I've been out of the shoe world for a number of years and I do most of my running these days in simple shoes made as locally as possible by Everett Carson up in Oregon. So I was a bit surprised the other day when my friend showed me his new On Cloud running shoes.
The cushioning mechanism seems to be a series of open cavities that need to close / compress in order for the sole to achieve the correct geometry for foot strike. If any of the cavities becomes filled with mud or debris it seems like the whole system would fail and you'd wind up by the side of the road looking for a stick with which to clean out the cavities.
A couple of long-ago XC races in New England that featured both mud and fresh wood chips come to mind. Nothing worse than 5/8" spikes that you need for the mud accumulating wood chips, simultaneously adding weight and reducing grip.
When I heard that the shoes are designed in Switzerland I was even more surprised. I had expected to them to have beed designed in a gym somewhere or in a concrete jungle...
Has anyone run into issues when using this new cushioning gimmick in muddy situations?