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Sam from Road Trail Run, we're going to take a look at the cloud boom strike from On today
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$280 and it goes on sale July 11th. So it's a brand new max cushion super shoe from On at 39 a half at the heel, 35 and a half at the forfeit with an innovative slip-in top layer midsoul
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which eliminates the hard strobel board and the sock liner. Of course it has a beautiful on upper
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with plenty of internal padding in a very minimal kind of monomesh type upper
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And On does not skimp on the outsole with a full, really full outsole
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We do come in at 7.18 ounces, 203 grams, a bit heavier than most super shoes
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I've taken them out on the road today in New Hampshire doing some marathon, half marathon pace segments
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I want to give you my impressions of fit, ride, and some comparisons. Stay tuned
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Hello, everybody, Sam from Road Trail Run. going to take a look at the on cloud boom strike, their top, top end racing shoe, which launches
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July 11th, $280. So this is a max cushion in the sense that it's 39 and a half at the heel
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and it has 35.5 at the four foot, so four millimeter drop. So they've really maximized the
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cushioning here within the world athletic standards. But they've gone further on as gone
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further. It weighs 7.18 ounces or 203 grams in my US 8.5 for comparison. The Cloud Boom
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Echo 3, which was 3828 stack height, so quite a bit less at the forefoot, weighed 7.5 ounces
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214 grams. So we've dropped 11 grams. We've gained 1 millimeter at the heel
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and if I do it right, 7.5 millimeters at the four foot and stack height
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But here's the unusual thing because the effective cushion is even more
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Let me pull it out here and you will see. I partially removed it
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This drop-in top mid-sole layer, which is what On calls helium hyperfoam
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Okay, so this drop-in layer, gets rid of what we traditionally see in a shoe as the sock liner and the strobele board
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So the carbon plate or bounce board, as they call it, as you can see there
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and the layer that attaches the upper to the midsole are all one unit
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So that gets rid of the stiff strobele board, which you see in almost all shoes
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except maybe the Evo one from Adidas and the sock liner, which doesn't really add much to cushion
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And here we have a soft, bouncy layer. This foam is somewhat softer than the main midsoul
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which reminds me in pressing, and I'm going to take them for a run
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and give you those run impressions of Light Strike Pro. So when you slip it in
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effectively you get all cushion right to the foot you do have a bit of a fabric on the
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front so you really get the maximum amount of cushion within the legal limit of
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30 of 40 what on is also done and you can see it here and we'll move a bit to the
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upper is they have a molded piece here to hold it in place you can see it
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coming around we have a moderately stiff back of the heel counter similar to what we see in a lot of super shoes
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We have some very nice bolsters on the sides. And then moving to the midfoot, we have an array
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of internal underlays. Here you can really see those underlays on both sides and the bolsters
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which are really decently, decently kind of substantial. They're just two of them
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I've tried them on and they fit true to size, but this is a monomesh type upper which reminds maybe a bit of the older next percent the Hoka Rocket X2
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This isn't a knit type material. It's sort of a single unitary non-stretch material
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You can see here how much the inner slip-in midsoul has you up, and it is cupped, so you're well held in there
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And effectively, what that does, and let me get to my statistics here because I measured all this
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is that you now sit with the plate. There's our plate, right
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You sit at about 22 millimeters below the forefoot. So the plate is at about 22 millimeters below the four foot
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But I would say that's closer to a metaspede edge or a vaporfly than it is to say a metaspede sky Paris where the plate is higher
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But I don't have their exact measurements. Here I can. So 22 millimeters there
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And at the heel, the plate is 14 millimeters below the heel
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So you have plenty of heel cushion. You're not sitting right on, if you will, the
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the plate. So continuing with the upper, you have a bit of a toe bumper here on this
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mainly created by the inner foam midsul, not so much the mesh. You can see we do have a
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bit of an overlay situation. So that's good. I've tried them on they fit real nice as a
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race shoe. We'll talk a bit more about fit when I run them
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here in a minute. But I would say that if you have a slightly wide or higher volume foot, you might
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try a half size up. Now, the tongue is something really elaborate here. Unknown for their uppers
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Look at this. We have sort of a very, very kind of just really light stretch mesh here, not the same as
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the upper. We have padding down the medial side right here. This is kind of a thin
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leatherette type tongue. We have two little pads on the inside. It is not a full gusset
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It is attached. You can see here on the lateral side and the medial side just really stitched up there
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You can see here, maybe if I can tilt it a bit
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you can see padding on the outside. So they lace up real nice
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I've walked around in them. What's the walking around feel like in this shoe
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Well, we want to run them, but the walking around feel is, I would say, really normal
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There's no pronounced feel of the plate. There's no, despite the 4mm drop, there isn't a sense that you're kind of back, back on your heel unless you're running
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However, I do note that it is 4mm drop and it does kind of feel like, feel like kind of flat on the ground, which is perfectly fine
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So I'm going to take them out now for a run. early this morning, a first run and give you those impressions
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But here, just a bit more of the outsole. I didn't show you the outsole
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Plenty of rubber here. Plenty, plenty of rubber on both sides. They didn't skimp on the rubber
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And, you know, that may contribute a bit to the weight here, because we said it's 7.18 ounces, 203 grams, US 8.5
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So about probably 7.4, which is a bit of, heavier than say competitors such as the A6, the vaporfly, and the Evo from Adidas
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But this is a solid, solidly constructed shoe. I'm not seeing this as kind of a one, once in one race and done or minimal kind of durability here
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So it looks really good in that sense. Okay, enough talk. Let's take them for a run
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Let's talk about fit. So I am at my tru-to-size. 8.5 and I'll show you the toe room just a little less than a thumb, my wider foot and a bit more than a thumb on my narrower right foot
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Very very well held This is a race fit There no question about it Don come here expecting kind of soft stretchy stuff The mono mesh does not stretch I would say that most should stay true to size
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If you have a really wide foot, if you think on Tryon, you might get a bit more room here. You might try it
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Lace up's easy. Laces are thin, kind of stringy. They hold, they seem to be holding well, the padding's good
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I'm seeing a little bit of folding here, less so in the other one
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He'll hold excellent a bit, not quite as good on my narrower foot
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but still very, very good, very appropriate for such a shoe. I'm about a mile in
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They're very stable. And what I'm really noticing is the big slab of foam upfoam
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front we've got 14 millimeters down below to the plate so we have you know a good 21 22 above so I'm not feeling the
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plate in the mix which is something I like they do feel like a 4 millimeter drop shoe if there's
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anything so far I'd say I kind of prefer a bit more drop 6 to 8 millimeters in a super shoe but I'm
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going to wind up I'm just warming up right now. So I'm in my warm-up, 940 pace. Feels very nice and normal. Nothing too aggressive here
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but I really notice you easily plunge down into the front. Sort of want to lean forward
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reminding me a bit of the original vapor fly. The rear of the shoe reminds me of the
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Garacarbon, flat, stable, quite linear in feel. There's a lot of bounce off that front piece of insert, supercritical foam
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And so far, I'm not noticing the plate at all. Unusual for a super shoe
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I'm going to keep going. So if you remember the cloud boom echo three, this is a much more forgiving shoe
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Although it is still full-on elite, it is not kind of that rough, rough, firm ride we had before
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I'm not finding it having as much of a rocker as some shoes or toe spring
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Pretty flat on the ground. You really want to plunge down into that deep front section of insert foam
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that's softer than the lower layer to really make these work. Now I'm going to do a bit more at faster pace
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So now I'm getting down into my marathon pace, a bit faster, 820s per mile, 830s
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And I'm really feeling now the plunge forward into that soft foam and the kick of the bounce board
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It's a very steady kind of flat feel, a bit like the gara carbon, kind of marathon
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suitable kind of feel. While there isn't a big toe spring or rocker, I'm feeling a quick kick
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I think as I plunge down into the foam, plenty of four-foot cushioning here
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Kind of unusual for such a shoe. Usually you feel a hump of the plate at midfoot
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Not so here. Really nice. Okay, as I catch my breath, that was a mile
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segment in the 730 paces around 737 738 which is about my half pace on a good day so what did I feel
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wow quick cadence oriented shoe with those bases you get what and I'm I'm a heel
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striker I got plenty of bounce off the front as I said earlier this isn't a sharp
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final toe off it's kind of a mellow bouncy quick final toe off off the front, not like speed roll, for example. Zero feeling that I had a
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plate under there in terms of harshness, but lots and lots of impulse. Very, a teeny little downhill
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very very stable Absolutely feels like a marathon shoe for me given that a heel strike and I more cadence than kind of stride oriented so I think this is sort of equivalent more towards the metaspede edge than the sky
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and it sits a little more cadence oriented for me than the newest vaporfly three also
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there's plenty of cushioning between plate and road so you don't feel that kind of sloppy
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bottoming out feeling, although it's a bit noisy. So the cushion is really good up front and very
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stable at the rear. Plenty, plenty at 39 and a half. Wow, I really like this cloud boom strike
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So I ended up doing three segments of about a mile during my run at my half pace. I'm coming back
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from a busted kneecap in November, so the speed isn't there. But, um, we're going. We're going to
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My knee sure felt good. There's plenty of cushioning. As I said during the run, really what you feel is plunging down into this foam
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You don't have a particularly aggressive rocker. You're relying more on plunging into the foam and a smooth kind of quick cadence roll off the front
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all with no harshness from the plate. They're very, very stable, remarkably so
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And I think that's a tribute to this overlay, which kind of, or molded overlay in here
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which keeps things stable. And also the geometry, while we're not super, super wide on the ground
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we got full rubber and at the heel. The heel hold was good
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I fussed a little bit with the laces, but got it just right. So you want to kind of run a bit and then adjust
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For me, this shoe, so far, and I'm only one run in, kind of takes me back to the original vaporfly, the very first
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vaporfly, where you could find the groove, if you will, and even if when you were tired
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It is kind of flat feeling on the ground. It doesn't have kind of the wild geometry of some
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shoes, and that's something I like. So I think, of course, Helen O'Bori won Boston in this
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in a version of this shoe, one without laces. So it for sure is an elite shoe
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But I think it's a pretty, what I would call, democratic approach to a marathon shoe
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I think folks like me who might, you know, get under 345 if on a very, very good day, maybe 350
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can race this shoe. I certainly will race it for a half. There is so much cushion here at 39.5 at the heel
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35.5 in the front. and the foam is just great. So there's plenty of cushion, a very, very little shock effect
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You do have to drive it. I was conscious of kind of rolling forward into the foam
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but it's a groove that's easy to find. So I think this is a top, top contender here
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not the lightest of super shoes, you know, because we do come in at 7.18 ounces, 203 grams
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and there are others that are lighter, even considerably lighter. I think the only one, and I wouldn't probably run a marathon in it
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that kind of tops it for me is the Evo one from Adidas
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That thing is so light. The rocker is much more pronounced. I think this shoe could benefit from a bit more rocker
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That would be my only criticism. You can see that it's pretty flat
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And then this is where you feel that toe off. impulse that isn't like a sharp thing. It's more like a plunge and roll into the foam
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So overall, honest, done a fantastic job here with this cloud strike. It is a huge contrast to their
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prior marathon-type shoes, the Echo Boom 3, Echo 3, and the ones before, which were very
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firm, very harsh. Even our faster road trail run contributors wouldn't run much more than a 10K in it
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This is a true marathon shoe. So well done on. I'm also going to have a full review
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Hopefully we'll get some more pairs with lots of comparisons. Have a great run. Thank you very much for
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watching. On provided the sample at no cost for this review