There I got running in the Puma Mobium Swiftstrike’s out of my system.
Back in 2014 I volunteered to be a Puma wear-tester, but my foot size is too small to be one and will never have an opportunity to be one, which frustrated me and sort of jaded me against wearing/trying Puma for a long time. However, I had some good experiences back in the day with Puma’s and have always been intrigued by their Mobium line of running shoes.
I really wanted to see how they did with a pair that actually fit me and they were an early Christmas gift from my daughter.
Not a bad shoe.
The short answer is that I mostly like Mobium Swiftstrike, they are comfortable and I run decently in them. One thing, actually the only thing I don’t like about them is they were slappy from the first run on.
However, I liked enough about the rest of the shoe to keep running in the Swiftstrike and attempted to overlook or not pay too much attention to the two-stage landing slap that they do have for me. I thought they might break in with some more miles.
Yesterday when I was running with the wife (who, without prompting) told me that my shoes were slapping the ground every time I landed. Yes, she actually used the word slapping, she used the one word that I know what it means for me as a runner.
- That I am not running as efficiently as I should be and that the shoe’s heel-to-toe transition isn’t quite right for me.
Let’s get to the review.
I have run up to 7+ miles, in snowstorms, aftermath of sleet, freezing rain, treadmill and clear pavement. So in other words pretty much everything that I can throw at them. There have been three constants for the Swiftstrike’s:
- are comfortable to run in
- surprise me with the paces I maintain without trying
- slap like a son of a gun
The first two are the signs of a very good running shoe for me, but the last one makes for noisy and a less than smooth heel-to-toe transition. Which I tend attribute to the way the Swiftstrikes are designed, more than any particular flaw with the shoes.
Upper
I love the bright colorway and simplicity of the upper, it has enough support that I don’t fall over the edge of the sole when making tight turns, but at the same time doesn’t bother my Tailor’s Bunionette.
The upper on the Puma Mobium Swiftstrikes compares very favorably with the Pearl Izumi uppers, which I consider to be some of the best, if not the best uppers I have ever run in.
Sole
The Mobiums are designed differently than other shoes with that X-Band in the middle of the shoe to return some energy during toe-off. Based on the paces that I maintain without pushing, it seems to work pretty well for me, but who really knows?
The outsole will last for a long, long time – just some very minor signs of wear on the bottom of the shoes after 50 miles. However, it did have a tendency to pickup pebbles and stuff from down-back or now that they have sanded the roads in the grooves. It definitely is not a winter tread, but I was able to finish a 3.0 miler in a snowstorm in them without butt planting, so it grips better than I would have expected.
Ride
Yeah, the Puma Mobium Swiftstrikes slap when I land, unless I purposely change how I naturally run. They are a lot like the Mizuno Rider 16’s I had or a couple of pair of ASICS, which did about the same thing. The other thing is that the Swiftstrikes also have a lot of rubber in the forefoot, which contributes to a shoe slapping for me.
So the slapping is not something unusual for me in certain running shoes, but it is still not a good thing to be hearing on every stride that I take.
I really think that the 2-stage landing (land on the heel, then slap down to the forefoot) is more of a design thing with the Mobium line and the amount of rubber in the outsole – for me it doesn’t work well.
Otherwise the Swiftstrike’s are all day comfortable and work great for walking and work.
Going Forward
Unfortunately, the Puma Mobium Swiftstrike’s are probably not the answer for the way that I run.
I think that after Christmas I will have other choices that might be better suited for me. Bennie has told me he thought I was a good boy and that he wants to make sure I am a happy runner, so that he will keep getting out there to pull the old anchor around.
So the plan is that I will retire my current walking shoes to Goodwill and the Swiftstrikes will take over those duties.
I had high expectations for these shoes and even though they are more 2014/15 models than a current shoe, the technology that Puma developed for their Mobium line still intrigues me. If there was a way for them to make the heel-to-forefoot transition smoother, I could see me putting a lot of miles on them.
Who knows, if other shoes that are in the pipeline don’t work out, I can see the Swiftstrikes coming back and getting more time on my feet. I can run in them, but…damn the slappiness.
However, they impressed me enough that I want to run in some of Puma’s other offerings. I like the uppers and if the fit is similar to the Swiftstrikes…well we will see.
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