Skora Fit Review

SKORA FIT (Men's) Review

Being relatively new to running (started in 2009), I noticed that lowering stack height, lowering heel-height, and increasing ground feel added up to injury free running.  I took that to the extreme and ran barefoot, wafer thin sandals, Vibram five fingers, etc.  After dialing in my form, and increasing running economy, I added a little more foot protection to increase my speed and run more confidently on technical trails.  The SKORA FITs are just thick enough to protect my soles from the fist sized rocks scattered on the trails I run.   

My favorite feature is the upper material.  If you focus in on the material, it reminds me of a sweatshirt material with the addition of rubber dots all over.  (Protip: these rubber dots are VERY helpful on rope climbs in a Crossfit WOD). 

The build quality of these shoes is 'top-drawer, the seam between sole and upper appears bulletproof.  

The flexibility of the sole is pretty uniform the mid foot and forefoot give equally.  I always recommend matching the flexible points of a shoe to the hinge points of your foot.  This is easy to do in the FITs.  

They look good in casual dress as well ;).  Wear your flexible shoes around to grow your foot muscles especially if you're transitioning from overly supportive footwear.  

Road and Trails

A growing contingent of minimalistic runners (me included) are not too concerned with 'knobby tread' to have trail-performance.  

I can refer you to millions of years of human trail-running performance that occurred in bare feet, or moccasins.  

For a trail race in the mud, or sheets of ice I will use Katoolas or Yaktraxs.  For a training runs, or exploring, the tread on any SKORA shoes are sufficient if your form is sound.  

So far my FITs only have 200 miles on them, but that includes >40,000 of elevation gain.  The elasticity of the uppers keep my feet from sliding around in the shoes during steep downhills or sharp cornering.  They allow my feet to splay upon foot landing.  There is enough ground-feel to give me the necessary proprioception to shift weight appropriately. 

Summary

Pros

• Durable and sticky soles
• Comfortably elastic uppers 
• High quality materials and construction
• Sufficient ground feel with 'padding' for foot protection

Cons

• Minimalist runners will think the stack height is too high - I will slip on thinner shoes to make sure certain foot muscles don't atrophy 
• I wish the heel-cup fit the heel more snuggly
• Won't make it into my business casual wardrobe I wear at work

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I will keep these shoes in my rotation and I can tell they will last for >1,000miles but they may make my feet lazy.  They are great for Crossfit work outs, road running and trail running.  I would recommend this shoe to 

• Minimalist runners that are ramping up their mileage, add a thicker shoe to their rotation
• More supportive shoe wearers looking to transition to zero-drop/thinner shoes
• Crossfit athletes

For making it through this review.... 20% off by using discount code: skorarunning.com/user/paleorunners