A longer one than usual, but that’s just because I went on a bender since I had Saturday and Sunday off. My kind of bender is 4,500 drunk words’ worth of garbage and forgetting to eat lunch at a reasonable hour. Through this, I’ve recently discovered that it’s a mix of being slightly drunk and low blood sugar that helps me get in The Flow State of my writing. Also known as slightly light-headed and giggly. Hemingway and Huxley are rolling over in their graves at this 24-year-old cracking the literary code. I suppose that’s just show biz baby. Anyways, we’re doing the jokes and memes live and throughout the blog, so no more skipping to the bottom for the good stuff.

Crypto Inheritance + Bored Nepo Babies = Too Many Shoe Brands

A recent and mysterious startup called Avelo Running has been taking over my feed the last few months. At first, I dismissed it as just some spam AI slop that moved past it. Then I caved and checked it out. Now I think it’s just intentionally vague. On the very surface level, it’s a $250 piece of gear that’s going to do what foot pods have been doing for about five years now. Oh, and you have to spend 250 more dollars to replace that piece of gear when they get up there in mileage. They’ve been referring to their data as “personalized running intelligence,” which I’m inclined to believe is AI slop until proven otherwise.

Upon release of the KickStarter the morning of the 24th, they have already met the meek $20k funding goal and have 59 days left to get on board with plans to ship out early pairs to customers in December and then start mass production early next year. I don’t really see how $20k puts any kind of dent into shoe mass production though, even on this early access sale, but it looks like they’ll blow that out of the water given they’re sitting at $75k. There’s always the concern of KickStarter companies lowballing the funding goal to rake in the cash and then some miraculous issue arises that prevents any products from being made and shipped. That might be the case less than 1% of the time, but the point is $20k is not a lot of money in this field.

For some of the specs, the model will have a wide-ish toebox with a taper going back to the heel. Honestly, this is awesome. It’s hard to hate on something when I like certain pieces of it, and I really truly believe every shoe company should have a footshape option that can rival Altra and Topo. For some more stats, it has a 38/30mm stack height (so 8mm drop), 8oz in a men’s size 9, and has a plastic plate. Their “measured values” include Resiliency, Efficiency, and Impact. My guess is that Impact will be their own way of saying a power meter. Coros has been doing this in their watches for a bit, and it is usually a moot point without an actual measured impact force. My question here is if they are measuring that with ‘watts’ as the usual power unit, and if that’s available via their app or just hidden behind the AI slop recommendations and percentages. Efficiency, in their own words, is basically a running economy measurement going off of heart rate, which they note is only available wearing a device that tracks heart rate, like a watch or independent monitor. Resiliency is a score based on recent runs and fatigue paired with their impact values. Another subjective thing that I’m sure a fair number of us have seen the Garmin rest score crap be so far off on recovery time.

The very first post they have on Instagram is a hype video about their founder and why he wanted to make this shoe a thing; for injury prevention. A noble cause for sure, and I’m sure we all like the idea of a company adding some variation to the landscape of similar-looking and feeling shoes. However, the claim they’ve made since the very beginning is that they’re “building the world’s first smart running shoe.” As if we could ever forget our rich history. The Nike+ pod sensor and awkward foam inserts in the arch of mid-to-late 2000s Nikes, Under Armor’s Speedform Gemini and subsequent HOVR line of shoes integrating with MapMyRun, and the Adidas 1 with an adaptive cushioning system and clearly on the uglier side of early 2000s shoes. They’re trying to erase our heritage dammit! Not to mention Stryd Footpods still being pretty popular for the last few years.

With the recent launch of the KickStarter, they also make an important designation on durability saying “We’ve engineered the Supertrainers to last at least 300-400 miles (480-640 km), in line with other premium performance running shoes in our category.” Now, I will say it is factually correct a lot of these new supertrainers (supercritical foam training shoes, which sometimes include a plate) are indeed only lasting in this 300 to 400 mile range. However, beacuse these are specifically fancy tech shoes they do have the added sensor in the base of the shoe which is supposed to last the “lifespan of the shoe.” Compared to every running shoe ever made, when to replace a shoe is subjective and based on your wear pattern, weight, running surface etc. With this, they’re essentially capping the shoe to 400 miles at most. The sensors will die beyond that and you’ll need to shell out another $250 all while paying $10 a month. As someone who has grown up in the age of pocket technology, I really really REALLY hate it when you don’t fully own a physical product. Especially via a subscription service. They, and others, tote this as the best alternative instead of remembering to charge your shoes before a run. I submit; no this actually sucks and building a self destruct button into a product. Going through a few of their FAQ questions, you are able to replace the batteries on the sensors and swap between shoes. A great sign of relief at first, but the wording of their answers is extrememly troubling to my anxiety riddled brain. Here are two that caught my attention on the sensor question:

1) “Q: Can I re-use the sensors? A: Yes, the sensors are accessible and, when purchasing your next pair of Avelos, we expect to provide the option to replace the battery in your existing sensors and move them to your next pair.”
2) “Q: Can I replace the batteries? A: Yes, the batteries are easily replaceable by simply removing the sensors from under the sockliner, unscrewing the case, and replacing the battery. Instructions will be provided. Keep in mind that the sensors are designed to last for the life of each shoe (at least 300-400 miles), and so replacing the battery will primarily be required if moving the sensors from your old pair to a new pair.”

Again, it could just be me reading into this too much, but using the word ‘expect’ in the first answer is cause for concern. It’s your product and it sounds like more of an educated guess than an answer? Not sure how I feel about that. In the second question/answer, I feel like it builds on the idea that the sensor will be dead when switching shoes and it might be necessary to get a new sensor. This also gives me more questions to ask too: If you can replace the batteries on the sensors, is there a less expensive sensor-less shoe or is every shoe made to ship with a sensor? If there is a sensor-less option, is it just going to cost the same baseline $250? How durable is the sensor itself? If I keep replacing the battery from my first one, will the results be less accurate eventually due to wear/overuse? Especially if every shoe is going to ship with a sensor (or non replaceable batteries happen), is there a program to recycle the e-waste that creates?

I’ve read about the idea that media companies have this solum duty to avoid the common trope that any publicity is good publicity when it comes to unethical things. I don’t actually think this is an unethical company given I have seen zero evidence to support that claim and no independent reviews about them let alone seen any in person. Is it just smoke a mirrors for some app for basic stuff like ground contact time, cadence, “power”, stride length? I have no idea, but I’m not going to be surprised if that’s the case. I firmly believe you should never buy any tech with the promise of “we will have this feature at this date in the future” and this is no different. It’s a startup for sure but I really would need to confirm if the batteries are replaceable and how accurate the sensors are after swapping into a fifth pair of shoes. The best metric is to try and listen to your body above all. Not everyone can be in sync with their body signals as seasoned runners, but if Justin Timberlake can do it then by god I think most of us can. I encourage you to head over to their funding campaign and make a judgement call for yourself if the early access $199 is worth it for a shoe with recycled tech Nike, Adidas, and Underarmor were doing a decade ago.

The Passing of an Icon

Nobody died, but Atreyu Running Company is set to cease operations at the end of 2025. Michael Krajicek launched the brand in early 2020, based out of Austin, Texas and managed to grow a bit of a cult following. Kudos to anyone with Covid lockdown flashbacks, I was personally sleeping from 3am to 8am and then running in the peak heat of the day at 1pm.

A side rant: It makes me a bit sad/mad that a brand like Hylo, which plays on a little bit of greenwashing, can be around but not Atreyu. Maybe Hylo’s stuff is actually sustainable, but I pointed out to them that bigger brands list a percentage of their midsole foam as recycled when Hylo has nothing listed and their whole gimmick is more sustainable shoes. It left me to believe that the upper, outsole, and laces are the only things made with recycled materials, which is pretty much the standard for a lot of shoes now. That and given they fit pretty horribly and have such an unstable platform, it’s hard to see how they survive without drastically changing to leaning harder into the gimmick. I did mention all this to the Hylo contact we had that asked for feedback on the shoes, and I think I just pissed in his cheerios a bit too much when we got an “Okay” and nothing else in response.

Anyways, I had a pair of their original shoe and felt they were okay overall; not the best fit but looking back were pretty close in feel to a Kinvara from Saucony. Their business model from the start was subscription based, where you pay a few bucks less and they send a fresh pair every few months with the option to ship them your worn out pair. Again, I do hate not owning a physical item, but the additional option to just buy the shoe outright was nice and an awesome commodity to be able to send the old pairs in for recycling. At the time, I can’t remember other brands using this shoe subscription model. Two years after launching Atreyu, On came out with their own model, the Cyclon, that has now evolved into three different models all at $30 a month. Salomon also had a similar return-to-sender process for the Index.01 in 2021 too. I think there was a spot to insert a box cutter to remove the upper in one go, and then you shipped back the sole unit.

Since 2020, Michael has expanded the line to include a plated racing option, a trail shoe, and more durable iterations of their first training model. However, it hasn’t seemed to gain enough traction in recent years to outpace the added mix of tariffs, and Michael has decided to close up shop. In his YouTube video, he recaps some of the last few years in business and some reasons why it can’t work out going forward. I really do recommend giving it a watch and looking at some of this old videos on what it takes to make shoes and as a small business in general. For most of you reading this, this is probably the first (and maybe last) time you’ll hear about Atreyu, but I guess it’s just one of those things you had to be there for.

“Now I sayeth unto thee, we shall privatize the land, then increase value for shareholders.” - Mr. Patty Gonia 3:16

Just received a spreadsheet from Patagonia on 6/18 with a full price change list for Spring ‘26. While I won’t be going through all 17,271 lines, I can tell you prices increase on average 5%, and everyone’s favorite Cap Cool shirt line increases from $4 to $6 depending on style and print. While this is some harrowing news for a certain ‘beautiful bill’ selling off public land, I have a feeling Patagonia would also find a way to justify maintaining these price increases if tariffs were off tomorrow. My deepest hope beyond all hope is that some big money guy like Elon Musk or Bill Gates or Mr Peanut himself will buy up all that land and make one big parking lot for a 1,000,000 square foot Costco in Nevada. Seriously, 48% of the state land is for sale in Nevada. I am curious if they’d let some big company like Patagonia buy up that land and keep it open to the public instead of something like more ski resorts. Or an even bigger company like Red Newt Racing to buy half of Nevada to build a 1:1 scale of Breakneck, fully equipped with its own brown Hudson River drinking water and droves of tourists from New York City to spend some outside time in the booming outdoor activity metropolis of White Plains.

Topo Quality Control: Tinfoil Hat Time

Pretext: Most of you reading this should be familiar with Topo at this point. Last year, they outsold the ever-so-popular Brooks, Hoka, Nike, and On in our store. Given we don’t sell Nike or On shoes, this was a pretty low bar; however, Brooks has been at the very top of our “Pairs Sold” report for quite a while, so that is an exciting development. You may also know that we’ve had a hard time keeping popular models from Topo in stock due to a mix of shipping times, availability, and need in our small Ithaca market. So far this year, Altra has made a good dent into those Topo sales with their continued foray into 4mm drop shoes for us mortals who can’t live up to the godly promise of Barefoot Ted and Golden Harper (or enjoy avoiding extended hospital visits for Achilles reconstruction). A popular model, the Phantom, also just updated this May, so it was an awkward time to dwindle stock while it gets busier. For those two reasons, and the additional REI in Ithaca as the only other Topo dealer, we’ve seen Topo down 2.68% factoring in sales, profits, and units sold. Barely a statistical significance, however, it means we’ve already sold 50 pairs fewer than last year. As a numbers guy, and once again chained to the desk to find an interesting newsletter topic, I wanted to follow a conspiracy theory of my own.

Abstract: I’m always right and like making charts look cool.

Introduction: In May, we received some new products. Namely, the MTN Racer 4 and Switchback Gaiters. The Switchback Gaiters have a hole punched out at the top of the packaging to merchandize them on slatwall/pegboard hooks. However, in all seven instances of the pairs we received, they were 1 to 2mm too narrow in diameter to fit, which led to 10 minutes of taping some ripped packaging and manually cutting new holes with a hole punch. A super duper small inconvenience that adds to a resume as Chief Merchandising Supervisor, but an additional inconvenience nonetheless. For the MTN Racer 4s, the biggest update is a brand new sockliner that won’t hold as much water as the prior Ortholite ones. We received one men’s size 9 that had a wider-cut insole and curled up on both sides, which alone is a small issue for the ten other pairs we received without issue; however, it was noticed by a customer and effectively prevented that sale from happening. Not awesome, but this was at the back of my head a few weeks ago when I was helping a customer try on the Ultrafly 5. Another popular model we have had a good time selling. She asked about trying on another color in her women’s size 8, so we tried a second color, and she noted it felt much different and that the first pair was noticeably harder by comparison. After she took them off, I set them on a flat surface and did a very scientific test called Looking-At-Them-For-A-While. Pioneered by Lucy Lookalot for those history fans. The proposed “softer” shoe was visually a few millimeters taller compared to the initial one. The perfect storm for me to waste an afternoon with spreadsheets.

Methods: Using our current stock of Ultraflys, I took durometer measurements around the heel and used calipers to measure a common point on the exterior of the shoes. For the durometer, I started on the medial (inside) portion of the exterior heel and took a few measurements in a 1”x1” area, took the averages, and recorded the value. Then repeated in two more general 1”x1” locations on the back and lateral (outside) sides of the heel. Those three values were then averaged to give the final value used in the charts below. Shown below is a picture of the common point used for the calipers on the left and right shoes. To measure hardness, the Shore Hardness Scale is used, and for this instance, it was the Shore A Scale. Fun fact: The hardness scale was invented by Albert Ferdinand Shore in the 1920s to give a common point of reference when talking about relative hardness. Though he should not be confused with David Shore who gave us even better things like a vicodin addicted sturgeon proclaiming “Everybody lies” as he leads a crack team of doctors to solve dead-end medical cases. See below for sturgeon.

Results: Compiling all the data, I was able to make the figure 1 and figure 2 below. Apologies to mobile users, but I am still chained to the store computer, therefore the format remains better on a real computer like God intended. The chart is all the average values I had sorted by size from smallest to largest. Figure 1 plots the foam hardness grouped by size and has the average measured values from all 14 pairs of shoes, and figure 2 plots the foam hardness grouped by shoe color and only shows the average values taken for each colorway. A 95% confidence interval was plotted for each value as well. While I don’t feel super confident saying there was a correlation between size and firmness level, it’s kind of nuts that we can see clear outliers in size 6.5 and 8, with notable separation between pairs: Purple/Grey in 7.5, Tan/White in 8, and Purple/Grey in 10. The exciting part is shown in Figure 2, where it appears that maybe the Tan/White colorway is the culprit with the left shoe and right shoe being 6.5 HA and 7.2 HA from the next closest averages respectively.

Figure 1. heel durometer vs shoe size.png

Discussion: To give some better perspective on what the abstract numbers I got mean, I did an even less scientific test. Just checking one New Balance 1080v14 with the durometer was giving me about a 33 on the average hardness. Then, checking a Clifton 10, I was getting averages around 38. For those not in The Know, the 1080 is one of the softer shoes out there. The last version was much softer, but it is still a soft shoe. To the credit of brands, I think there should be a variation of shoe types out there versus everyone trying to make the same thing, therefore, variation is a great thing for the body and as a training tool. However, to see this much variation in an individual model is kind of absurd. We have a single color that is softer on average than one of the softer shoes on the market, but also somehow slightly firmer than that same model and also about as firm as another popular stable in the running world.

Conclusion: Topo is not new to quality control concerns. I’ve been able to find a few blog and reddit posts about others having outsole delamination (rubber peeling off of the cushion prematurely) to believe it is a build quality issue and not our Ithaca sunshine ruining the shoes or the FedEx driver leaving them under a heat lamp with a hungry beaver. We might sell more Topo as a percentage of our annual footwear than any other store in the country, but it is contrasted by the fact they just increased prices $5 across the board. I’ve personally seen enough delaminated outsoles in Topo models to outpace all other brands we sell put together, and so far it seems to not be addressed yet. Due to tariffs, Topo are switching their manufacturing facilities out of China, so there might be some potential to improve there but I can only really guess until that fully happens.

Update: After writing this, I saw the Topo rep showing us the spring 2026 lineup and mentioned this to him. He said he’ll reach out to a product guy in Topo and see if he’s heard anything on the quality control being inconsistent. A response I didn’t expect, but maybe they’ll give some credence to the findings of my reputable lab research. We don’t have the best turnaround time on that end, since we’re still waiting for our Birkenstock’s signage after over a year of asking for them. It’s now been a week and a few days, and we’ve heard nothing.

To which I want to point everyone’s attention to Exhibit B: How to Ship a Box.

Your eyes do not deceive you. This is a box inside a box, with other boxes inside. Mainly, taping two large boxes together to make one large box when a medium-large box would have sufficed for the amount of shoes inside. Groundbreaking engineering.

New Releases in the Shop

Taking off my tinfoil hat for the rest of the newsletter, but I’ll actually keep a little bit in my pocket because I don’t want him to get lonely. Here are two new models making their way into the store.

Mizuno Wave Rider 29 - An everyday trainer with a new foam

A supercritical foamed training shoe done well for once without a massive price change. $150 and I wish this is more like what the Wave Neo felt like, but this is a good consolation prize. I’m still not a fan of a 10mm heel-to-toe drop. However, this is a great update after a few years of stagnation, which is possibly a lot more years if your first reaction to this section was “Mizuno makes running shoes? I thought they made volleyball/baseball gear??”

The women’s color pictured here is dubbed: Nantucket Breeze / Orchid Petal. Which is conveniently close enough to my autobiography, The Ugly White Boy from Nantucket, that I can roleplay as Phil Knight and sue them for all their worth. With the money I’ll surely win in a settlement, I’m preemptively announcing my new shoe brand called Yuzuno which sells you all the parts of a running shoe but you get to glue the parts together yourself. For customers in the United States, when you assemble the parts, we’ll charge you an additional $74.95 to your card since they’ll be “Made In USA” shoes at that point. If you wanted extra incentive to try huffing the glue fumes, I’ll remind everyone that Bill Bowerman did not get any younger in his garage trying to mold rubber on Barbara’s waffle iron. They did name a stadium after him you know (and an unethical professional running team), so maybe next time someone warns you about the dangers of doing drugs just remember; the World Anti Doping Agency does not test MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL athletes at all.

Endorphin Speed 5 - Tried and true do it all shoe, returning with classic colors

One of the original supertrainers, the Endorphin Speed, gets a redesign that should put it closer to versions 2 and 3 after a less well received version 4. It moves up to $175 (ugh) and maintains an 8mm drop with the same materials throughout. The heel is reported to be better, but I never had issues in version 4. I personally didn’t mind the last version, but also don’t have the background of running in the others. In the day and age of really bouncing really exciting feeling shoes, I think Saucony is still a bit on the back heel trying to recover from losing Molly Seidel as a sponsored runner ahead of her bronze medal in the 2021 Olympic Games. With their eyes up in the clouds asking why they didn’t resign her, everyone else caught up to their shoe profile and surpassed it in some ways.

In 2019 and 2020, I felt like their stuff at least didn’t feel horrible and fit well, which is a low bar saying that out loud, but for those who remember the first version of carbon plated options it’s pretty good they didn’t settle. I’ve liked Saucony because their trainers still have a good amount of ground-feel without becoming a minimal shoe. The Endorphin Pro’s still have some bounce to them, but I would place models like the Vaporfly, Metaspeed line, Rocket/Cielo lines, above them as far as the wow factor goes. It’s been quite the journey, but I think making a plated supertrainer that feels like there’s little to no plate assistance is the goal. Especially for those new to the world of plated shoes. If I wanted to run in something bouncy and jarring, I’d spend big dollars on some ugly CEP shoes and call it a day.

To Review, or Not to Review

No reviews again this month as this newsletter is already long enough for most people to have clicked off. However, I will mention that the Saucony Xodus Ultra 4s from last month feel pretty good on a mix of trail and roads, but need more miles on just trails to get a better idea of how they handle. We also received some pairs of the Asics Cumulus 27 and Altra Experience Flow 2 to run in and give an opinion.

The Cumulus used to be the main neutral Asics model, but I think has since been overpassed by the softer and more exciting Novablast lineup. I’ve only had a few runs in the Cumulus, and I do like the firmer feel, but they’ve felt awkwardly hot at different points on both runs. It was pretty chewy and humid out though, so I can’t fault the shoes on that end just yet, and I do have a truckload of different socks to try and find something. Classically, my feet tend to not take up enough space in some shoes, and this part is a little more apparent in the fit than other shoes, but not horrible yet.

The Experience Flow 2 is a recent redesign to Altra’s new 4mm drop shoes, and is currently their second best selling road model. Surpassed only by the Torin, which should change sometime next year. I did one run in them so far, so not a whole lot to go off of, but the rubber is giving me a lot of Puma Grip vibes. The only squeaky shoes we have in the shop right now are from Altra, but I don’t find that extra grip for light trail-work.

That’s all. Go home.

Josh Nogaret - July, 2025

Newsletter - #07