Company – Spira
Product Review – Stinger XLT ($74.25 Onsale normally $134.95)
Website – www.spira.com
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Having never heard of Spira or seeing their shoes in the “big-box” stores I didn’t know much about them nor their “wavespring” technology. I found out about them from a twitter post I seen and I became curious about their shoes due to some of their claims they have. Their claims are that by running in their shoes you would get about “96% of your energy return and reduce peak impact forces throughout the gait cycle by 20%”, I know these are some claims, and if true, could be a game changer in the running world. I was anxious to try them out so I reached out to Spira to see if they would be willing to send me a pair of their shoes to review and give my insights, and interesting enough, I’m glad they did.
Who is Spria?
Spira is a small shoe company out of El Paso, yes I said, El Paso, TX. I thought the same thing when I first heard that they were out of El Paso. Who live is El Paso? And what would they know about running? Well little did I know! After doing some research and reading there case studies, I recognized that the folks over at Spira might know what they are talking about, and might have designed a shoe that could change everything we know about running shoes. As I noted they have some serious claims http://spira.com/wavespring-technology.
I reached out to the GingerRunner to ask Ethan if he ever heard of these shoes, and his response was quite funny, “I’m not down with the Duck Dynasty and I would never run in these shoes – they are a joke!” I thought that Ethan’s response brutal but truthful, I think Spira does themselves a disservice by being the “Official Duck Dynasty” running shoe. If they really want to tap into the running world and attract the serious runners, they will have to get this type of stigma off.
What is Wavespring Technology
The shoe is made up of three springs two under the forefoot and one spring under the heel. The spring is supposed to absorb the shock on each foot-strike thereby allowing runners to run longer and provide more energy to the runner. Spira does this through a “deflection” rather than “compression” most shoes use EVA that break down over time, with the use of springs, in theory, you have that “new-shoe” feeling for the life of the shoe.
The Springing Shoe
Let me start of by saying that I’m a “minimalist” runner and usually run with shoes that are less than 5 ounces and have a zero heel-to-toe drop, “barefoot” style some would say. The first thing I noticed was the heel stack, even though the shoe has a 8mm stack, and looks built up I really didn’t feel the difference, which I must admit was shocking. On my first run i was able to feel that spring, especially in the forefoot, it felt as though on each strike there was a automatic return. However, the return was not an upward motion rather a side motion Now of course this could actually be my momentum from the strike as I’m a supinator. It took some time to get use to that reaction and the shoe forced me to control my lift in such as way as to not feel as though I’m landing funny. It took a few runs by I did learn to control that lift. The shoes are pretty heavy weighing in at close to 12.5 ounces for each shoe. The shoe also comes with a hard plastic at the midfoot, I never really understood why that was there as I don’t see the correlation between that hard plastic and what the shoes are known for with the “wavespring”.
OK, so how did the shoes perform?
Overall, I was very impressed with the shoes. I have almost 100 miles on them and compared to other shoes I’m testing there is only slight wear on the heel while the other ones I’m seeing a lot of wear. The forefoot is seeing no signs of wear at all, and being a midfoot/forefoot striker this is amazing as all my foot strikes hit the forefoot area. At this rate I think these shoes will last for 100’s of miles if not close to a 1000. Last month I ran my first half marathon in them, and the course was a hilly one. I was able to keep my pace and cadence on the hills, where I would normally slow down. I felt that the shoes help me not get too fatigued as I really felt the “wavespring” return while on the hills. I didn’t PR, but I must admit I felt fine and did have much residual in my legs later in the day or the following. I felt the shoe perform well, however, I would like to see Spira have a lower to heel-to-toe drop and create a shoe that is not so heavy.
Conclusion
Likes
- WaveSpring Technology
- Wear or lack of
- Comfort
Dislikes
- Weight
- Heel stack
- “Official Duck Dynasty”
Overall
If you’re looking for a solid shoe that will last you a very long time and has the potential to save you from injury, I would highly recommend these as your go-to-shoe.