I was so pleasantly surprised by the Mach 4 so much that I purchased the update, enjoying it just as much, if not more. The Mach certainly wasn’t a max cushion shoe, at least by Hoka standards, and much like my beloved Endorphin Speeds it felt great at a variety of paces. However, thanks to some Mach 4’s bequeathed to me by a friend, my tune started to change a little.
Separately, I may be the only person in the world that doesn’t want a huge slab of marshmallowy cushion underfoot on every run, so investing in a pair of Hokas seemed like a gamble. To be honest, I’m somewhat surprised I haven’t seen Hoka enter the dog footwear market, but, I digress. How could these shoes work for so many different people? I was always a bit skeptical of the Hoka bandwagon, probably because it included elite road runners, world-class trail athletes, my coworkers, my coworkers’ Dads, the stylish high school senior down the street, my UPS man, and everyone in between. Let’s find out if it did.ĬARYN: I’ll start by saying that from where I sit (my couch, currently), the Mach 4 was the shoe that turned the Hoka tide. Surely a high stack, plated, super trainer with a nice slab of Hoka’s new PEBA foam could change my opinion. But when the Mach X came around, I was intrigued. Since then, I’ve been wary of trying any Hoka shoe, regardless of their popularity. After running exclusively in Hokas for a few months in 2020, along with some aggressive overtraining, I was left with multiple stress fractures. What does any of this have to do with the Mach X? Well, Hoka is the hard-boiled egg of running for me. Getting yolked at Thanksgiving as a child was a fowl experience I’ve never been able to enjoy them again. Cannot stand the sight of cocktail sauce. SAM: Have you ever had such a bad experience with a food that even the thought of eating it again sends shivers down your spine and makes your stomach queasy? I have a friend who ate too many oysters and is now straight-up allergic to them. Whether we want to call this a slimmed-down Bondi X or a kitted-out Mach 5, I think you probably know where this one is going… It’s designed with a creel jacquard upper, thin gusseted tongue and comes with 42 mm of stack in the heel (37 mm in the forefoot, for a 5 mm drop).
The Hoka Mach X comes with some of our favorite qualities from the Mach 5, adds a layer of Peba foam underfoot and a Pebax plate, placing it smack dab in the middle of our Super Trainer category.
I was the only one from the team who thought it was a true gem, and now, here we are, in the era of “super trainers.” Max cushioned, plated shoes are everywhere, and they’re no longer just for race day. MEAGHAN: Before we dive into the Hoka Mach X, I think we all need to remember a few Summers ago when Hoka released the Bondi X.
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