NorthernRunner.com Blog

The Karhu Fusion is a neutral shoe designed for everyday training. They are well cushioned and durable. Exactly what you would expect from a brand that has been making running shoes for over 100 years and who’s shoes have been worn by the world-dominating Finns of yester year. Karhu has become one of our most popular brands in store where customers can test run their shoes on the corridor at the back of the shop. Karhu’s have a straight big toe line so that you can push off from the... Read More

The Brooks Ghost Max is designed to be an everyday neutral training shoe. This is the running shoe that you use for the bulk of your mileage. This covers your easy runs; recovery runs and long runs. Going on the name you would assume that the Ghost Max was a Brooks Ghost 15 with a higher stack height. It is a very different shoe to the Ghost 15. The Ghost Max midsole is made from DNA Loft v2, which is the same material that is used to make the Ghost... Read More

The Topo Athletic Phantom 3 is Topo Athletic’s everyday neutral training shoe. It is versatile enough to be used for everything from those easy morning recovery miles, your first few miles as a new runner, through to Sunday’s long run. That even includes some faster running. If you just want one shoe for all of your road running then the Topo Phantom 3 would be well worth considering. If you need a bit of pronation support then we would suggest considering the Topo Athletic Ultrafly 3, which has similar features... Read More

We review the latest edition to the Scarpa trail running shoe line up, specifically designed for UK conditions, the Scarpa Spin ST. “Designed for UK conditions” means they are a shoe designed to give good traction on wet and muddy ground and flexible enough to take the curvature of the ground beneath you, to maintain traction even when contouring. Often this type of shoe is labelled as a ‘fell running shoe’, but as we are lucky enough to have lots of public footpaths that give us access to many open... Read More

Shortly after a much-anticipated launch, we’ve finished up our Altra FWD Experience review. Altra came into the running shoe market around thirteen years ago with an ethos to fix the wrongs of the running shoes that were on the market at that time. Altra running shoes are designed to let your feet function as nature intended, giving them the space to do so. All styles including the Altra FWD Experience have a broader, rounded toe box (three varieties) and up until now had previously all been 0mm from heel to... Read More

Hoka is renowned for making shoes that offer very soft, thick midsoles in combination with a rocker to help improve your running economy. Their shoes have been so successful that a lot of brands are now following by making shoes of this type. However, Hoka have recognised that a high stack height shoe with a soft midsole isn’t the best combination for every type of running, and they do make some shoes that are more flexible with a firmer more responsive midsole. The Hoka Zinal 2 is one of those... Read More

The Clifton 9 is Hoka’s most popular neutral, cushioned running shoe and has been part of Hoka’s road running range for over 14 years. Northern Runner has already reviewed the Hoka Clifton 9 with the ‘standard’ mesh upper here. The Hoka Clifton 9 GTX is in effect the same shoe with a waterproof upper. However, having run in the Clifton 9 GTX for a few hundred miles now I have found that they are a bit different and decided that the Hoka Clifton 9 GTX warrant’s its own review, to... Read More