HOKA ONE ONE RINCON 2

£105 Have we reached peak Hoka with the Rincon sequels?

uch like football without fans, 2020 has seen our love affair with Hoka fray at the edges. The year has witnessed the once French, now firmly Cali brand (the Rincon 2 also come in a ‘tofu’ colourway) releasing a wave of shoes that, while we rarely criticise ambition, came across as too niche (the downhill running TenNine), contrary (the Clifton Edge’s giant heel wedge) and over-thought (the Clifton 7’s massive heel tab).

The Rincon 2 bucks this trend by making only marginal changes to the successful original (basically a few welcome mesh upper tweaks), and boy what a shoe this is for triathletes. We’ve been lucky to have these for six months, but it’s the Outlaw X’s recent 21km run leg that encapsulates all that’s good about Hoka for us. After a torrid 90km bike leg, we began weary and wondering how soon we’d adopt the

M(half) iron shuffle. That moment never arrived, and we instantly felt supported yet propelled forward by the Meta-Rocker, and also nimble, which is no mean feat given the beefy 29mm-high wedge of EVA midsole underfoot (heel-to-toe drop is a lean 5mm). The RRP of £105 is welcome (you’ll need to upgrade the short laces) and they’re sockless friendly, but they’re now showing some signs of outsole wear.

While they may not win over naysayers, for us these light 218g training/racing hybrids are now our pick of the oversized shoe world. High praise indeed, especially given we credit Hoka for reducing our injury rate (and giving us a few centimetres in height).

93 %

RESPONSIVE, LIGHTWEIGHT AND AT A DECENT PRICE – THE BEST HOKA YET?