Saturday, December 01, 2012

Top Running Shoes of All Time: Another Golden Age?

Sneaker Report's Best 100 Running Sneakers of All Time  got me thinking about the last 40 years of running kicks, that's how long I have been a competitive runner and shoe junky. In an earlier post I concluded that the 1970's running boom produced a wave of innovation and great shoes.

The 1980's through about 2000 was really a dark age as shoes became heavier, more gimmicky, larded up with all kinds of control mechanisms. Just contrast what Sneaker Report considered the top shoe of all time, the 1995 Nike Air Max 95 with some of my early favorites the 1973 Nike Boston, the  1981 Terra T/C and today's Vibram Spyridon,  Saucony Kinvara, and Hoka One One Tarmac. We are lucky to have so many quite different but in many ways related choices!

1970's and early 1980's
1973 Nike Boston (Sneakerreport.com) 

 1981 Nike Terra T/C (sneakerreport.com)


1980's- 2005
 1995 Nike Air Max 95 (sneakerreport.com)

2005- Present

2012 Saucony Kinvara (sneakerreport.com)
                             
2012 Hoka One One Tarmac (hokaoneone.com)