Disclaimer - Saucony or anyone has not reviewed this review prior, nor has anyone sponsored or influenced or any of the content. This is purely my experience sharing/review for our community of amateur runners - similar to the initial review of this shoe done in June - First date with a pair of Saucony
I had presumed when I began running in these Sauconys, that like my Nike Pegasus 37, these would have a compressed mid sole and certain signs of wear on the outer heel areas. The much more exposed mid sole on the Endorphin Shifts than the earlier Nike or Asics had added to my presumption. Also I was very confident that by now my long runs would have the stack not hold up and make me feel the shoe going to its most compression like in the earlier trainers I used, in turn making the feet feel progressively tired - much expected. Well 300 kms (304.7 kms to be precise) after, I'm happily proven wrong. The midsole is at least 95% as intact as it was when I first ran in them. The terrain in these 300+ kms has seen road, gravel, off-road, concrete, mud, brick road and little bit of treadmill use too - I'm pleasantly surprised on the condition still - the exposed midsole areas included - not a cut, not a nick and no foreign elements like pebbles or thorns that have stuck in permanently. The outer and mid sole beautifully bounce them all off. I'd like to take a little credit for the outer heels not showing signs of wear more than the overall sole - guess with time I've been conscious to take smaller strides and hence try land midfoot with increased cadence - that adds to lesser and lesser heel strike and that's now so evident by looking at the outer sole. But yes I think the quality of the outer sole too matters - The outer sole of the Endorphin Shifts - just rock solid, no abrasion, no bruises at all so far and no uneven wear - be it outer heel or toe or anywhere. I remember feeling the road or the concrete surface running in the Nike Pegasus 37 or the Acis Kayano Gel 26 earlier.. and ofcourse that feeling progressively increased as I did more and more kilometres in them on a single run. Surprisingly the Sauconys just don't go to that level of super compression and are yet pretty responsive. I'm confident running on concrete on these which was not the case with other shoes as I could feel the jerk and the hardness. RUnning on concrete (seldom) with these Sauconys in fact has made me run faster with more confidence. Infact my few concrete runs on Sauconys have been much faster at the same heart rate etc than my road runs in those. Strange - but pleasantly strange. The only thing I wish could've been better on these Sauconys was the air flow, the ventilation system maybe. It's good but not best I guess. In 70 minutes or more of humid mid intensity runs, the shoes begin filling in with sweat and I feel it just doesn't go away as easily as on my earlier pairs. Not that this is often as really such runs are maybe once a week, but yes it would be nice if future versions of this shoe have better ventilation and can help keep the feet a bit on the dry side. Overall - I'd recommend these Endorphin Shifts to anyone who has mild flat feet and is looking for a good roomy toe box (not necessarily only broad feet folks). I don't have broad feet but I love the ample area in the toe box yet the snug fit of these shoes without overdoing the lacing. A very stable stack and adds to confidence of leaping big strides if one wants, yet very helpful if one wants to take those small strides for best cadence and landing focus. If you are training - go for these - all terrain almost (maybe will be good on trail runs too not sure though). It's almost an SUV in running shoes. The affair continues.. Cheers, Anupam
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