How we review and rank shoes

Which shoes we cover

Every current adult performance running shoe, road and trail, from 13 major brands. Each month we check every brand's range: new releases are added, and discontinued shoes are removed. Lifestyle, walking and kids' shoes, waterproof duplicates and limited editions are left out.

Specs

Weights are for a men's US 9 / UK 8.5, so every shoe is measured the same way. We check at least two sources: the brand's spec page when it states the size, RunRepeat's lab weight and Running Warehouse. If they disagree by more than 5%, we use the lab weight. Drop and heel stack are the brand's published figures. Each shoe's sources are recorded, and anything unusual is re-checked every month.

Review scores

A shoe's review score is the average of its published scores from RunRepeat (out of 100) and Road Trail Run (the average of its testers' scores, out of 10). Because some sites score more generously than others, each site's scores are first adjusted so its average matches the average across all sites. When ranking, a shoe with only one published score is pulled towards the overall average, so two agreeing reviews count for more than one glowing one. Each shoe page links to the reviews behind its score.

What the critics say

The likes and gripes on each shoe page are short paraphrases of points that several published reviews agree on, in our own words, with links to the reviews.

Comparisons and guides

Guides list every current shoe that fits, ranked by review score, so they never go stale. Comparison pages are written by our team from the same data and reviews; the specs, scores and prices on them update automatically.

Prices and money

Prices are the brands' recommended retail prices, and shop links show today's prices where we have them. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects rankings, which come only from published review scores. How we make money.