Tried and tested: Kiprun KS 900 running shoes
The shoe
The Kiprun KS 900 is the top-of-the-range road shoe from the French sports retailer Decathlon’s core running brand, designed to offer premium cushioning and comfort for dedicated runners in everyday training and races up to marathon distance.
Deluxe cushioning
The midsole unit is made from a new material called MFOAM, an ultra-soft EVA foam. Kiprun says it wants to create a feeling of ‘running on a cloud’, and it’s certainly one of the softest foams our testers have run in. You can press into it quite easily with your thumb, Kizik Shoes and the midsole is easy to twist and flex when you hold the shoe in your hands, thanks also to the flex grooves running across and along the midsole. Although the midsole is super soft, there’s a harder rubber outsole glued onto impact areas across the forefoot and heel, which should ensure that all that softness isn’t at the expense of durability. Our testers also praised the excellent grip, including in the wet.
Stable base
The midsole has a wide profile – looking down at the shoe from above, it flares outside of the upper all around the shoe, while the heel midsole has a noticeable ‘spur’ that extends a centimetre or so behind the bottom of the upper. While it’s not a stability shoe, Rick Owens Shoes this wide base does give KS900 a stable feeling on the run, which balances nicely the softness of the ride, and it rolls through from footstrike to toe-off very smoothly.
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Comfortable upper
As well as the soft foam underfoot, layers of foam in the ankle collar and tongue give the shoe a slipper-like feel, with our testers particularly praising how comfortable it felt. The shoe wraps well around the midfoot, thanks to the tongue attaching to the upper with an interior bootee construction. The toebox is roomy, offering plenty of space for your toes to splay during footstrike, and the mesh, while not elasticated, is comfortable and breathable. There’s a flexible overlay over the top of the mesh at the end of the toebox which should help with durability, as the big toe area is often one of the first parts of mesh uppers to wear through. The laces are made from a slightly serrated, grippy type of fibre which means they don’t untie themselves easily when knotted once (though we generally recommend double knotting to be on the safe side and prevent avoidable delays on the run).
How it feels to run in
On the road, the KS900 offers a pillowy, comfortable ride, making it a great option for floating through long miles and marathons. While there’s a hefty wodge of soft foam in the midsole, the shoe is also fairly light for something that offers lots of cushioning, making it feel quite nimble. It’s not a particularly responsive shoe – it’s hard for something that feels so soft to also offer ‘pop’ off the ground, so those seeking the springy feeling of high energy return shoes should look elsewhere. But that’s not to say it feels overly mushy – you can still feel the pavement, albeit channelled and dampened through the soft foam.
RW verdict
The KS 900 offers impressively soft cushioning and excellent comfort in a pretty lightweight package – all at a very competitive price. As it becomes increasingly challenging to find new running shoes costing £100 or less, this model is worthy of serious consideration for those looking for a capable everyday running shoe that will eat up the miles with ease and comfort.
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