I love these shoes. I really really really love these shoes. You probably know that I’ve been running in Altra shoes for the past several years and while I appreciate the toebox, I generally hate the way they fit–or don’t fit–around my heels. These shoes are the whole package and currently the top shoe in my line up.
I had my eye on Topo for awhile. If you read running magazines or online reviews, you may remember them as the company that made the shoes that split the big toe off from the rest of the toes:
I wasn’t too interested in those, but later on I realized they were making near-zero drop shoes and so I started kind of keeping them on my radar. As luck would have it, I recently happened across an online review of another of their models, which led me to their website, which led me to the Magnifly.
Magnifly is one of three shoes in Topo’s road line up. I did a lot of Googling and made notes on the stack heights of all the shoes I already run in. I chose to try out Magnifly based on what I found out: it’s about the same as Altra Intuition 1.5. (I believe it’s also the most cushioned of the Topo road shoes, but I’m not sure on that.)
Magnifly has the amazingly roomy toebox that I’ve learned to love and can’t live without, BUT it also fits in the heel. Where Altra says its shoes are made for women’s feet, Topo actually feels like they’re made for women’s feet. The heel-to-toe offset is 5mm, which honestly doesn’t even feel unusual to me. The ride is pretty firm, but I’ve been running in Magnifly exclusively over the past month and my feet and legs feel fine. Also, the colorway is easy on the eyes.
Topo probably has no plan for maximal shoes, but if I could get these with a stack height comparable to a Hoka or the Altra Paradigm/Olympus/etc., I would be in ultrarunning heaven. I do plan to wear these during my 24-hour event this month, even if it’s just for a few hours.
I recommend checking these out: