How many miles can I expect before it’s time to replace them? It seems like less than Tangents.
Mine died relatively quickly. Probably 175-200 miles before I busted through the side of the shoe and had significantly worn out the portion of the sole towards the outside of the forefoot.
I really liked the shoes other than the durability issue…
Kinvara’s didn’t last me long at all (had bad form). The tangents are holding up great for me…sucks that the only place I can find them is a local store selling them for $100 on ‘closeout’
The Mirage is my racing and speed training shoe. I have yet to wear out my first pair but my roommate ( a college track and xc runner) wears Mirages and Kinvara’s exclusively and he says he gets about 300 miles out of the Mirages and about 4-500 with Kinvara’s. He runs a lot of trails and averages 70-95 miles a week so he goes through them pretty fast. They are great shoes and I would recommend them due to the unique added support and the advantage of the minimalist platform.
try runningwarehouse.com
i bought some on closeout for like $55/pair(kinvara 1).
I have 150 miles on a pair of Mirage, and just added a new pair into the rotation (I also run in Kinvara and get 300-400 out of each pair). Based on the fact that pair with 150 miles on them feels identical to the new pair (and my history with the Kinvara), I’m gong to say these will go the same 300-400 per pair. However, with any standard shoe model (not racing flats), you can get the occasional pair that gives out as soon as 200 miles, or lasts 500+ - for whatever reason…
I have about 300 on my first Mirage pair. The outsole rubber shows some wear, but has plenty of tread left. They fit my foot shape well (semi-straight lasted, low arch), and compliment my foot strike (heel does not touch on impact).
I am convinced that shoes last much longer if they fit you well. Because the Mirages fit me, I expect another 200 out of them. By comparison, I tore through the upper mesh of two pairs of Brooks Trances within 200 miles.
Just purchased Kinvaras for racing. It will be interesting to compare its longevity to the Mirages.
(Full disclosure: I currently weight 115lbs, which I sure also helps with shoe longevity)
My first pair lasted somewhere between 300-400 miles. The lady at the running shoe store was suprised that I got that many miles out of them. I am now running in a pair of Kinvaras, rotating with K-Swiss Kwicky Light. The uppers on the Mirage look brand new. My daughter had a small hole develop in the upper mesh on her first pair of Mirages. She is currently on her second pair with no issues.
I have 252 miles on mine, and they look fine. The tops are in excellent shape and the bottoms are showing some minor wear.
My intention is to get 500 miles out of them and then retire them, and I currently see no reason why that won’t happen.
Remember: How they “look” on the top and bottom has nothing to do with their longevity (unless you’ve completely blown through to the inside). It’s how they “ride” and the speed at which you recover from your workouts. I keep a mileage log for my shoes, and when I start getting little aches and pains, or slow to recover from workouts, I look at the shoe log. I almost always find that it points to a single pair of shoes - they may look brand new, or they may look like crap, but they get taken out of the rotation and the problems go away. I find most shoes lose their effectiveness between 300-400 miles. Although, when my legs were 10-20 years younger I could get more miles out shoes…
I’d heard this and am watching as I’m 6 weeks into my first pair. I’m coming back from an achilles injury and moving away from more cushioned shoes (Asics, Kayano and DS Trainer).
So far, I really like them. They do seem to have a narrower toes box though so I’m wondering if I’ll “bust through the side” myself.
Mine died relatively quickly. Probably 175-200 miles before I busted through the side of the shoe and had significantly worn out the portion of the sole towards the outside of the forefoot.
I really liked the shoes other than the durability issue…
They may not have been supportive enough in the correct place for me given how aggressive and isolated the wear pattern was. It was pretty clear that I was striking on the outside of my forefoot and wearing the edge of the shoe down with the strike. As the shoe wore down it “canted” my foot outwards and accellerated the wear, eventually leading to a blowout in the fabric. The shoe’s “cushioning” material (on my shoes this was red) is used in contact areas of the sole in some areas, and is reinforced with higher density rubber (on my shoes this was black) in higher wear areas. Unfortunately the contact area from my strike was not reinforced with the higher density rubber.
I have had good success with shoes that are arguably lighter in support (Mizuno Musha and NB 1190), but the positioning of the support just seemed to be more of a fit with my running mechanics than the Mirage.