Hoka One One Stinson ATR Review

Hoka One One Stinson ATR Review

Intro

The lovely people at www.ultramarathonrunningstore.com asked me to review the latest pair of Hoka Stinson ATR. you can grab a pair from here or have a look at the rest of the range here

First of all this is my own personal point of view, I dont deny that I am a Hoka convert so 'possibly' slightly biased. For that reason I tried to focus a chunk of the review on the differences between my previous pair of Hokas which are the Stinson Trail and these pair of Hoka Stinson ATR. I also run in Salomon Speedcross3 and Skechers Trail.

Normally I wear a size 8UK and this is the size I have been using on my old Stinson Trail shoes. On steep descents I would often find my toe bashing at the front of the shoe, so much so that I have now lost my big toe nail, I am not sure if this is a common issue with the shoe. With this in mind I decided to go a half size bigger, as I will reveal later I am not sure this was the best decision.

Initial thoughts

Introducing the Stinson ATR:

When I first opened the box and looked at the shoe the most noticeable difference for me was the reinforced rear plastic material and the overall tougher feel to the upper of the shoe. My initial reaction was "Where can I find some mud!".

Comparison pics:

Similar cushioning - or slightly more?

The same tread

The fit

I roamed around the house just getting a feel for the shoe, there was not that instant slipper like feel with these and I believe this is due to the upper material change (which is sad) but overall definitely for the better. Running in the previous version in overgrown areas there was always a fear in the back of my mind that I would rip the upper material when it caught on some thorns etc (it was that thin and light!) this never happened but possibly slowed me down subconsciously being more careful with foot placement. I found it strangely easy get thorns and bits of stick stabbing into the upper material.
Not with these bad boys, I could tell they had a solid trail running feel to them that would survive much hardier terrain.

Going up that half size gave me ample room especially in the toe area, I have wide feet and struggle to fit into shoes like Salomon.

It was difficult to tell how the ride would feel just jogging on the spot in the kitchen......time for a run!

Actually running

For the first run out I decided to give it a good blast in the hills, nothing too technical but plenty of varying terrain. I had my next challenge in 2 weeks time www.ringofire.co.uk which is a 135mile multi-day ultra marathon (report can be read here soon) so I needed to get some good miles in I know you shouldn't with a new pair of running shoes but these are Hokas! No rules

Shiny!

Typical terrain

Typical terrain 2

Not so shiny anymore

The shoe turned out to be a much more solid shoe giving me the feeling that they would withstand harsher technical terrain than its predecessor and will be a joy to use in the coming winter months.

Racing down steep hills gave me no toe bashing at all which felt amazing. Even if I had gone with my normal shoe size I don't think I would suffer this problem, they have fixed my only gripe with the Stinson Trail yay!

The overall ride felt a little higher but again this might be due to the fact that my older pair have seen around 700miles of use. I also suffer with weak ankles and often go over on them in all types of shoes and on most runs (really annoying!) I only had one roll in these over the full 20miles.

Going over rocky/lumpy surfaces in the previous shoe would lead to the shoe almost twisting around my foot, again because of the change to the upper they gave much more stability.

Conclusion

So far I have run the 20mile training run and I also completed day 1 (35miles) of the RingOFire using the Hoka Stinson ATR. I can honestly say that they are just as comfy on the very long runs, my feet felt just fine with no sign of blistering or heating with the added bonus of feeling more confident over the trickier terrain.

Pros:

• Better protection
• More stability
• Looks are improving
• No toe bashing!
• Seamless upper

Cons:

• Loss of that slipper like feeling
• Not ideal for extremely technical terrain

These will be getting a lot of use over the winter!