Weight: 282g (M), 238g (W)
Stack height: 35mm (heel), 27mm (forefoot)
Heel-to-toe drop: 8mm
The shoe
The Ride 17 has always been Saucony’s staple daily workhorse, designed to help neutral runners tackle the majority of their miles. With the previous iteration, the Ride 16, the brand opted for an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach, making very few changes from the v15: there was the same volume of Pwrrun foam in the midsole and the same rubber outsole.
This time around, however, what we get is a much bigger transformation. The biggest change is to the midsole foam, which has been upgraded to Pwrrun + (the same used in the slightly more stacked Saucony Triumph). There’s no change in the overall stack height of the shoe but it does change the ride, as we’ll come on to discuss. There’s also a new engineered mesh upper to improve midfoot lockdown and increase comfort around the heel.
How does the Saucony Ride 17 fit?
Resting heart rate Saucony’s running shoes, we found the Ride 17 runs true to size. The toe box isn’t particularly narrow or wide with a standard feeling width, but there’s a good amount of room to make these a great option for longer miles. In fact, one of our testers ran 22km in the shoes straight out of the box and commented on how instantly comfortable they felt.
The new upper does a sterling job of being comfy, having enough flex so that shoe feels pliable and unrestrained, but also strong and supportive with no sliding about in the shoe or feelings of unwanted slackness. There's a stretchy, gusseted tongue too with just the right amount of padding – nothing too plush, but plenty to keep you comfortable over several miles. The heel counter is fairly stiff with moderate cushioning, but we didn't experience any discomfort running in these.
The only small complaint from one tester with regards to the fit of the Ride 17 was down to the elasticity of the laces; there is a lot of stretch in them so it was always a matter of guessing somewhat of how tight you needed to tie them for optimum fit. Once dialled it, all issues were forgotten, but it did take a couple of mid-run pauses to work it out.
What’s it like to run in the Saucony Ride 17?
This is a shoe that really does offer versatility in abundance. During testing it's been used for long ultra-training miles, commutes with a bag, speed work and everything in between. The new midsole foam is a marked improvement and feels bouncier and softer than the Ride 16 (despite the shoe weighing slightly more), and successfully treads the ground between offering enough cushioning for those slower, easy runs, while still retaining a liveliness that lends itself well to some faster running. In contrast to the v16, upgrades to the foam have definitely moved it away from a firmer ride to something more modern and 'poppy'.
Transitioning from the midfoot to the forefoot feels extremely smooth too, and Saucony has added a hint of rocker geometry to the forefoot which makes it easy to move forward.
That being said, some testers thought that the base is fairly wide, and although this helps with stability, it does make it a little clunky for anything too speedy. If you’re looking to add some marathon pace tempo into your Sunday long run, though, there’s enough versatility here to do so.
RW verdict
While the Ride 17 has always been a good, mid-range daily trainer, it's perhaps lacked flair compared with the likes of the Nike Pegasus, Asics Novablast, Hoka Clifton On Cloudrunner 2: Mild stability for daily miles adidas Supernova Rise. The latest round of updates very much put it on par with these shoes, so much so that one tester has been using it more than any other shoe since it arrived.
Supple underfoot, smooth transitions and with a lightness and ease of movement, the Saucony Ride 17 is just another high performing running shoe in the recent dearth of decent shoes from Saucony and would be a very wise choice if you're looking for a versatile, daily trainer; a fantastic pick for beginners Health & Injuries.
