I've Never Loved a Running Shoe More Than These
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Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
As dickish as it sounds to write—even to me!—I'm a casual marathon runner. What does that mean, you braggadocious turd? I'll tell you. I'm one of those sad people that The New York Times keeps writing about—someone who took to distance running as a quarter-ish life crisis, in search of a vague sense of fulfillment and a dramatic anxiety solution. I've completed a couple marathons and half marathons in the past two years, but I also sprained my ankle and skinned my kneecap on Christmas Day, because I was jogging while watching football on my phone. I also eat anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 calories after a long run, but I've written about the terrors of my diet for Esquire before.
Why is this important? I've logged enough miles to give advice to, you know, someone who just wants to run without breaking, straining, or busting something. If you're trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon in a pair of Nike Alphaflys, this might not be The Esquire Endorsement for you. But if you are looking to run a little bit faster, feel a little less sore, and maybe even sign up for a marathon? Stick around and let me tell you why I've never loved a running shoe more than the HOKA Clifton 9s.
A shoe made in HOKA heaven.
If you're vaguely familiar with HOKA's appeal, you know that runners who swear by them do so for a few reasons. One, they feature an absurd amount of cushion and support. Two, they're built with pretty dramatic rockers. Three, they're cool in that dad-shoe sort of way.
In the past, I've owned the HOKA Gaviota 4s and the Hoka Arahi 6s. It was a Goldilocks situation: the former had so much cushion that it felt like I was wearing cinderblocks, and the latter was so light-racing-shoe that my joints wept every few miles. (If you're a Serious Runner, you usually have a racing shoe and an everyday jogger. Again, I am not a Serious Runner.)
Enter the the Clifton 9s, which are just right. Thanks to an EVA foam midsole, they're unbelievably light—I've held heavier track shoes. But it still sports enough of HOKA's signature cushion (this model adds 3mm of height on top of its predecessor) that my legs finally feel age-appropriate again. More on that next.
* If HOKA Heaven is real, I hope that Adam Sandler greets me at the gate.
Try to beat these shoes up, I dare you.
It's dealer's choice when, exactly, you should throw away a pair of running shoes. Runner's World says anywhere from 300 to 500 miles. And let me just tell you—there are many kicks out there that erode well under the 300-mile mark. Some tell-tale signs: Worn ridges on the soles, the literal absence of spring in your step, and, uh, pain. Just pain. If you feel chronic soreness during and/or after jogging, [Spike Lee voice] it's gotta be the shoes.
I've logged about 100 miles in the Clifton 9s so far—of course, this could be a different story at 300—but the shoes look (and most importantly, feel) as good as new. Thanks to the Clifton 9's durabrasion rubber outsole, my pair hardly shows the wear of New York City pavement. Plus, they've still maintained their bounciness, which is usually the first thing to go.
Will my Clifton 9s make it to 500 miles? Probably not. But I know my body will feel a heck of a lot better on the road there.
A true choose-your-own-adventure shoe.
No bullshit: when I first tried on the Clifton 9s, I thought that I just put on the best walking shoe ever created. They're the comfiest, springiest, and best-looking (do yourself a favor and scan its site for the colorways) shoe in HOKA's catalog. It's this pair of HOKAs that I see out most in the wild, among the Sunday-errands crowd.
So it's a walking shoe, too—and you've heard enough about its everyday-jogger creds, which is technically how HOKA presents them to runners. You don't care and you definitely didn't ask, but I ran a half marathon in the Clifton 9s a few weeks ago, and shaved about 10 minutes off my previous best. Compared to some of HOKA's previous, heavier models, the Clifton 9s outright fly. That's just to say, if you want to run run anything from a 5K to a marathon in the Clifton 9s, you'll feel exactly as fast as you should in a racing shoe.
Best of all? I've managed to avoid another meet-cute with the pavement while wearing the Clifton 9s. I'm not sure if I can offer a better endorsement than that.
Photographs by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Andrea Bonin.
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