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The Best Men’s Running Shoes, From Carbon-Plated Rockets to Everyday Workhorses

The foam arms race is just getting started. Here’s what to lace up when the weather finally cooperates.

Somewhere around 2020, the running shoe industry decided that the laws of physics were merely suggestions. Nike stuffed a carbon plate—a rigid sliver of fiber that acts like a springboard with every stride—into a foam sandwich and broke the two-hour marathon. Adidas responded with its own supercritical foam. Hoka made maximalism mainstream. And then everybody—Saucony, Asics, New Balance, brands making perfectly competent shoes for decades—entered a materials arms race involving nitrogen-injected cushioning, wind-tunnel-tested uppers and foam compounds with energy return percentages cited like batting averages.

The premium foams that lived exclusively in elite racers two years ago now sit in everyday trainers. Carbon plates have migrated from marathon flats into daily shoes your podiatrist would approve of. A-TPU—a newer, more durable cousin of the PEBA foam that powered the original super shoe revolution—just won a major marathon for Asics and is threatening to redraw the entire midsole hierarchy. Meanwhile, brands you associate with yoga studios and Parisian concept stores are building legitimate running shoes, because the global run-club boom turned the category into the new streetwear.

The practical result: a man shopping for running shoes this spring faces more credible options across more categories than at any point in the sport's history. We’ve narrowed it to 15 pairs covering the full spectrum—daily workhorses, race-day weapons and a few beautiful outliers that exist because someone in a design studio refused to make another boring shoe. Your feet have never had it this good.

The Best Men's Running Shoes

Tracksmith Eliot NDO Ryder

Saucony Endorphin Azura

Adidas Adizero EVO SL

Reebok FloatZig Double

Saucony Endorphin Pro 5

Salomon S/Lab Phantasm 3

Alo came from yoga studios and now makes a running shoe with 70 percent recycled materials and........

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