A girl can never have enough shoes!

A wall of trainers in a shoe shop

For my birthday, my brother-in-law and his wife gave me a Sweatshop voucher. I also had another Sweatshop voucher and a 25% discount card, so I decided to invest in a new pair of shoes. I’ve been OK wearing my New Balance shoes, but I just don’t like them as much as the Brooks Vapors. I’ve worn that model for the past few years, so they seemed the obvious choice. The only disadvantage is that the latest model was only available in bright pink and navy with orange trims. Orange with pink? Why?!

The very first pair of running trainers that I got fitted for several years ago were Brooks Vapors and I’ve always had at least one pair available in the last five years, but my old faithfuls died recently :’-( (I love these shoes so much that when I heard a rumour that they were going to be discontinued, I made my husband track down two pairs in my size. Luckily, it was just a rumour!)

Brooks Vapors
My new Brooks Vapors… and my ankles, which look incredibly chubby in this pic!

I tried out my new shoes for the first time at parkrun this weekend and for a 12 mile run on Sunday Runday. They felt familiar and definitely didn’t need any ‘wearing in’. With the bad weather continuing for a week or two no-one will be able to see the hideous colour scheme!

What are your go-to running shoes?

8 Responses

  1. Currently really like the Zoot Solana shoes, they “work” really well for me and I also like that they’re totally wearable without socks 🙂

    • I really wish that there were more promotional schemes where you can try a pair of shoes for a week as it’s hard to know whether something will really work for you just by trying them on for 5 minutes in store. Brooks have run various schemes where it’s been possible to try a pair of Brooks Pure trainers for a week [completely free]. If you then decide to buythem, you get a £25 off voucher.

      I’ve looked at Zoot shoes several times as I’d love to have something that I could wear without socks for sprint triathlons and aquathlons – my one previous attempt to use trainers I already have without socks ended with blisters :’-( Maybe the Zoots will come up on a discount site like SportPursuit in future so that I’m not risking too much money by trying them.

      • Wow, the Brooks scheme sounds brilliant I didn’t know they occasionally offered that kind of opportunity 🙂
        As for going sock-less, I can’t fault the Zoots, the Solanas in particular are a great all-round shoe that I wear for racing and training. Budget’s always an issue though! But I noticed the other day that all Zoot shoes are 1/2 price on Wiggle at the moment…

    • Thank you 🙂 I’ve had some aucony runing kit before, but I’ve not seen many of their shoes in shops. I wonder why they’re not stocked in many places – perhaps it’s a Southampton thing!

      • Yeah, we’re not quite sure ourselves; perhaps they aren’t as popular as other mainstream brands? We’ve bought them in some shops before (but you have to keep your eye out!) and online. 🙂

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