I have really mixed feelings about the Puma Mobium Elite.
If you're reading this review, then you're probably a little like me, wondering if there's any truth to this supposedly entirely new sneaker technology built around a basic premise: Your foot changes shape roughly 6%, so your sneaker should too. The unique x-shaped band running in a groove along the outer sole supposedly pulls the sneaker back into an arched shape after allowing a flattening of the arch during impact to help change with the changes of your foot and also spring back to help give back energy for your stride.
Having just recently received these, i have been out on 4 runs at 8 miles each, and have reached some conclusions.
Like I said at the start, i have mixed feelings about this sneaker. Here's the short of what i found:
Run pace is consistently faster on all 4 runs
There's a tiny cost: a touch of leg pain in new places
Really strange parts of my foot got small blisters
It changes my stride
it works, it's fun, but takes a little getting used to
The band underneath could be tighter
Outsole feels great. Upper and insole doesn't feel as great
Awesome materials in the upper, not sure how well everything is put together.
Here's the long version.
SHAPE:
First, the shape of the sneaker. It definitely is shaped like an arched foot, and not a regular sneaker where the outsole runs flat across but the insole has an arch bump, or with an outsole that has a raised heel like traditional high drop sneakers. The shoe literally has a distinct high arch on the outside that is equally reflected inside.
The upper is a gorgeous material and the laces seem like a high tech material too. The tongue is strange though. It's uber thin (Teijin microfiber, maybe?) with a funny plasticky/silicone like badge where the tongue shows through the laces. The tongue also seems stitched onto the ceiling of the upper in a simplistic way that rubs a little during a run. Not enough to cause any skin irritation but certainly noticeable in the early miles.
The sneaker is harder to put on because the whole shoe wraps around the foot in the shape of the foot. They are especially form fitting around the sides of the heel and the arch. The closest thing to the fit of these would that I've tried is the Merrel Sonic Glove. Not even the Vivobarefoot Breathos or Evo IIs or Vibram Five fingers wrap this snugly. The Mobiums do seem to run just a touch long in the heel for me though. I find that despite the snug feel around the midfoot and on either side of the heel, the rear of the heel doesn't quite hug the back of my heel, causing some movement early on, though surprisingly that movement stopped once i was running for a while. Stiffness in the forefoot flexibility might have been partially to blame.
The toebox seems less roomy than other sneakers I've purchased lately, but still plenty roomy for toes to splay and move reasonably and never feel tight or constricting during a run.
The outer edge of the lateral plantar branches (e.g. on the left foot, that would be the whole outer or left edge of the fore foot from behind the toes to just behind the middle of the foot) does feel unusually snug though, and also seems the least flexible and shock absorbing, causing some really unusual pain for me compared to just about every other shoe I've ever worn.
On the inside, there are some strange bumps or stitching that caused some rubbing in weird ways. This manifested in small blisters on my big toe and the inward facing part of the big toe mound. I don't usually get blisters in these areas, so there's something going on there.
The shoe is a 19mm heel with a 4-6mm drop (guesstimating here) What makes this especially hard to tell is that rather than start high and gradually decline, the raised arch makes the sense of the drop seem difficult to really feel.
RUN:
The four runs were really telling. I had all kinds of good things and bad things happen during the run that I can't really give an overall score that would reflect how I felt about the shoe. What's more, the first and fourth runs were roughly the same, telling me that my conclusions were really consistent and not a one off result from the excitement of wearing new shoes.
First off, these sneakers seem to run a touch small, so get a half size up if you can, or try them out. I think it should be a fairly tight, snug fit, as the material does stretch a just a little bit over the first few runs. Could be wrong here, so probably better if you ask an expert at a shoe store.
The shoe is snug, no question, and is hard to put on.
At first, walking around, the simplistic way the tongue is sewn onto the ceiling of the upper seems to dig in, but I worried for naught. The feeling went away about a mile into the run, and never came back, caused no skin irritation at all.
Next is the strange differences in areas of pressure. The lateral plantar branches definitely felt pressure and became sore over the course of the run. I think this is because the dramatic movement of the arch offers a lot of run assistance, shock absorption, and energy return, but the lateral plantar side has no such springy motion, so takes the brunt of the force. I could be wrong, but if I was, I should have similar problems in other shoes, so i think I'm right here. The lateral plantar side feels a little like doing a hard mid-foot stride run in minimalist sneakers.
Next up, the inside edge of the foot gets some blisters. From the big toe to the big toe mound to the inside of the arch, I got blisters. My guess is that this is because even though the arched changes shape with the changes in my foot arch, there is some rubbing as the shoe adjusts its shape. Could be wrong here. I used Kinesio tape on the second-fourth runs and that alleviated the blisters.
Next up, the heel. I noticed immediately that while the sides of the heel are very snug, the back of the heel is a touch loose, causing some movement. I would have sworn up and down that the back of my heel would get rubbed raw, but something interesting happened. Whenever I'm walking, I can feel the heel rubbing against the heel of the shoe vertically. But when actually running, the rubbing disappears. Can't imagine why this is the case, but in either case, there was no skin irritation on the heel. A pleasant surprise to be sure.
Other than these noticeable things, the shoe felt really great overall, and the changing shoe shape does seem to actually work a bit and my runs were clearly faster. I rotate my shoes a fair bit, and the increased speed from these shoes has been consistent when compared to other sneakers.
Basically the shock cords in an x-pattern on the outsole are trying to contract. When you land, your weight flattens the sole and the shock cord pulls the shoe back into the arched shape. I wish that shock cord was much tighter than it is. I feel an energy return when kicking off, and since this is my easy run shoe, it would be great if the energy return was higher, hence the wish for a stronger, tighter shock cord.
Still, even as is, the shoe seems to be begging me to change my stride and it did so on all my runs. It pushes you into a light heel mostly mid foot strike and a deeper and...springier (is that a word?) push off. So my legs are encouraged to kick off farther back causing a longer stride. The last time I had this long a stride was when I exclusively used traditional stability sneakers (Mizuno Elixir 4s, a few years ago). My stride has been much shorter for a few years now (in traditional and minimalist sneakers) so it was surprising that the Mobiums caused such a dramatic change in stride length so consistently and for the entire run, every time.
On to tactioception, or exteroception (sorry, I still refuse to give in to the misguided definition of "proprioception" which is a word the industry mistakenly uses to describe a sense of where body parts are in relation to the ground...that's not proprioception, that's exteroception. Proprioception is a sense of where body parts like toes are in relation to other body parts. It's original use in minimalist shoes comes from the fact that you use your toes more, making them stronger and more sensitive to where they are in relation to each other and the rest of the foot. But the misguided "proprioception" term has run rampant, so i'll probably give in to this one day. Just not today). These are closer to traditional sneakers with little exteroception. The stack height is likely too high, but there is just a little more feel in these versus stability sneakers or high cushion neutrals. Interestingly, the foot pads act a little like paw pads on an animal's paw so the lateral force of each pad is felt when striking and pushing off in weird angles. This was kind of cool. Though it would be nice to get true exteroception in a future version.
At the end of each run, I've noticed that the tendons on either side behind my knees feel a touch sore, as well as some ever-so-slight pain in my calves and heel. But the real lingering dullish pain is felt around my big toe mound and my lateral plantar branches. Even now, several hours after my latest run, I feel this feint, dullish, but noticeable "bone deep" pain along the lateral plantar branches. Perhaps this is because the sneaker encourages a longer and springier stride, but it may not be the best idea to completely give in and commit to that temptation.
CONCLUSION:
I have run in maybe two dozen shoe brands over the years (buying multiples of ones that I really like), and unlike folks who prefer a single shoe type, I happily rotate in everything from minimalist shoes on up to traditional neutral and stability shoes and everything in between. In all those years and among all the shoes, there has really only been one sneaker (another review I wrote recently) that felt right from the very first run, and while I was hopeful that the Mobiums would be the second pair to do that, they are close, but not quite there.
Despite the little issues, there's no question these sneakers encourage me to run faster, with longer strides, and feel great during the run. So to help with faster pace training in the 8-14 mile range, the Mobiums are now a consistent part of my rotation, especially for medium pace training.
Given how many sneakers I've thrown away or returned (when possible), sneaker compliments don't get much better than that.
Happy running!
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I'm definitely not a runner but these shoes feel so light and springy that they actually made me want to go out for a run. My legs and calf muscles were dramatically less fatigued.
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I bought these shoes at around $110 and it was because I wanted to lose and maintain my weight by walking with a FitBit one unit daily. The size is accurate at my US8 and the fit was pretty ok. If you have broader feet these might be a too narrow. I used them daily for a 2 hour and above walk and never for running. Within two months, I noticed this morning there was a side wear and tear at the inner left feet of the textile along the embossed Puma motif. The tear measures an inch and a separate of half and inch. As I do not engage in any strenuous activated aside from walking in them for the past 2 months, these tears were a total disappointment.
For comfort, they were alright. But I believe the materials used are not going to last you for long. At the price point, it is very disappointing.
