It just doesn't come together for me, but hope for the future

The Hoka Tecton X3. I don’t think I have ever been as hyped for a shoe to come out. Seeing my idols like Jim Walmsley and others crush trails in this thing, as well as the tease of the Tecton 2.5, winning UTMB and Western States, I was so ready to get my hands on this. The day it dropped, I placed my order. I was so convinced it would be great, I did not even wait for reviews to release.

The Initial Hype

I ordered my standard shoe size M8.5. My initial thoughts on this shoe were that it was everything I wanted. The foam felt springy. Extremely stable with the namesake “tecton” style carbon plates. It felt like it could tackle any trail. The stack height did not bother me, even on some of the most technical trails with only slight issues in the heel. The material of the upper felt extremely comfortable. The thick sock-like feel hugging your foot made for a secure and comfortable feel (but may have sacrificed durability). The fit of the toe box was roomier than past models, which I enjoyed and really let my feet engage properly on twisting trails.

To really test it, I took it on a 26mile backcountry training run in the Sierras. I expected them to feel amazing from what I had felt the previous week of testing. I was quickly disappointed. The first issue I noticed around 15 miles in was that the sides of both toe boxes were starting to bust open. By the end of the run, I could see my toes peaking out on my right shoe. This was also the first time I really got the shoe wet. The shoes felt different for hours after they were submerged. It is not a shoe to get wet. The foam internally feels like it somehow stores the water. It felt sluggish and heavy for far too long afterwards, even after the shoe appeared to be fully dried.

A Faulty Pair?

I ended up being able to exchange the pair and size up half a size to M9.0. This helped the issues, but the shoes started to open at around 150miles still. (Better than the 30 miles of the last pair). Still not an acceptable durability for an almost 300 dollar shoe.

What happened as the miles increased: The heel lock became worse. Without the traditional shoe lace loops, a runner’s knot was not possible, and I found that in my larger size, my toes would slip forward aggressively on steep descents, which resulted in a lack of stability. Perhaps using a quicklace like the 2.5 did would solve this issue, but I never got around to testing this. The next thing I noticed was that the shoe stopped being super. It started to feel like I was sinking into the foam. The energy return ceased to exist, and instead, it felt like I was fighting the foam whenever I tried to pick up the pace.

My Thoughts on Fixes

What I would change: I think fixing the sinking into the plate feeling to keep the “supershoe” feel would be a good first step. I think putting a few more millimeters of PEBA foam above the plate or even a slightly firmer version of the foam may help keep the bouncy feeling from disappearing. The next is the fit. I think mainly the lacing system needs to be fixed. With a good heel lock, the fit on this shoe would be amazing. I would also like to have the pull tab on the back of the shoe, I never find myself using the front pull tab. Especially as the shoe gets older, the heel that lies below the gator becomes less rigid and crushes in as you slip the shoe on. It is hard to then reach in and fix the heel due to the gator. If there were a pull tab attached to the heel that you could pull on to keep it rigid when putting the shoe on, it would be much easier to slip on. The last is the durability issue. Which is just like, come on Hoka. Two different shoes, each busting through the toe box in light mileage, is just something that’s not okay. (I haven’t seen any other reviews of this issue, so it is possible it’s my feet shape and bad luck)

Perhaps I hyped the shoe up too much.

I have seemed I have a far more negative experience with this shoe than other reviewers have, and obviously, the shoe is fast. Versions of it have won most long-distance trail races in the world. But compared to other super shoes, it just didn’t stand out, especially for the everyday non-sponsored racer. It is a comfortable shoe, but IMO it does everything the same as the Mafate Speed does at double the price point. (The mafate is much less foam and not built as much for distance, but the comparison remains)

The shoe has been reduced now to be a shoe I use on easy days when I don’t want to put miles on my other shoes. With the gaping hole in the toe box and the slowly ripping gator, grabbing this shoe for any run is becoming scarcer and scarcer. At $275 retail and only 220 miles on the shoe. I would not recommend this shoe for purchase. The concepts of this shoe were phenomenal, and with how good both the x2 and x1 were, I have hope that the x4 will be back to the peak performance expected from the Tecton series.