Gear Review: Saucony Kinvara 3

Originally written in 2012

2012 Kinvara 3

This is a great shoe. I feel like this is the love child of my Pure Cadence & MV2's. My Pure Cadence were approaching the replace point and I thought I was going to go buy another pair. My brother had mentioned his love for the Kinvara line a few times and I recently fell in love with the Saucony Xodus trail shoe. So I decided to do a comparison at the local Road Runner Sports Store between the Brooks & the Saucony's. It was close but the Kinvara is just a touch better and I don't know what it is that makes the difference. The Kinvara is a 4 mm drop shoe that connects to the road as well if not better than any of the other shoes I've tried. Its definitely a light weight shoe at 7.7oz. The upper doesn't have the traditional sewn in overlays strategically placed to pull the shoe into your foot. Instead it has a "Flexfilm" that can be described as a plastic, filmy sort of nylonish material that locks the shoe upper onto your foot. This is a really great shoe at one of the lowest price points ($100) for a shoe of this quality. I ran hundreds of training miles in this shoe and even used in the Napa Valley Marathon in early 2013 where I set my PR. This shoe is not to be missed. I really feel confident in telling you to go out and try this shoe. Buy it at a store where they have a good return policy so you feel safe in making the purchase and then go do 3 or 4 days in the shoe and I am certain you will love it. You will not return it and you will come back to this post and leave a comment telling me I was not full of hype but rather spot on with my analysis that this is as close to a perfect shoe as any could be.