This is the the world’s most popular running shoe
Nike shoes are incredibly popular, but you might not guess which one is top dog
Racing shoes worn by elites like Eliud Kipchoge tend to suck up a lot of the oxygen in the room, but aren’t the most commonly-worn by actual runners.
Sailing past the Nike Vaporfly 3, the Asics Metaspeed Edge Paris and Saucony Endorphin Pro 4, the relatively humble Nike Pegasus is the most popular running shoe series of the year according to Strava's Year of Gear survey.
The Pegasus is a running institution at this point, having been around since 1983. Today’s Nike Pegasus 41 remains a reliable workhorse shoe that, unlike some super shoes, can be used for hundreds of kilometres of running before the foam starts to bottom out.
Strava hasn’t specified which generation of Pegasus we’re talking about here, suggesting the various generations still out there pounding pavements are collated.
In at the number two spot we have the Hoka Clifton, a trendy and highly cushioned shoe with a slight rocker design for a faster feel. The third spot went to the Asics Gel-Nimbus, a long-standing daily trainer family.
A handful of other interesting stats came from the Year in Gear Strava survey too.
44% of all marathons were run in carbon-plated shoes, which are generally the most expensive (and performant) pairs.
And while we played down the importance of super shoes earlier, the almighty Nike Vaporfly dominated Strava’s stats for race events, from 5K to the half marathon. The more cushioned Alphafly pipped that pair for the marathon distance, though.
Some caveats apply here. Strava can only get shoe stats for folks who bother to log their kit, skewing the figures towards those who are more actively into running, and likely towards pairs that cost more.
The Nike Pegasus 41 may be affordable compared to a part of Alphaflys, but they don’t come cheap — £130 before discounts.
There are stats for wearables too, if not ones that will surprise too many gear-heads out there. The Apple Watch was the most popular tracker at the 5k distance, switching to the Garmin Forerunner series for longer distances.
Run club participation is up by 59% according to Strava, and group activities in general are up 13% from last year. Is the run club replacing the pub? Around our way half of the casual run clubs start and finish in a bar anyway, suggesting some boozers may actually benefit from these more health-conscious hobbies.
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