extremely good. But for me, it's the way the Velocity Nitro 4 and the Magnify Nitro 3 have been positioned. they've <unk> a long time where brands pair a bit coy with their best foams and just, you know, they keep them in 200-pound shoes and they slowly drip down and Puma just went, no, these two shoes, they're 110 pounds and 130 pounds, some of that. And they've got nitrogen-infused, aliphatic TPU and Piva foam, just the best foams in the market. And I think that hopefully will prompt other brands to the same. and Yeah, they just released a lot of good shoes. i't think their lineup is quite as complete as ASICS, but I think they've made the biggest jump on several shoes ah of any brand this year. And I think hopefully have set a trend for those high performance materials coming down to standard daily trainers.
00:41:44
Speaker
I'd agree. I think, yeah, ah just offering that value at that kind of, not necessarily lower end, but that end where it may be a bit more affordable and showing other brands that you can, you know as as Nick said, deliver those really kind of ah groundbreaking kind of technologies in cheaper shoes. And I think we've all kind of had a ah window into how Puma is trying to think out the box and try to do things differently. i think that's something that out for me. They've they've been wanting to try and you know try and change you know, what we're seeing from running shoes and, you know, they're seeing the results from trying to be a little bit out there, a little bit different, a little bit wild. And those kind of, ah you know, wild prototypes that we've seen are kind of starting to really show, you know, what what it can deliver and what it can achieve.
Audience Shoe of the Year
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah, they feel like a very responsive brand as well. They really seem to study the market. like Sometimes a shoe comes out for a brand that can seem a bit tone deaf and go, why has that come out when this is already market? But they all they seem to know what's going on and i think that does help with their shoe releases.
00:42:42
Speaker
but and That ingenuity, we we we look back at some of the... some some of the first of the race shoes like the original fast are and they're a little bit experimental but they do learn from that that experimentation and end up with something pretty good after after a while.
00:42:57
Speaker
That's it, some of the stuff they showed off at the World Champs just looks a bit daft and we don't know. That's exactly what I'm sure they'll develop into something. Yeah.
00:43:17
Speaker
Okay, so our final award isn't one we pick. It's the audience shoe of the year. Now, this is an award that we we invite audiences from across Instagram and YouTube to just tell us what they think the best shoe of the year is. It's not a specific type of shoe. It's not in a specific category. It's just the shoe that they think is the best this year.
00:43:37
Speaker
And it's probably not that surprising. ah Some of the the big names that were cropped up in this one. I ah think it got 250 votes in total. It's probably more like 400, but I had to keep taking a out because people were putting in seven shoes into their answers. So I had to remove some of those.
00:43:54
Speaker
um but 250 votes and the bulk of those votes were for two shoes and uh you can guess what it is the the the winner of this category was the adidas evo sl and we've talked a bit about that already but i think that's a testament to the value of it and i imagine more people have tried that shoe because of the value of that because how much it costs but there was an overwhelming vote for the the evo sl and rightly so uh if If you're out there buying shoes, it's a fantastic, accessible shoe for people to get. And the runner-up in that category, which is probably no surprise, is the Megablast. It's a hand bit of a surprise, given the price. Yes, yeah but I think our audience is probably yeah so obsessed with shoes that they they probably do own quite a lot more expensive shoes than the the rest of the running world. audience um and then lastly i've just added this in wet we've not had a runner-up at the third place for these but i wanted to put pluma velocity nitro four just to show that there were ah other options coming up and that was quite far away down from the evo sl and the megblast but it was pretty it was it was much higher than a lot of the other shoes out there so it's the the puma velocity nitro range still holding strong and really pushing that value element to um to the voting
00:45:06
Speaker
I'd say if they made a wide version of that shoe, they'd be right up there for the win. But think there's some people who basically can't get their foot in it, and that's part of the problem.
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:45:13
Speaker
I do adore that shoe. So that's it for another year, another awards. That's the 2025 done. Good year, good awards.
00:45:20
Speaker
Good awards. Speak for ourselves. yeah um and I mean we've still got lots of shoes to test before the end of the year so as we said at the start if there's something that crops up before the end of December we will include that in next you have to wait you've got 12 months until this time next year until this time next year to see if gets picked up but we will remember it and it will it will be included there's absolutely no guarantee we'll remember I don't know why making that way what if it's incredible I'll hold you to it now Tom if it's evil i shall we'll remember it yeah it's an incredible shit we will remember it um well thanks very much guys that's it beautiful thank you bye thanks you guys later
00:46:01
Speaker
this episode of the podcast was presented by Tom Wheatley Nick Harris Fry and Kieran Alger it was produced by Tom Wheatley the music was by Fear of Tigers