New Shoes-Kinvara 2 or Kinvara 3?

I'd say give the 3s a shot. I ran on the 1s and 2s for a while and thought the 3s were gonna be a total mess, but I may actually like them more. They seem to be more durable and I feel like there's more "pop" to them. The old ones were great, but didn't allow me to move too quick because of how flexible they were. The 3s are still very flexible, but include a little rigidity where its needed.

Yeah. AVOID! Even the Saucony website's fan reviews highlight terrible durabilty, or lack of. My Saucony Outlaw uppers failed after 50 miles! The soles on the Kinvara 2 were bad too. According to their fans even, the '2' would only last, "200-250 miles"! When you consider they corruptly banned my truthful Outlaw review, due to being "against their guidelines" (lies!), you can imagine the other secret horror stories.

At $100 they are a con. In England they are £95 = $150! For a shoe which only lasts 6 months!? The Kinvara 3 (still 7.7oz in a size US9) has actually REMOVED a layer from the cloth upper and replaced it with sticky tape! LOL!

They're too floppy to spring off the toe for me, a la Pistorius's artificial leg springs. A cheaper, better lasting, faster, lighter, prettier option is the Adidas AdiZero range.

I went with the lightest (6.7oz in a size US9.5), spring-loaded, AdiZero 'Feather' (NOT the tennis version, the Adidas idiots used the same name!), for £50. But the Feather 2 is now out, but without the bargain price (Avoid the identical 'Rush' model - it has the toe protector layer tapering up into a point right where the toes bend and will probably cause the material to fail and tear!).

Similar, but less extreme, is the AdiZero 'Adios' (7.4oz US9, and Marathon World Record holder) or Adios 2 (7.8oz, but with increased stiffness, but still not as stiff/springloaded as the 'Feather'). If Available, the 'Hagio' is like the Adios too, perhaps a bit lighter (check the runblogger's review:

http://www.runblogger.com/2011/12/adidas-adizero-hagio-running-shoe.html

). I wouldn't bother with the AdiZero 'Boston' or 'F50' runners, unless you're really fat and heavy, or do many many miles, because they're both over 9oz and, therefore, a bit 'heavy'.

If you're on a budget, the Adidas Climacool 'Chili' is a light shoe (8.5oz?), yet looks quite robust, but is very pretty too!

I just got a pair of the 3's on Friday afternoon and had a decent 6x800 workout yday with good results. I was hoping for at least 5-10s faster splits but unfortunately I was still barely running sub 3s. sigh. once a snail always a snail. I do like the flashy yellow strip down the back of the shoe. that's nifty.

i'm coming from the boston's myself right now but have been doing a lot of 12milers so the heavier show has been beneficial....looking forward to the 3's. we'l see how they go. they do look poor build quality.

I've been through a ton of Kinvaras (1, 2, 3) and have loved em. I've gotten 500+ out of all of my pairs and don't know what these people are doing that only get 200 out of em. If you have no problems with the 2s, you could certainly stock up while they're cheap right now. The 3s are a bit wider in the toebox, which is nice, and overall the upper is so much smoother. They apparently added some different rubber to the sole for durability, but I never had a lot of trouble with that anyway.