Straight from the presentation of their running shoe collection Skechers got very diverse reviews all along the board. The first range of the “GoRun” series appeared to be thrown on the market way to fast and they were missing a lot of quality and durability in their products.
The attention switched to Skechers again when a certain Olympic silver medal winning US-Marathoner turned out to use the shoes in the US Olympic Marathon trials. Fellow sponsored “Athlete” Britney must have been a happy camper seeing Mebrahtom K. sporting the infamous kicks. It certainly seemed to be a shock to the running community seeing Meb representing the kicks. While wondering around the ISPO-fair in Munich a couple of weeks ago the shoes caught my attention and a couple of days later I received a nice tacky red/lime pair of GoRun 2.
The first thing that clearly sticks out is certainly the color and the weight. To say these shoes look “loud” is an understatement. The weight coming in with 500g for my pair in US 12,5 is pretty light. Also the vigorous thin upper makes the shoe attention-grabbing for every light-weight, minimal nerd.
I am used to train and race in lightweight shoes since years so the GoRun 2 ticks all my “requirement” boxes. Another feature that sticks out is the huge toe box. This could be a problem for some people. I haven’t had any problems, as I prefer the front a bit larger. Another nice feature would be the pretty low front/back drop of the shoe. Well done on that. There is not much of a difference. A good and well thought out feature. The design of the sole is unique as well and worked for me. The grip on a various terrains I ran with the shoe was good. The softness combined with the “bubble-style” does its job on wet trails, light snow and tight corners.
After a test-period of a bit more than two weeks the GoRun 2 leaves a positive impression with me. A well engineered shoe that supports a middle and forefoot running style. Sometimes the sole could have been a bit tighter at the front. When only running forefoot it seems to be a bit too soft.
Looking at the sole after a good bit of road running you can also see that there is a good bit of “wear and tear” up front. Certainly my forefoot running style makes the shoe worn out at certain parts of the sole but seeing so much rubber gone is not normal for me. That certainly goes along with the softness and can be different with anyone else. For a well-trained runner this shoe could be used for everything from a long distance race to every day training.
