Article by Derek Li
Dynafish Xiaonian (RMB 499 / US$178/ €165, includes current shipping and duties for US/Europe via Aliexpress)
Introduction
Dynafish is a very small brand that first hit the scene about 2 years ago. First, a word on the brand name. In Chinese, the brand is read as Da Nian. The direct translation is actually catfish, but they have gone with Dynafish, I suppose to make it a bit more catchy.
Back then, they only had one model, simplistically called the Dynafish 1.0 or v1, very much like the early days of Atreyu. The key difference here is that the 1.0 was a carbon plated sort of workout shoe. For a long time, they only sold this one model, with limited success. The 1.0 is a low stack shoe, with a somewhat flexible carbon plate, relying more on rebound snappiness from the plate than a true rocker effect. Think of it as a bit of a cross between a Nike Streakfly and a NB SC Pacer. It is a very light stripped down shoe with a very minimal outsole, so durability isn’t great. This model is still sold today.
The foam is PEBA and that shoe has a claimed weight of 157g for Eur42. I do not own this model, but others who have bought it say the claimed weight is accurate.
To give a little context to why a new brand would make their only shoe a racer, one has to look at the running retail landscape in China. Marathons are booming in China, but serious runners are largely loyal to the more established names. So what Dynafish did was go after a lower tier but equally lucrative audience - the high school and university students. Chinese schools, as a matter of government policy, take physical fitness very seriously. There are compulsory fitness tests from primary school all the way up to university. One of the events is the endurance run; 800m for girls and 1000m for boys. This is a high stakes test, where your performances translate to scores that are incorporated into your school grade. I have read of schools withholding graduation certificates because of an incomplete physical fitness test.
So the market for shoes that perform well over this middle distance event is very big and very competitive. When you consider the average household income across the board in China, you can appreciate that the sub-$100, sub-$80, sub-$50 market is cut-throat, and if you can make a good value short distance racer, you can really get traction among the adolescents who would ultimately mature into your adult audience. So there’s your background for why Dynafish focused on just one low profile racer for the first few years.
Moving on now to 2026, and they have finally, finally, released a second model, again simply called the Xiao Nian (Little Catfish). It is intended to be the trainer companion to their 1.0 which is still being sold today. The Xiao Nian does not unfortunately use PEBA but instead uses TPEE for its midsole but the good news here is they upped the stack significantly to make a really good trainer. How good? Read on to find out.
Pros:
Comfortable, breathable upper
lightweight for stack
Decent durability
Good rocker
Cons:
TPEE not as soft as the PEBA in their racer model
Not available in half sizes
Tricky and expensive to get outside of China
Stats
Approx. Weight: men's oz / g US9 :: women’s oz / g US8
Sample Weight: 208g / 7.34oz EU43 / US9.5
Stack Height: 41mm heel / 34mm forefoot (claimed and measured identical)
Platform Width: 96mm heel / 76mm midfoot / 117mm forefoot
Most comparable shoes (with your name next to each)
Adidas EVO SL
Puma Deviate Nitro 3
First Impressions, Fit and Upper
Derek: I hopped on this purchase quite early on, probably within 1 week of its release in China. Just the look of the silhouette is enough to make you want to pony up the cash for it. The very high stack profile, with the nice curved rocker and simple nylon mesh upper are all recipes for a great warm weather shoe for my Singapore runs.
When the shoe first released, it was only available in all white (including the outsole), very similar to their base colorway for the Dynafish 1.0, so that’s what i got, but it is now also available in all black, and another (loosely-translated) sunrise colorway using a white base with yellow/red streaks.
All the options should do well. The Dynafish 1.0 actually has a black/gold colorway that I thought was incredible but sadly, that has not been duplicated for the trainer.
The fit is true to size, maybe marginally on the roomier side (red line on the image above marks where my foot ends), but the nylon upper is stiff enough that you can achieve a very good lockdown with this shoe.
The nylon mesh upper is inelastic with many perforations and works very well in my warm conditions here in Singapore.
The tongue is gusseted on both sides and nicely padded, a real bonus for such a lightweight trainer. The lace eyelets are all very closely arranged with 6 primary rows of eyelets plus one extra set for heel lock lacing if you need it (you won’t). The supplied laces are made of a synthetic fabric that is not ribbed but also inelastic and work very well for me. The toe box is especially well executed here, with a wide base and good height, topped off with a semi-rigid internal toe guard.
The sockliner is glued down. The heel is fairly rigid but the heel collar is very conventional with decent padding and quite moderate heel volume so you don’t really notice the rigidity unless you try to step on the heel to flatten it.
Overall, the execution of the fit is very good for me, and i think works particularly well for Asians, as we have a disproportionate high incidence of low arches.
Midsole & Platform
Derek: The midsole appears to be a single density slab of TPEE foam, with a very generous 41/34 stack. In terms of softness, i would say it is very close to the feel of the Lightstrike Pro in the Adidas EVO SL, perhaps just a bit softer.
For me the midsole is only half the story here, as the real star of the shoe is the forefoot rocker. The rocker starts quite early in this shoe, and coupled with the flex you can get from a non-plated trainer, is very easy to engage over a wide range of paces.
Vibration dampening is good, maybe not quite as solid as what you would get from a similar stack supershoe though. I put this down to the foam being a bit firmer than the current crop of PEBA and TPU superfoams.
Outsole
Derek: The outsole is fairly thin hard rubber here, as opposed to cast polyurethane (CPU) that’s becoming quite popular on a lot of other brands.
There is still a significant exposed midsole at midfoot, the outsole itself has performed quite well for me. It is very confidence-inspiring on wet roads, and durability is excellent so far with minimal scuffing over the past 2 months that I have been running the shoe. In this case, I don't think the outsole affects the ride too much, the outsole still flexes quite naturally, and because it is quite thin (comparable thickness to a Nike VF4) , it does not really harden the underfoot experience significantly.
Ride, Conclusions and Recommendations
Derek: The ride is very fun with a strong rocker and just a bit of give with every stride. Most importantly, the ride is very consistent for me whether I’m going at 8:30/mile or 7:00/mile. I haven’t really built up the fitness yet for any runs beyond 10 miles recently, but my feet have never felt sore at the end of a run in these shoes.
I like that the wide platform, especially at the forefoot gives the shoe a lot of forefoot stability. Though this is strictly a neutral runner’s shoe, the shoe is stable enough that people who need a bit of mild stability would still get away with it.
I see its best use case as that of an all-round daily trainer, being capable of accommodating both easy runs and tempo workouts. Runners in the 3:30-5 hour range might well consider this a good option for marathon racing as well.
Derek’s Score: 9.08 / 10
Ride (50%): 9 Fit (30%): 9.5 Value (15%): 8.5 Style (5%): 9
Compared to other trainers, this is probably close to a 10 for ride, but when you throw all the other racing options into the mix, then I would score this as a 9.0 for ride. It is fun, with a nice rocker, but is not super assistive, and doesn’t have that trampoline type of ride quality.
The value score really depends on where you live. In Singapore, I can get the shoe with shipping for under $100. With import duties for US and Europe, the price can vary quite significantly. I would say fair value for this shoe is probably in the $150 range. Anything more and other shoes like Novablast 5 might come into the conversation.
Smiles score 😊😊😊😊
3 Comparisons
Adidas EVO SL (RTR Review)
Derek: I am a little between sizes for the EVO SL, better at US9.0 for length, but better at US9.5 for toebox volume. With the Dynafish, I went with US9.5. I generally like the Dynafish better, because the EVO SL toebox volume is quite low for me, which I think might be good if you are only using it for tempo runs or key workouts, but makes it a bit uncomfortable for daily training. For these reasons, the Dynafish offers a more comfortable fit for me and I get a very similar ride in both shoes.
Puma Deviate Nitro 3 (RTR Review)
Derek: I wear US9.5 in both shoes. The Puma DN3 is one of the lowest volume shoes I own. I find the midfoot to be quite narrow and low volume at the same time, such that even with skipping eyelets and using parallel lacing patterns, the shoe still feels quite constricting, which is a shame because the ride is quite nice. The upper on the DN3 is also slightly on the warmer side. The rocker is smoother and more refined in the Puma DN3 than the Dynafish, but the fit makes it much less viable as a trainer for me. In terms of comfort of fit, the Dynafish is a clear winner for me. In terms of midsole characteristics, I think the Puma is better. In terms of outsole performance, it’s actually quite close but the Puma seems to have a bit better grip on wet surfaces for me.
ASICS Superblast v1 (RTR Review)
Derek: I went with US9.5 Dynafish and US9.0 for Superblast. The Dynafish is a lot more forgiving with a softer, bouncier ride. Crucially, the Dynafish rocker starts much earlier than in the Superblast. This makes the Dynafish much more accommodating to different paces, especially slower paces for novice runners. Because the Dynafish has a softer ride, even though the Superblast has a higher stack, the ASICS actually feels much harsher underfoot compared to the Dynafish. Overall, I much prefer the ride and cushioning of the Dynafish.
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Tester Profile
Derek is in his 40’s and trains 70-80 miles per week at 7 to 8 minute pace in mostly tropical conditions in Singapore. He has a 2:39 marathon PR from the 2022 Zurich Marathon
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2 comments:
In EU it's 80 Euro from Taobao and 40 of shipping and duties, total 120 Euro.
Hmm do you mean that your sample is US10? Believe that EU43 maps to US10 for dynafish and not US9.5
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