Skechers GOrun 2012

October 8, 2012

During my racing season I didn't think it was such a good idea to try a lot of different shoes. With my key races over I thought I see how well they did perform. Skechers is a large shoe company although not in running shoes and I was curious to see what they came up with.

When you pick up the box after you pay the bill you want to double check to see if the shoes are even in the box. They are extremely light at 6.9 oz. at a men's 9, and you can't believe they are meant to be trainers. Are they?

What you first notice when you put them on is how wide they are in the forefoot. They are as wide to me as my Altra shoes although the latter stays wide at the toes and the GOrun narrows slightly down. But overall it's a wide toe box.

Another thing that directly occurred to me was the insole, or rather, the lack of it. There is no insole (aka sock liner) that you can remove, only a piece of lining where you are standing on. But this piece of lining is stitched around the shoe where normally there would be the edges of the removable insole. When I tried them on in the store I felt those edges, where the lining meets the upper, but I thought they wouldn't bother me. I also assumed that Skechers would have done test runs before putting the shoes on the market.

Well, on my first run it took me only about 5k to develop some serious blisters around my toes and ball of the right foot. But since there was no short cut to my house I needed to finish the run, which meant another 5k. It took me a little over another kilometer before I could feel the rubbing occur on my left foot as well and by the time I got to 9k I had to take them off and walk home barefoot with blood blisters on both feet.

I seriously ask myself if there are runners who run in these shoes for more than 5k and have no issues with the edges where what passes as the insole meets the upper. If you don't you probably could run barefoot as well but, to be honest, I prefer to run barefoot more than to run in the Skechers GOrun.

They are light and that's all you can expect from them. There is no support, no heel cup, very limited cushioning. The only thing not there is weight.

At just $80 they are not expensive, but not cheap either, since I think even the most efficient mid- to forefoot striker—that's the targeted runner with this shoe—will need to replace them every 200 or so miles. The heel to toe offset is 4mm. I wonder how many pairs Meb Keflezighi gets sent every month to train in? He must kill them quickly with his mileage.

You can find the Skecher GOrun in almost any color you want from black to white, from bright orange to whatever you can think of. The men's version is available in medium and wide width (my pair was a medium width) and women's in medium width.

[Editor’s note: Our capable editor-at-large for footwear Jeroen van Geelen owns Total Running, one of the more important running and triathlon retail establishments in The Netherlands.]