I’m not a shoe junkie by any means, compared to what i’ve witnessed in other people. I don’t have wallets deep enough to try various brands and styles of shoes. Like most things, I find a brand that seems to deliver a great consistent product at a reasonable price and I will be a customer for life. I’m pretty brand loyal. Saucony is one of those companies for me. I’ve gone through a several pairs of a few different styles from them and they never seem to disappoint.
Saucony Kinvara3 (Right) Cortana 2 (Left)
I switch off between two models for the most part, the Saucony Cortana and the Saucony Kinvara 3. Both of these are a 4mm drop shoe that I would consider are a hybrid shoes (can be trail or road shoe)
I use the Kinvara for shorter runs (less than 6 miles usually), they are light, have a tight feel to my foot but can get a little tight for me in the forefoot area. On longer runs as my foot swells a bit more, I can really start to notice it.
The Cortana’s I use for longer runs, it has the same 4mm drop as the Kinvara’s but has a bit more padding overall and a roomier forefront. The Corana’s have won several awards from running magazines and seems to be well received by anyone that puts them on.
I was getting serious painful callouses on the side of my bit toe, but those seem to have gone away since i’ve started using the Cortana’s for my long runs.
Both shoes work well for me on both trail and road. I’d recommend either of these to someone looking to try a new shoe.
Saucony Durability
If I had one complaint about both of these shoes it would be the durability. They seem to start to break apart rather easily. On my current Kinvaras I have about 200 miles on them, but already had some tears along the side. My older Cortana’s I have almost 400 miles and they are also tearing. I don’t feel like i’m particularly rough on my shoes, mostly road or non-technical trails. Perhaps there is something mechanical about my running that is causing it, but both shoes are breaking down in different areas, so not sure.
Saucony Kinvara3 Tearing
Saucony Cortana Tearing
I like Saucony too. They fit and feel right!
Do you find that you slow down with the slightly heavier Cortana? or is your pace as fast as it is while wearing the Kinvara? I land on the balls of my feet, so I found that only 100km into the Kinvara 4’s that the shoe started tearing along the pinky toe. I find that very disconcerting. The store offered to replace the 100km shoes, but I am thinking that the same thing will happen, so considering sharing the mileage over two pairs, the Kinvaras and the Cortanas.
My guess is I slow down some, but in reality the difference between the shoes in terms of weight is pretty minimal..I’m still using the 3’s for shorter distances and the tearing has remained as it was, so it’s not getting worse.
That’s really interesting. So, approximately how many kilometers have you put on the 3’s after the tearing started? just roughly, like if you think you can get another 100 or 200 km post-tear would be useful to know?
I’m guessing I have 100 Miles in the post tear..In total I have about 350 miles on them. I had about 200 in them when I wrote this post originally..They still have some life in them too..they just look like hell, which I don’t care too much about.
I am just 100 km into my 4’s and they look like crap, the “pistons” are just an orange memory. If I can get 500 k out of a pair of shoes then I am happy. Good to know that you can put so many miles (potentially) post-tear. I was tempted to put duct tape over the tear… but hopefully I will be replacing the shoes next week