For the trail shoe survey, I received a total of 491 shoe nominations from over 250 individuals (some individuals only voted for one or two shoes rather than three). I removed any votes where a brand was entered without a specific shoe model (there were a lot of these), and have also eliminated any duplicate votes by the same person.

Before I present the results, I will say again that these are intended to show preferences among readers of this blog. I tend to review shoes on the more minimal end of the spectrum (mostly racing flats and lightweight, moderately cushioned trainers), so there is clearly a bias present. I make no claim that this survey represents broader shoe preferences among runners.

Let’s start with the the share of votes by brand:

Unlike the road shoe survey, where Saucony ran away with first place, the brand shares are more level for the trail shoe survey. Altra takes over first place from Merrell with a 12% share, and Inov-8 jumps from #3 to #2 with 10% share. Nike makes the biggest leap from 2% to 9% share, largely due to the popularity of two models (see below). New Balance dropped out of the top 3, likely due to the fact that version 2 of the MT110 model was not as big a hit as version 1. I was a bit surprised that Hoka did not come out higher given their popularity among the ultrarunners.

Now for individual shoe results. Below are the top 20 trail shoe models (22 actually due to ties) with number of votes. For this list I pooled shoe versions and ranked them by model since there were fewer total votes compared to the road shoe survey. If you’re curious to see the raw list of shoe votes, you can view it in a Google Spreadsheet here.

You can click on the shoe names in the table below to view a review of the most recent version of that shoe (where available).

Rank	Running Shoe	# Votes
#1	Nike Terra Kiger	25 votes
#2	Altra Lone Peak	24 votes
#3	Altra Superior	19 votes
#4 (tie)	Nike Wildhorse	18 votes
#4 (tie)	Saucony Peregrine	18 votes
#6 (tie)	Brooks Cascadia	16 votes
#6 (tie)	Inov-8 Trailroc 245	16 votes
#6 (tie)	Pearl Izumi Trail N1	16 votes
#6 (tie)	Skechers GoRun Ultra	16 votes
#10 (tie)	Brooks PureGrit	15 votes
#10 (tie)	Salomon Sense Ultra	15 votes
#12	Pearl Izumi Trail N2	13 votes
#13 (tie)	Altra Olympus	12 votes
#13 (tie)	Merrell Bare Access Trail	12 votes
#15 (tie)	Merrell Trail Glove	11 votes
#15 (tie)	Salomon Sense Pro	11 votes
#17 (tie)	Hoka Stinson	9 votes
#17 (tie)	New Balance MT110	9 votes
#19 (tie)	Hoka Huaka	8 votes
#19 (tie)	Inov-8 Trailroc 235	8 votes
#19 (tie)	Inov-8 X-Talon 212	8 votes
#19 (tie)	New Balance Fresh Foam 980 Trail	8 votes

A few observations on these results:

1. Kind of surprising to see Nike at the top of a trail shoe survey! Or maybe not – I’ve been hearing raves about the Nike Terra Kiger and Wildhorse for the past year+, and both are in the top 5 here. I don’t run a lot of trail miles myself, but I couldn’t resist giving one of these a try, so I bought the Wildhorse II a few weeks ago. I’ve been running in them on snow and they live up to the hype – super comfortable shoe, solid traction, great cushioning, and they look great.

2. Altra continues to perform well here with two models in the top 5. The Lone Peak was the top trail shoe in last year’s survey, and the Superior jumps 7 spots to number 3.

3. I expected to see more Hoka models here, especially since the Hoka Clifton appeared in the top three of my road shoe survey. For trail, we only have the Stinson at #17 and the Huaka at # 19. This could be a reflection of the bias of this survey toward more minimal models, but we do also see the maximally cushioned Altra Olympus and Skechers GoRun Ultra both ranking here above the two Hoka models.

4. Merrell was the top trail shoe brand by vote share last year, but they drop a few ranks this year. The Trail Glove still shows up here, one of the few truly minimal models left, and the Bare Access Trail did well. However, none of the new AllOut line are represented – in fact, there were very few votes for any shoe in this collection. The Mix Master and Ascend Glove, both of which were top 10 last year are both gone.

5. The New Balance MT110 has a strong fan base, and most votes specified the old version 1 rather than the update. The latter seems to have suffered from a poor last change and does not appear to have the following of the original.

6. Inov-8 does trail well, and the Trailroc line continues to be popular in this survey. The luggy X-Talon 212 is the only shoe here that might be suitable for mud.

That’s all I have to say, would love to hear any comments you have on these results!

For the road shoe survey, I received a total of 1,231 shoe nominations (some individuals only voted for one or two shoes rather than three). I removed any votes where a brand was entered without a specific shoe model, and have also eliminated any duplicate votes by the same person.

Before I present the results, I will say that these are intended to show preferences among readers of this blog. I tend to review shoes on the more minimal end of the spectrum (mostly racing flats and lightweight, moderately cushioned trainers), so there is clearly a bias present. I make no claim that this survey represents broader shoe preferences among runners (it doesn’t).

Let’s start with the the share of votes by brand:

For the second year in a row Saucony earns the top brand share by a wide margin. Skechers moves up from #3 to #2, and Altra jumps from #6 to #3 in my rankings. Merrell takes the biggest fall, going from 8% share of votes in 2013 to only 3% in 2014. Once again I’m not surprised that Saucony comes out #1, but I am surprised by the size of the margin (much of which is due to the popularity of the Saucony Kinvara, see below).

Now for individual shoe results. Below are the top 20 shoe models with number of votes. For this list I chose to include only the most recent model that was on the market for most of 2014. The reason for this approach is that I got a lot of votes that specified either earlier models, or did not specify a model number at all. The latter could indicate either the current model or the original. For example, I received 26 votes for Saucony Virrata, and 13 for the Virrata 2. In this case the list reflects only the Virrata 2 votes. If you’re curious to see the raw list of shoe votes, you can view it in a Google Spreadsheet here.

You can click on the shoe images in the table below to view a review of that shoe (where available).

Rank	Running Shoe	# Votes
#1	Saucony Kinvara 5	69 votes
#2	HOKA Clifton	43 votes
#3	Altra The One2	42 votes
#4	Skechers GoRun 3	26 votes
#5	adidas Adios Boost 2	22 votes
#6 (tie)	New Balance 1400	21 votes
#6 (tie)	Nike Free 4.0 Flyknit	21 votes
#6 (tie)	Saucony Grid Type A6	21 votes
#9 (tie)	adidas Boston Boost	20 votes
#9 (tie)	Nike Pegasus 31	20 votes
#11	Mizuno Hitogami	18 votes
#12	Pearl Izumi EM Road N1	17 votes
#13	Brooks PureFlow 3	16 votes
#14 (tie)	Asics Hyper Speed 6	15 votes
#14 (tie)	Skechers GoRun Ride 3	15 votes
#16	Saucony Ride 7	14 votes
#17	Saucony Virrata 2	13 votes
#18	Hoka Huaka	12 votes
#19 (tie)	Altra Paradigm	11 votes
#19 (tie)	Skechers GoMeb Speed 2	11 votes

A few observations on these results:

1. The Saucony Kinvara alone (all versions combined) received more votes than any other brand (all shoe models combined), and this is a reflection of the popularity of this shoe among readers of this blog. It continues to be a great all-around shoe, and one of the first that I recommend to people looking to go lighter or lower drop.

2. The popularity of more heavily cushioned shoes is apparent here compared with last year as Hoka grabs the #2 spot with the Clifton and the #18 spot with the Huaka. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Clifton, but it’s clear that it’s a popular shoe. The maximally cushioned Altra Paradigm also grabs a spot at #19.

3. Skechers continues to do well with three models in the top 20 (none of which I reviewed myself). Though they still are battling their reputation, they’re making some great shoes. The most recent iterations of the GoRun, GoRun Ride, and GoMeb Speed are the best yet.

4. adidas is doing good things with their Boost midsole material. Both the adios Boost and the Boston Boost have gotten rave reviews from shoe geeks. I have not tried the Boston Boost myself, but the consistently positive feedback I’m hearing has me tempted. At the least, I’ll likely try v2 if/when it comes out.

5. No real ultraminimal shoes here. This is probably a combo of the declining popularity of barefoot-style shoes, as well as a reflection that I and readers of this blog tend to gravitate toward lighter shoes that retain some amount of cushion (with drops anywhere from 0 to 10mm).

6. The popularity of the Saucony Virrata here is a good indicator of the bias of this survey – the shoe is popular among my readers but has been discontinued by Saucony, presumably due to poor sales. I’ve also heard that the Hoka Huaka was almost cut from the Hoka line as well. That’s a shame as I liked it a lot more than the Clifton.

That’s all I have to say, would love to hear any comments you have on these results!

All you need to do to participate is fill out one or both of the forms below – one for road shoes, the other for trail. No need to rank them in any particular order, I’m just going to tally the votes by total number rather than weighting them by ranking. One set of votes per person for each category please!

I’ll leave these up for a week or two and then post the results in early January. Have fun!

All you need to do is fill out one or both of the forms below – one for road shoes, the other for trail. No need to rank them in any particular order, I’m just going to tally the votes by total number rather than weighting them by ranking.

Have fun!

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED – LOOK FOR RESULTS ON THE WEEK OF 1/6/2014