Chris where have you been all my shoe tube life? Your clear, concise and informative delivery makes your videos really helpful in the decision on what and why we should buy this range. I have run in both shoes from the speed 1 to the Pro 3 at Boston in 2021. Saucony have again made this choice a hard one, until you’ve defined that choice - bravo!
I am really looking forward to getting more runs in with the Pro 4 besides swapping out the laces it needs no break in period and legs feel great afterwards. Cushion, comfort, stability for us heel strikers and a bit of speed.
Ya, it really didn’t need any break in at all, did it. Felt good out of the box (other than the laces). I’m curious how the foam wears over time though… especially HG.
Thank you for making this comparison. I've asked a few questions on a few of your video's all of which concern width of the shoe, so seeing a dailyish/uptempo trainer along with a super from the same brand side by side with details is very nice.
Getting any specs out of manufacturers is difficult, even stacks, drop and weight… any more is likely never going to happen. Even in their press materials they rarely include that stuff.
Great review! I have over 2000k across my 4 pairs of ES3. It had been the true everything shoe for me, with two drawbacks being grip and midsole bottoming out in longer distances. I have never tried ES4 but have been under the impression it’s pretty similar to ES3. I’ve recently came across Tyr Valkyrie Speedworks, which really took me by surprise. It’s got nearly identical ride to powerrun PB (to the point I almost suspect Tyr got hold of Saucony’s formula 😂), but with higher forefoot stack and much more foam under foot feeling. I definitely didn’t expect a non running shoe brand to come up with something like this, very impressive and recommend a try / review if possible (knowing of course this is a very small brand with little awareness among the community so far).
I've been following Tyr, but as of yet haven't seen anything that is appeal for me to personally try them. They do seem to begetting some positive reviews though. I do like their aesthetics much more than Saucony's.
You sold me on the EP4. I only run 3x a week and I’m on my second pair of Superblast. I will be picking up the EP4 now! Thank you! Best review I’ve seen.
If my race pace is 4:30 - 4:45 min/km in a half marathon, do you think that the speed 4 would be enough? I need help because I can't afford to buy 3 sneakers. I have the Nimbus 25 for daily train and I want another shoe for livelier rhythms and competition. I hope you can help me.
If you want a versatile all rounder that you can pair with your Nimbus 25… then the Speed 4 is a great option. You can race in them and still get many training kms out of them.
I've just picked up the Saucony Tempus on discount and is my new fav daily (after 4 runs 6-7miles each) replacing Kayano 30 For tempo i'm rotating ES2 & ES3 and race VF2 & EP3. Also have Takumi Sen8 and Adios 8 for fast reps. Im torn between VF3 and EP4 for my next racer. Prefer the width of EP3 over VF2, which I find is less stable later in races, but VF2 just 'feels' faster. Dont get on with Adios Pro due to lateral beval throwing my left foot off balance.
It seems you favor stability or structure shoes. So I would recommend the EP4. it's got that Saucony stability built in. It's not "as fast" as the VF3...but it is still a fast shoe.
Great video. Thanks. Which shoes would you recommend to replace the Speed 2’s? Loved them and have read many reviews of the successive models not being the same so have tried to figure out which would be the most appropriate replacement. Thanks!
I only ran a little bit in the Speed 1 & 2 and didn't think very highly of them. So my memory of them is vague. I've read alot about the Speed 4 being in the same ballpark, but not quite a 100% match, yet much more than the Speed 3 was. I bet Kofuzi has some thoughts in his Speed 4 content, he usually dives into those types of topics at the end of his reviews. Thank you for the kind words on the content.
It will be a good longer race shoe…. So if NB4 is your trainer, the TS10 is your workout shoe and short race and the EP4 is a long racer…. You are good to go. 👍🏻
I have the Speed 2 (which I really love), 3 (meh), and the Pro 3 (my fave). The Pro 3 feels the most comfortable to me, because it lacks that ground feel. But I sometimes do feel that it belongs more in the tempo category for me, and long for something more aggressive to go along with it. Would it be a waste of money to pair it with one of the new Metaspeed shoes at some point?
The new Metaspeeds will feel EXTREMELY different. Like night and day. Firmer, narrower, less stable… but fast and about as “super” as a super shoe gets.
Speed 2 much better energy return than Speed 3 which is mushy.. I find Pro 3 Amazing shoe but a bit soft for top threshold effort. I think Pro 4 with some HG upper midsole might solve this or I should get the Elite for fast runs.
For now i used speed 4 as my easy 5.00+min/km shoe, since sometime during my easy run, i tried to pickup some speed. Speed 4 works well with Boston 12 where I may do my progressive long run with. I could swap easily between them. Then my speed session with pace 3 to 4 +mins/km (800/400 reps, off on kms, intervals, some tempo sessions) i will go with AP3, I tried the Takumi Sen 10 in store and feels like a bit flat to me, hence I hold myself from buying it for now. I am just looking for Superblast 2 to be released to see if it can be my faster non plated daily trainer.
The SB2 may be a bit better. Need to see the offices specs on it first though. I agree, FFTurbo can be very harsh on the legs. That being said the SB isn’t really a daily trainer for easy runs… that’s what the NB4 is.
I mean… that’s a bit of a a reach. Two totally different shoes. Even putting personal preference aside… objectively the VF has countless victories and the Speed has…
@@SagasuRunning yea fair point - Saucony certainly doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to road racing victories. I did a bunch of steady runs, and one 10K pace workout in each of the shoes + a 5K time trial in VF3. I stand by what I said. The VF3 is lighter and the upper is much much better but aside from that, the speed 4 performs better under foot. The best way I can describe the experience is: The Speed 4 feels like it’s propelling you forwards by running on tennis balls and the VF3 feels like you’re running 1% downhill but on cardboard
I get the feeling you are communicating… but have the opposite feeling. The VF3 is very propelling forward while the ES4 rolls your forward but with little to no pop or snap off of the two…. The.m VF3 (or 2 or 1) have a very pronounced pop/snap off the toe and ZoomX for has much better energy return.
@@SagasuRunning that’s actually very interesting considering both of us are predominantly forefoot strikers. I have the VF2 & VF3 and although I found the VF3 to be a significant improvement over the 2, I struggle to see how it could be described as “bouncy”. The difference between our perception perhaps being that you’re a marathoner and i’m a middle-distance runner?
It’s also everyone’s feet perceives things differently too. We are all tuned to different things it seems. I do find it fascinating how two people and perceive the same shoe so very different.
