I train in the Nike Next%, Endorphin Speed and Endorphin Pro and agree with most posters. My 2 cents:
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Nike Next% (296.1 miles): I absolutely love this shoe. It loses a lot of propulsive pop right around 100 miles. But even at 200 miles it still has more pop then any shoe I’ve run in. The downside is the price, and the heel has been coming off in chunks. The back heel has lost so much foam I’m going to be forced to retire them. I don’t find them unstable at all, but I’m also 179 lbs. I could easily see them being unstable on a technical course for a lighter runner. I can also run back-to-back days in this shoe and the performance is the same and my recovery is like I haven’t run. The shoe is squishy and very firm at the same time.
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Endorphin Pro (25.6 miles): A much firmer ride than the Next% due to foam/ carbon plate combo I think. The biggest advantage the E-Pro has over the Next% is the ride. The falling forward, aggressive rocker is NEXT LEVEL. The ride in this shoe is absolutely amazing. It’s much easier to hold a higher cadence and rather than feeling like your “bounding” in the Next%, with the E-Pro your “gliding”. The E-Pro feels more like a wicked fast racing flat. The other advantage is E-Pro is 50 bucks cheaper and my guess is when I get to 300 miles giant chunks of the heel won’t be missing.
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Endorphin Speed (65.7 miles): Has a similar ride quality as the E-Pro but is much less firm. More squishy but not very propulsive. Despite having the same drop/ rocker as the E-Pro (I believe?) it doesn’t have that ‘falling forward’ feeling like the E-Pro. Maybe it’s the plate difference? I can’t really feel the nylon plate compared to the carbon plates. Having said all that, it’s my “go to” favorite training shoe. For an everyday training shoe it’s hella-fun and recovery is very good, and the softness feels good when running easy.
If I had to pick the fastest shoe and my overall favorite of the three for racing and training, hands-down it’s the Next% shoe when it was between 20 and 80 miles. Having said that, I’ll probably be buying more Saucony Endophin shoes based on cost and durability for straight-up training. I probably won’t buy another pair of Next%'s until my next A Race.
If I could take ZoomX foam and put it in the E-Pro I think that’d be the Holy Grail of run/racing shoes.
Your vision of the impact on the gait of Next vs Endorphin Pro is very interesting.
It remind me the initial research article published on VF4%, indicating that runners moving from standard flat to the VF4% increased their gait length, reduced cadence, and move more heel striking, probably making use of greater heel cushion.
Apparently the End. Pro is more about staying midfoot striking with high cadence ?