Price: $140
Weight: 10.3 oz. (M), 9.1 oz. (W)
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The Best Advanced Treadmills for Runners
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The name “Speedgoat” doesn’t get thrown around lightly when it comes to trail running. Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer is the definition of solid performance, especially when it comes to the 100-mile distance. The Hoka One One Speedgoat is no different—this shoe is solid from construction to comfort to performance. It sits between lightweight racers like the EVO Mafate and Torrent, and the heavy-duty tank trainer of Hoka’s Stinson.
I’ll admit that I’ve usually reached for Hokas as a “recovery” shoe—the stack height and soft cushioning usually break my confidence on technical trails enough to keep the pace casual when I lace up a pair. I’m usually pleasantly surprised when I find myself cruising across rugged Pennsylvania trails with no less effort than my normal go-to shoes. The Speedgoat 3 was even more surprising. I’d dare say it even outperforms the shoes I typically reach for—especially as terrain and conditions get gnarlier.
The fit of the shoe maintains what Hoka did with the Speedgoat 2, a wider toe-box, but a snug, yet not constricting fit around the midfoot and heel. It provides a great platform for landing on the forefoot when racing friends down the trail.
Megagrip. ‘Nuff said
When you run in a shoe a lot, you learn how to work with the shoe to run most efficiently in all sorts of terrain or conditions. The one thing I hadn’t yet found a shoe that excelled in was wet, rocky runs, but the Speedgoat 3 easily tackled both. Usually a shoe has great lugs to bite into mud, or it has a really sticky outsole to grip on big slabs of rock. Since I’m used to sliding a bit in wet conditions on the rocks, this shoe really impressed. During a particularly wet set of hill repeats one weekend, fellow testers and myself agreed that compared to our other trail runners, the Megagrip outsole offered almost too much grip. The 5mm lugs dug into every step across gravel, mud, and grass, and the sticky rubber brought each step to a screeching halt on a section of service road that's so steep it had to be paved for rangers to drive up. Yet another tester confirmed our thoughts, “I feel like a tree frog on the road crossings with how sticky the sole feels.”
Choose the Adrenaline GTS 24 as Your Everyday Shoe
One of the things Hoka has really done well recently is lightening up its fleet. It used to be that when I threw on a puffy pair of Hokas, I felt slow. Even though my legs weren’t tired and the numbers on my watch weren’t slower, the runs felt like more of a slog than normal. The Speedgoat 3 keeps things on the lighter side for Hoka, even though it’s not their lightest trail shoe. While the shoe doesn’t contain a rock plate, the stack height of the midsole EVA foam provides protection on the trail absorbing rocks, roots, and impact. Testers liked the extra cushion when flying down the steeper trails, and appreciated that the cushioning didn’t come at a huge cost. One tester noted, “just looking at it, you would expect the shoe to be a solid 3-4 ounces heavier.”
Do it all
When I want to go long and fast on the trails, I usually reach for something snug and low-profile, like the The Hoka One One Speedgoat 3 Tackles Any Trail. I usually save lighter shoes for the short-distance speed-fests, while heavier cushioned shoes are reserved for exploring and giving my legs a much-overdue break. The Speedgoat brings a little bit of everything to the party, and instead of putting a few miles on a couple different pairs of shoes in the rotation, these have been living in my gear bag in place of my typical trail shoes during this warm and wet winter since I got them.
All the Stats You Need!
Men’s
- Weight: Moderate | 10.0 oz.
- Races - Places
- Demo Run First Impression: On Cloudrunner 2
- Heel Cushioning: Very Soft
- Heel-To-Toe-Drop: Very Low | 4.2 mm
- Health - Injuries
- Heel Cushioning: Very Soft
- Stability Features: Moderate
- Energy Return: Less
Women’s
- The Best Advanced Treadmills for Runners.
- Heel-To-Toe-Drop: Very Low | 4.9 mm
- Type: Trail running
- Heel Cushioning: Very Soft
- Heel-To-Toe-Drop: Very Low | 4.9 mm
- Health - Injuries
- Heel Cushioning: Very Soft
- Stability Features: Moderate
- Energy Return: Less
We put each shoe through real-world usage and a battery of mechanical tests in our lab to provide you with objective—and exclusive—data. In addition to measuring a shoe’s weight, we measure sole thickness (everything that sits between your foot and the road), how well the foam cushions your stride, and the flexibility of the forefoot. All this is taken into account in our reviews of each shoe.
