Newsletter - #04

Mar 27

1. News

Pulling ourselves up by the shoelaces:

I know I promised no more political stuff after the Jimmy Carter joke, but this is impacting something bigger and more important than eggs or gas prices; running shoes.

On the morning of March 13th, we received the following email from our Brooks sales rep:

“Good Morning,
I want to share an update from our VP, Mike Billish, regarding the Ghost 17. We will be shifting the Ghost 17 to $145. As we battle some of the current economic changes, Brooks has decided it would be a smoother process to update the price at the beginning of the life over mid-cycle.”

For those not in “The Know”, the Ghost is updating this May to version 17 and seeing a big change to its ethos. Now for the first time, the Ghost will move down to a 10mm heel drop. I’m pausing here internally for shock because I know you’ll all be fainting at the sound of that. Anyways, the price change does make sense canonically. It’s a massive change to everything, whereas the update next year for version 18 will most likely just be a design change in the upper and hardly worth the justification.

All that butt-kissing aside, Brooks saw a 9% increase in revenue for 2024 (after a $1.2 billion year in 2023; $1.308 billion in 2024 for those who get headaches thinking about decimals). To peel back the curtain, a rough breakdown of shoe manufacturing costs are:

20% in manufacturing + parts
5% in shipping, duties, overhead
25% in profit goes to the brand
50% in additional potential for profit, either for the brand (direct to consumer sales) or retailer (independent run specialty stores like yours truly)

Summing that up using smaller numbers, if you have a $100 shoe: $20 goes into making it, $5 to shipping a pair. If the brand sells a shoe to a customer via its own website/flagship store/etc., they will make a profit of $75 on that pair. If an independent run specialty store sells the same shoe, its a $50 profit (a bit more convoluted, we also spend $2 or more per pair of shoes in shipping and in this example would make closer to $45 than $50), and the brand still makes $25 on the initial sale to the independent run store.

While it is a bit uncertain how other brands will respond in Spring 2026, I wouldn’t be surprised if suddenly the average daily training shoe is $145 vs $140. I can sympathize with people who think I’m blowing this out of proportion; one running shoe changes price and suddenly it’s the Alamo? I’d argue, when it comes to Brooks, that is exactly the case. Brooks has long been a standard many brands will emulate in some fashion since the Ghost has continually been one of the most popular running shoes in the US. I don’t mean to say Brooks is leading the way for price hikes either (Hoka, On, and Nike are doing just a fine job on their own), but they tend to be the standard that everyone measures their prices on.

For those who enjoy pretty colors and poorly made graphs, see below (apologies to mobile users).

From Hoka, Nike, New Balance, and Saucony, I found the prices and rough release dates for their model lines that compared closely to the Brooks Ghost (Hoka Clifton, Nike Pegasus, New Balance 880, Saucony Ride). Kind of hard to see every data point since some do overlap, but we do also see Brooks being mid-level pricing from 2015 onwards and then adjusting as the upper end of the market (Hoka in this case) continues to rise. With the trendlines, Brooks really was towards the bottom for cost, but now they’re trending slightly above New Balance and number 2 out of the brands/models listed. I’d also like to mention that while the Nike Pegasus was a pretty okay budget trainer up until 2021/2022, it’s now not really anything remarkable and the same price as shoes that just feel better in everyway.

I’m not sure if this upsets anyone as much as it does for me, but if it does my suggestion is to either 1) buy local because we need to pay our bills too 2) buy slightly used. Both things Ithaca does in spades, but worth being echoed for all the people that come in, ask if we have Nike, then go to Dick’s to buy a bad running shoe. Eventually there will be no more Brooks Ghost 8s left on the resell market to buy and you’ll have to switch to something slightly newer, but so long as they keep making shoes there should always be last years model on sale.

Sources:

Brooks running clocks another year of record-breaking revenue. Brooks Running Clocks Another Year of Record-Breaking Revenue | News | Brooks Running. (2025, February 6). https://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/02-06-2025/

Brooks running delivers record revenue in 2023, accelerates innovation in the New Year. Brooks Running Delivers Record Revenue in 2023, Accelerates Innovation in the New Year | News | Brooks Running. (2024, February 13). https://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/02-13-2024/#:~:text=SEATTLE%20(Feb.,annual%20growth%20rate%20exceeded%2014%25.

R/runningshoegeeks on reddit: Breakdown of cost to make and sell shoes. (2022). https://www.reddit.com/r/RunningShoeGeeks/comments/vy9fzn/breakdown_of_cost_to_make_and_sell_shoes/

2. Upcoming Shoe Releases

Trying something new with the upcoming/current releases and going into some brands we don’t (and may never) sell in the store. We’re at a bit of a natural lull waiting for some fall models to release in May, June, July and not receiving a ton of new things right this minute.

Update: Clifton 10

You can thank Hoka for the stellar graphic to the left, and preventing all 200 people who see our Instagram page from viewing the heel of the Clifton 10 two weeks early.

The Clifton 10 will launch on April 15th and sees a pretty substantial change by going up to an 8mm drop. Not the biggest change ever, but noteworthy in that they have never been at this high of a drop. The last was also slightly more relaxed to give some more space for a brand that usually runs narrow in men’s sizes. Again, to continually beat the horse-shaped chalk outline, it moves up to $150. A $20 increase in the last 5 years. Not cool dude.

Maybe the winds are changing and they’re trying to stay relevant with the higher-drop-non-max-cushion category. For the first time ever, the Clifton and Ghost might actually be similar. I’ve only tried on a women’s 11 of the final production version, and I hope the men’s has a bit more width to it. I’m sure it will, but so far I do like the underfoot feel versus version 9. It feels more runnable for me and in my usual sweet spot of 6-8mm drop shoes as a preference.

Maybe I’ll give them a try? The Skyflow has been the closest model to a Clifton I’ve ran in since the Clifton 5, and borderline too narrow for my already narrow foot. Personally, the Bondi 9 update was much more monumental for changing the foam and opening up the fit a little too (which you can read more about in my full review below). If you’ve talked me up on Hoka recently, you’ll know the bar is quite literally in the basement… however, I do expect this to be a great shoe and look forward to getting more pairs in.

Update: Ghost 17

I suppose if I’m going to do a pseudo-hit-piece on their pricing I should also give some more free PR to Brooks.

The Ghost 17 update releases May 1st with the notable change being the 12mm drop loosening to 10mm, and the new price increase. They achieve the new drop by adding 3mm of foam to the forefoot and 1mm to the heel, so slightly taller than version 16 as well. Not going to risk showing pics just in case there’s some sort of embargo on official images like Hoka (and we’re over a month away from the launch), but we’ll absolutely have them on launch day and I don’t foresee the production models being all that dissimilar from last year… or the year before… or the year before… of the year before… you get the point.

New Model: VJ Flow

Rounding out the last of the models we’ll have in the shop, VJ has released their new Flow model in mid-March, and I think it will be one of the better door-to-trail shoes this year. VJ is relatively unknown to most, but is quickly becoming a personal favorite of mine and builds a lot of that following through the stellar buytl rubber outsole. Most of my trail races last year were done in the MAXx2 update, so I’m familiar with the grip and fit shape of that model and liked it on some longer trail things, but it is a bit harsh to use everyday in my opinion. Enter the VJ Flow—the first sort of foray into an almost road shoe for the brand. Aside from some really astounding color choices on VJs part, the shoe feels good. The toebox is slightly foot-shaped and pretty comparable to the Altra standard footshape sizing (ala Experience Flow, Experience Wild). Underfoot is skewing a little more towards a lightweight trainer with the ground feel you get out of it, so I don’t expect it to be a super long distance option for most unless you’re used to that.

The main thing I’m not stoked on is the 10mm heel-to-toe drop. The original tech sheet (and maybe samples as well?) had it listed as an 8mm drop, which I do believe is the highest a shoe should go before feeling awkward. At least for my own preference. We sell a lot of Brooks Ghosts with a 12mm drop, so maybe there’s still a fanbase for that feeling, but I haven’t liked a high drop since college running days. Not my cup of tea, but still a good feeling shoe.

Road Trail Run review I like here.

New Model: Diadora Atomo Star

Fair warning, most of these next pairs are super racing shoes or super trainers. Just that time of year for the upcoming spring racing schedule I suppose.

To start us off with the list of brands most people have never heard of; Diadora! From the old country (Italy), Diadora has been making strides to improve their performance run lineup across the board but still seems to be overpriced compared to similar models. Like a lot of other brands right now, you’re paying for the logo in a lot of cases. As example, Diadora has a pair of spikes on their website selling for $290. Mind boggling.

The Atomo Star does look interesting beyond the $240 price tag. I recently took a trip to Philadelphia this past weekend and was able to see them in hand. The midsole cushion visually looks like a less airy version of Brooks’ recent DNA Tuned foam (used in Glycerin 22 & Glycerin Max), and the outsole rubber design reminds me of other Brooks models from the last few years. In hand, it did seem softer than the DNA Tuned but just slightly. I left my pocket durometer in my other pants so no real way to test it. One thing that left me kinda skeptical was the plateform width; the heel and midfoot looked almost identical in width, with the forefoot being slightly wider. While that may not sound bad on paper, the heel/midfoot did look more narrow than I’d expect in a higher stack running shoe. Last note, similar to the Glycerin Max, it is also plate-less.

Now, is $240 too much for a super trainer? I’d argue anything above $200 is too much for a performance trainer. Especially when you could get last years racing model from most brands at 25% off and use that on easy/long runs instead of putting miles on the $300 niche racing shoes that you use for two marathons.

Excited to see what reviews there are here over the next month or two.

Buying link here.

New Model: Craft Kype Pro

Raise your hand if you knew Craft made shoes. Raise your hand if you knew Craft was a brand period. For all of two people that knew Craft before this, I tip my hat to you. However, it seems like they’ve fallen prey to the overpriced super shoe craze. $300 as their first real foray into the supershoe world, and I really hope it goes well for them because if they dumped all this money into research and tech and it doesn’t get them some hype, that would be a little sad. In my opinion, if they don’t have good feeling training shoes for the average Joe to use daily, there’s no point in producing a supershoe.

To their credit, the only thing lacking in most of their shoes is the upper fit; Ian and I tried their Xplor model last year and the cushion and traction was pretty great, but a big let down in fit. If they can piece it together one day I think they’d have a big fan base. Add in that Tommy Rivs is a stellar personality and person and it’s hard to not root for Craft to explode in popularity. I’ve got to assume these will have a dialed in everything, but I’ve seen too many expensive shoes from brands be flops due to an upper that felt like nobody tried on. Either way, I unfortunately won’t be paying $300 to find out unless I see them in person to try on.

Buying link here.

New-ish Model?: Asics S4+ Yogiri

Finally a brand that’s well known! Asics! Coming in with a new.. wait… not new model? Technically, this model has been out in Japan since mid-October and just now being released in the states. This shoe is marketed as a sub-4 hour marathon shoe which is oddly specific. I think brands that associate paces/race times with product (looking at you elitists over at Tracksmith for that one) are kneecapping themselves and limiting the amount of people that would try their shoes. Now, I do feel like I vaguely remember trying this shoe sample on and remarked at how stable it felt in comparison to the upper end racing line from Asics and other brands too. Having a foam sandwich here is an approach I wish more of these models would take to help in the stability department. While I don’t love the marketing terminology here, I do think more stable racing options should be more openly looked at by most people. Even for myself being on the younger side, there are some training and racing shoes that are just too unstable to feel safe at any paces.

For a little easter egg for those few who read these things entirely, On is also making a sub-4 hour marathon shoe dubbed the On Cloudboom Max.

Buying link here.

New Model: Puma Deviate Nitro Elite Trail

“We’ll sell Skechers before we sell Puma” -Ian

Unlike all other quotes I contribute to Ian, this is maybe the most word-for-word one so far.

I’ve actually had personal experience with Puma’s newer revamp of their running line with the original Velocity Nitro back in 2021 and was in genuine tears watching Molly Seidel win bronze later that year at the Olympic Marathon too. Anyways, it’s a $230 trail shoe with lugs that don’t look like they’re much more than 3mm in depth? So not much of a trail racer for those on the East Coast, but a 6mm drop and lower lugs has me mentally comparing it to the Brooks Catamount. All the initial reviews I’ve skimmed agree it’s a pretty narrow upper and midsole platform, the latter being a bigger concern for trail use though.

The one thing I remember Puma doing in spades was outsole grip. The original Velocity Nitro, and other road models thereafter, gave me much more tack on pavement than any other shoes I’ve run in since then. Ian and I would both argue that tack is definitely a factor in good trail grip, but if the lugs (or nubs in the case of road shoes) aren’t spaced apart, then it’s more likely to get clogged with any light mud.

Now it might sound like a negative comment on the model so far, but from what I’ve read I do like that the midsole seems to be in the right direction for super-trail shoes on the whole. I’ve personally tried on too many samples that go overboard with the forefoot rocker and make them feel like a 12mm drop shoe while also tipping me off the cliff that is the front of the shoe.

Buying link here.

Review I like here:

New Model: Nike Vomero Plus ??

This one is a bit more ghost stories and Reddit blurry images, but worth talking about. I don’t know about you, but I had an excessive amount of Pegasus Premium ads on my phone and streaming services over the last two months, and I tend to be a bit more critical of Nike as a brand (which I recognize is for both valid and invalid reasons). Despite what ads may have told you, the Pegasus Premium is an ultra-heavy trainer that’s more of a concept shoe than a functional shoe. Like seriously 11.5oz in a men’s 9 is close to a lot of trail shoes and approaching some hiking boots. All that said, the Vomero Plus could potentially pick up the pieces where the Pegasus Premium failed. The Vomero has traditionally been a more cushioned (and slightly more supportive) version of the Pegasus line. Nike being Nike will introduce a brand new offshoot model instead of making their main-line stuff better to help justify those price hikes too. That’s not unknown to other brands though; Brooks technically did a similar thing with the Ghost Max launch too, except the Ghost has a large following and is a better shoe than the Pegasus. Anyways, I hope this shoe brings the drop down to at least 6mm and can get the weight under 11oz.

New Model: Norda 005

The most expensive on this list, or any list, at a super chill $325. However, I’d like to give Norda a pass because all of their shoes are overpriced so that is super on brand for them.

During a late night double on the treadmill here in the shop, I was watching an early YouTube review of the model from the Conversational Pace. I’ve recently liked this form of review as more of a casual conversation versus scrolling to the bottom of a blog to see the conclusions, it also makes it easier to absorb information while running too. Anyways, the gist is a cushioned trail racing model without getting so big to not be awkward on technical sections. The thing I want to briefly highlight here is the rubber compound though. Everyone who knows trails probably has heard of Vibram (also the company responsible for your weird uncle wearing the FiveFingers toe shoes in 2011) for their rubber compounds. Used here is a new mix called Megagrip Elite that I believe is the first production application of it. It essentially has much more tack than the usual Vibram Megagrip, but weighs less. Which I’ll also point out may take a good chunk from durability if it really is super tacky and pliable. Personally, I hope this makes its way into other brands, but not if it comes at the expense of $300 or more.

Buying link here.

Review I like here.

3. Shoe Reviews

Bondi 9 Review: A stellar improvement to a max cushion monster of a shoe

Background: The Bondi has traditionally been Hoka’s most cushioned road option, and I’d also wager one of the most cushioned running shoes out there up until a few years ago. I don’t have all the cushion stack heights memorized (yet), but I think some of the plated training/racing options are both softer and taller now potentially. Anyways, at the time of writing, I have 60 miles on the Bondi with my longest run being 10 miles in the rain around Cayuga Heights. They retail for $170 and have a 4mm drop.

Outsole: No real complaints here. I’ve worn them a few times in the rain but nothing stood out with grip. It just works and I’ll need more miles to know when it gives up the ghost.

Midsole: Really impressive how they can make a shoe this light and cushioned and presumably hold up to a lot of miles. It’s not quite as light and airy feeling as the Superblast 2, but still something I wouldn’t call bulky and awkward. One thing I didn’t expect to irritate me was the lower 4mm drop, but I did actually have some noticeable calf soreness after what should have been a really easy and chill run. It wasn’t painful or noticed until afterwards and worth mentioning a lot of my runs in the Bondi were shorter and the second run of the day too, so I’m assuming it’s also due to fatigue.

Upper: Not my favorite fitting upper ever, and still tapers a lot at the end, but much improved on version 8 for me. I don’t have a particularly wide foot, but it’s been a big complaint of mine with a lot of Hoka models. I still had some blisters forming on the inside of the balls of my feet after that 10 miler in the rain, but since then I haven’t had any issues. To be fair, I also haven’t felt comfortable going longer in them due to having stuff I just like more for fit and feel.

Conclusion: A favorite of mine when I just want to zone out for runs under an hour, but part of me feels like a long run would just turn into a slog. I do a lot of my longer runs on trails now that things are thawing out, so I haven’t convinced myself to go over that 10 mile run in a while. Admittedly, that run was also terrible and I felt super low energy before, during, and afterwards, so I’m doing my best to not blame the shoes. I don’t want to underscore that first sentence though; these are my go-to easy 2nd run shoes 8 out of 10 times. The Superblast 2 is a decent comparison, but like I’ve mentioned previously, that rocker/toe spring angle just feels like a bit too much sometimes. So the Bondi 9 is like the Superblast’s cool cousin that works in human resources for a tech startup that got big; they’re staying true to their roots, fun to have at barbeques, and not quite as obnoxious as their tech-bro coworkers. We currently have these in stock and the women’s seems to be selling through really well so far.

Hierro v9 Review: Cushioned but reasonable do-it-all trail model

Background: At the time of writing, I have 74 miles on the Hierro and my longest run was a little more than 14.5 miles with Mo around Ithaca college trails, Buttermilk trails, then on the rolling hills back to Burns Rd and home from there. They retail for $155 and have a 4mm drop.

Outsole: Vibram Megagrip here, so a really great start to the review. With a few of my runs just being on wintery roads, I didn’t have much opportunity to test them in mud up until this past week or two. While they did get a little caked up and clogged, I didn’t feel like I was sliding all over the place even on some freshly fallen foliage blocking the Finger Lakes Trail at Danby. That said, there wasn’t much bite on the foliage without the mud too. I can’t really fault a shoe for not being good at something it isn’t trying to be. This is a cushioned trail shoe, not a ultra aggressive tough mudder racing flat.

Midsole: New Balance again has figured out their midsole blend this year. The 880 was a good start, but this is a great trend and I’m happy to see them move away from super soft midsole foams. While it was a nice surprise to have these not be a marshmallow, I did have some technical descents that felt uncontrolled and sloppy. Again, it’s probably not the intended use case for these, but worth noting. I definitely had to relace them after a few miles maybe just due to the upper loosening? More about that below. On roads both snowy and dry it was pretty great. I still would prefer a road shoe if I had a choice, but it does well to pose as one.

Upper: Out of the box I was a little concerned with the toebox width. Not quite overly narrow like Hoka, but maybe just not as much volume around the pinky toes. Once I got moving I had no issues with blisters, but on occasion I did feel it getting hotter around my toes; so if you’re looking at an ultramarathon trail shoe, you might need to try a few longer runs in these before going all in. Like I said above, I did have to relace occasionally after technical sections that shifted my foot around. Even though I have more than enough space in most men’s 10 shoes for preserving my toes, I did routinely hit the front of the shoes especially on trails. Last note, it could just be my most recent longer run around Lick Brook and Buttermilk in 90% humidity this past weekend, but the shoes do feel extra warm in those humid/warm temps. Hard to tell without being in the thralls of summer, but that’s my impression so far.

Conclusion: Man, trail shoes really are turning out to be quite a treat so far this year. The Peregrine 15 continues to be stellar for me and had a great time using it briefly this weekend on Mount Minsi in Pennsylvania, and now the Hierro totally took me by surprise. I’m a bit disappointed it couldn’t feel better with my foot on technical trails, but there’s no real drawbacks I could find and I also don’t think that’s the intended use of the Hierro too. It works, and works better than a lot of other shoes out there in the category. We’re getting size runs in men’s and women’s around April 1st, so swing by and try them on.