It used to be I could tell you exactly what they did from one to the next. That is while I worked at Road Runner Sports and worked with every shoe company. Now that I work at adidas I can only tell you that it’s really hard to evolve and stay absolutely consistent. I feel for Asics because of where they are in the market and how much people rely on them right now.
So there was an earlier post that said Road Runner Sports had the Kayano 11. Those shoes are still being made for RRS, they are not hold over’s from years past. If you have to have the Kayano it’s not a bad way to go.
All of this hopefully means opportunity for adidas. It’s easier to steal market share than it is to find new runners so here’s my chance. The adiSTar Control 5 if you can find it is a great shoe. You can read all over the net how much runners enjoyed it. Its replacement which just landed in stores a month ago is the adiStar Salvation. Early reports from runners on the Forums is that it’s even better than the Control 5 and the Running Network just gave it a top award. I think even more important is for those of you with heel problems. The Formotion unit (Mechanical Decoupling) in the heel and the heel itself is the exact same between the Control 5 and the Salvation. It’s so good we won’t change it for Spring 10 either.
David - I read your Blog on a regular basis. It’s some of the best writing on the net.