I Was Wrong About Kiprun

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I didn’t take Kiprun‘s trail running shoes seriously. Not because the shoes were bad they just weren’t in the conversation but the Kiprun Kipsummit Max shoes changed that. This isn’t a traditional running shoe review.

It’s a look at how Kiprun — Decathlon’s performance brand — has quietly shifted from entry-level to something much more serious. From the Kipsummit Max to the Kipsummit Race, this lineup feels different. More intentional. More competitive. And honestly… unexpected.

In this conversation with Inky Steve, we break down what’s actually happening at Kiprun and whether this is a real turning point in the running shoe world.

Presented by Kiprun

 

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Topics / Timestamps

00:00 – The Rise of Kiprun
04:33 – The Transformation of Kiprun Shoes
09:37 – The Evolution of Trail Running Shoes
15:27 – Running Shoes and Innovations
18:58 – Kiprun’s Kipsummit Race Shoe
21:06 – The Evolution of Trail Running Shoes

Resources / Links

• Kiprun’s New Kipsummit Max
• Josh Rosenthal
• Inky Steve
• Borderlands.cc

Presented by Kiprun.

Transcript

Josh (00:00)
I didn’t really take Kip Run seriously, not because they were bad, they just weren’t in the conversation. And then these shoes showed up and it wasn’t one shoe, it was a pattern. Something about how they’re building feels different now. And Kip Run sits inside the Cathalon, which is one of the largest sporting good companies in the world. And most people in America don’t realize it, don’t have any awareness of it. And for a long time, their running felt a little fragmented, different names, different ideas, not really a…

point of view in my my opinion but this what they’re doing now feels so much more intentional so instead of looking at five shoes today we’re looking at the shift at Kipron

It’s the Borderlands Trail and Ultra Running podcast, which is presented by Kiprun in full disclosure.

Josh (00:51)
All right, Kip Run feels like a brand that has gone through a transformation,

today’s episode, we’re making a point. if you’re watching on YouTube or on Spotify, Inky is really making the point.

of what we think is happening at Kip Run. Inky, how you doing?

Inky Steve (01:09)
I’m alright, I’m alright, casual, pretty casual. I think so,

Josh (01:11)
yet it’s the best this is the best you’ve ever looked.

Inky Steve (01:16)
hot in there.

Josh (01:17)
major shift in thinking at ⁓ at Kip Run at Decathlon so Decathlon is in my opinion just a phenomenal store for someone who’s got three kids who are who are dabbling in sports and the value proposition of Decathlon is that it’s affordable stuff and For the price you’re getting really good quality for the price.

Inky Steve (01:23)
the car for me.

Josh (01:39)
but you probably grew up with Decathlon in Manchester, yeah?

Inky Steve (01:42)
Yeah,

yeah, mean, there’s one probably five or six miles away. Big, massive, like warehouse, big warehouse.

Josh (01:50)
And so Kipron is owned by Decathlon, it’s an extension

of Decathlon. When you think of Decathlon, growing up, you know, going to it, all that, like, what do you think of when you think of Decathlon?

Inky Steve (02:04)
sounds bad but cheap you know if you if you’re running in kit front shoes it’s almost like running in like sketches you know it’s just like it’s similar similar that kind of similar world really where it’s like like your mum’s probably bought them for you

Josh (02:18)
Exactly. Yeah, I

Inky Steve (02:26)
right you know you haven’t gone out and got them you’ve gone man I need some school shoes I need some shoes for PE your mum’s got ER

Josh (02:34)
Yep, yep, I mean, it’s probably the same for my kid. My son went on a ski trip last year, but I got a head to toe ski gear for under 100 euros for stuff that is gonna be able to pass down to his little brother. So it’s not the stuff that he would have wanted, you’re exactly right, but it’s the stuff that worked for my pocketbook.

Inky Steve (02:34)
I’ll be easy.

Yes.

and I think they have this like stigma of like copying like we’ll copy a night shoe but we’ll just write kip run on it or you know what sketches on it or you know I mean the silhouette looks very similar but the actual execution of it isn’t very good

Josh (03:11)
Yeah, in business, would always think of that as, would call, for years we’d call that me too. Like they would see something cool and they’d be like, okay, yeah, me too. That’s what Skechers built itself on. So that’s an interesting idea. Skechers, if you go into a Skechers store, they have the, okay, here’s the section that was inspired by Hoka. Here’s the section that was inspired by on running, you know, and it was like that.

Inky Steve (03:20)
Yes.

Totally and I think like it’s something if you start if you’re on a start line of a race, know a local race you see someone with Kiprun kit on you’re like they’re new to this they won’t be running in my Kiprun shoes they’ll probably have Brooks Ghosts on or something like that because I’ve been to a running shop and they’ve gone you’re gay you need these but in terms of the kit hydration vest since we’ve been doing the stuff with Kiprun I haven’t really I’ve been

really focusing on spotting it and I don’t spot the shoes so much but I spot the kit hydration vests t-shirts shorts all that sort of thing like I’m spotting that but I am slowly seeing the shoes but I think here won’t be as impactful as it will be in America because obviously we’ve already had it this isn’t this isn’t new to us

in Europe, you know what mean? It’s just what I think they’ve done is they’ve actually gone, let’s make some good shoes or good looking shoes because I’m not saying the old ones weren’t good, they probably were good, but it’s just that now they’ve gone, let’s make them sexy and I think that’s what they’ve done because they need to enter that market. It’s like we had the conversation the other day when we were looking at the shoe, I said if it didn’t have that logo down the side and it was just

blacked out and he said to me who’s made this shoe and I said a different brand. I’m not saying they’ve copied it but they’ve got a good aesthetic.

Josh (05:08)
Yeah.

Yeah. And I hear that as a compliment. It’s saying they’ve elevated. I wouldn’t have guessed that these shoes, stripped of logos, look at the silhouette, look at the materials, like read it on paper. You wouldn’t have thought Kip Run, that’s the return of the Jedi. They left, you know, the shoes that they had were fine. You could get a pair of trail running shoes for 65, 75 euros. Like unbelievable point of entry into the sport or low budget, or you’re just not doing ultras. You’re just enjoying some time on the trail.

Inky Steve (05:12)
Yeah,

Josh (05:36)
And I think that’s reflective of how people run in France. Like not a lot of ultra runners, but tons of forest runners. I’m wearing a shirt that says forest run in German. Tons of forest runners. ⁓ So it was built for this other thing. Now Decathlon through Kiprun, they used to have three running brands, Kalingi, Kiprun, and Evadict. over the last three years, they’ve kind of consolidated them all into one and really got focused. And

Inky Steve (05:36)
Of course.

Ha

Josh (06:02)
I think now that they have returned as Jedis, I think these shoes are competitive. They’re already landing on podiums. So the elites are liking them. But for me coming out of the gates, you and I starting with design, I just simply like to look at the shoe.

Inky Steve (06:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. we, to be fair, though, me and you talked about this shoe, I don’t know, four months ago, five months ago, when we first started seeing these pictures pop up and we were like, yeah, they’ve got something there, haven’t they? And when these, when these, when these showed up, obviously there was, there was two.

Josh (06:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Inky Steve (06:39)
pairs in the thing and I just thought there was one pair and I was like it’s pretty like this and then I realized there was two pairs in the the package and I was like hang on a minute that is this is this is this has everything that you need to be a trail runner this shoe and it won’t break your bank either

I mean granted I didn’t pay for this but the price of it, any other brand you’re going to be £50 more in the UK for something similar unless you’re a Mountsicoast H1 but this does something that the Mountsicoast H1 doesn’t do which is the lug depth.

Like you can run in proper mud in this and it’s got that. Whenever you see that, you know you’re in for a good shoe.

Josh (07:40)
Yes.

Mmm. Yeah, good point. The Vibram. Vibram.

Yeah, and to your point, Kip Run, you know, they’re based in Lille, France, so they’re built for the Alps. when they look at, mean, Lille is not near the Alps for those in France, it’s north, but they’re French. And when they think about the right shoe, they’re building mountain shoes. They’re building mountain running shoes. So this grip, these are proper trail shoes. And you’re right, from a standpoint of price, they come in low because Decathlon, $20 billion company, they’ve got…

supply chain that they can really drive, you know, and work to lower costs. But they’re also, you know, want them to last a long time. So I think from top to bottom, they came in. So maybe here’s the point of the Jedi piece. Now they’ve returned. They’re competing with the biggest brands, you know, capable competing with the biggest brands, and they did stuff to address materials, they did stuff to address design, they spent time thinking through color. And so this brand that was one that was for point of entry for

Inky Steve (08:32)
Yeah.

Josh (08:47)
you know, the random new runner is now one that a runner could choose from on a lineup of when they’re looking for a serious shoe for a serious race.

Inky Steve (08:50)
yeah

yeah i mean it’s yeah although it’s called the max i wouldn’t say it was a max stack shoe either i think it’s just called the max because you probably do a bit more miles in it than the the one that you’ve got with the the plate in it ⁓ but it doesn’t it

It’s a real, really light shoe. It’s a really light shoe. It’s breathable as well. Like the mesh that it’s made out of is pretty cool. I like that. The colors that they’ve done on it from a distance, it makes it look like a different color. I just like that stuff. I like that stuff.

Josh (09:34)
So you’ll

like this. I chatted with the designer. I’ve got a video coming out with a guy who designed this shoe, Briouk Ferron. I’m sorry, I just butchered his name. That design was a nod to hallucinating during ultras. So he said, you look down and they’re kind of playing with materials. They’re playing with the way that it all came together that it’s supposed to mimic the hallucination.

Inky Steve (09:48)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I get that. Totally get that, Yeah.

Josh (10:00)
So it’s called

the Max because they also have an entry level one called the Kip Summit. So the Kip Summit, Kip Summit Max, Kip Summit Race. America is not going to get the Kip Summit because America wants like when all the market testing, America wants to spend more.

Inky Steve (10:07)
Yeah.

Josh (10:13)
They see $120, $110 shoe and they don’t connect it with value. They connect it with that’s too cheap. And how can it be good if the average trail running shoe is 150, 160? So you got H1 coming in at 160. I’ve heard that the normal

Caddy, C-A-D-I, is gonna be coming in around that or a little bit lower. So people are super comfy. And so this is gonna be playing in that world too. So I like what’s happening in trail running is that some prices, now people realize, okay, we obsessed over materials, we obsessed over everything, and we stopped looking at cost and price, and we made these unbelievable shoes. And now some really smart people like Kip Run, Mountain Coast.

Inky Steve (10:31)
I think, yeah.

That’s a good shoe as well. It’s a good shoe.

Josh (10:55)
⁓ Normal are saying hey, there’s a massive market now that’s grown Let’s lower the price and compete there and I think that’s where kip runs coming in with these however these which are incredible ⁓ the race day shoe In America, I think these are coming in at 240 US dollars So that’s that’s competing with the race day shoe the carbon plate, but Cade Michael wore this at Black Canyon was on the podium ⁓ Tomah who just won

Inky Steve (11:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Josh (11:24)
⁓ Chianti was wearing these on the podium and got a golden ticket to Western States at Blondine Lirondelle ⁓ Iconic trail runner from France has worn those worn these a lot in testing So like they didn’t compromise anything. They left they left a boy and came back a man. You know what I mean?

Inky Steve (11:34)
you

Yeah,

I mean that that that should you just showed that the elite that’s got everything that that’s got everything that any other brand on the market as That’s no worse or no better. I mean it sits right in that trail running Lineage of elite running shoes

Josh (12:08)
Yeah.

when when I’m running here in Paris, I’ll run along the sand. And there’s lots of the you know, the Eva Dict, Kalinji, Kip Run, old stuff, because most people who are like city runners aren’t

Ultras, maybe they’re gonna run the Paris 10K or the Semi, ⁓ you know, the Perry and it’s, they don’t have that serious stuff. But ⁓ Kip Run is focusing on, they’re coming at everything, road, track, trail, everything. And so the whole system, just the massive shift that was behind the scenes. I mean, they’ve got all these other things happening, you know? What’s this? The tempo.

Inky Steve (12:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Simple.

Josh (12:50)
This is one I put the most miles in this year, because I love this foam. This is the Kipride Max. And then what? The Elite. I mean, they’ve just got this whole thing of, they got this whole thing going. I mean, I don’t know how much they had to invest to turn it around and why they chose to keep one of their internal brands and smash the other into it. It just feels like, ⁓ what a lift. Yeah. Yeah.

Inky Steve (13:14)
They needed one though, didn’t they? They needed one.

Having three. What they’ve done is they’ve gone from budget to ⁓ competing.

That’s what they’ve done. Because they’re not new to making shoes. They’ve been making them for years and years and years. They’ve just not been bothered to go after the Vaporfly market, the Adidas, Adizero. They obviously weren’t bothered. And then all of a sudden running’s as big as, it’s probably not, it’s probably getting to the…

peak now in it I would have thought. Anybody that’s anybody has bought a pair of running shoes and is now running. So maybe they’ve looked at it and gone, let’s see some of these on the start lines of races instead of them coming at the back of it. Instead of going at the back of a 10k, let’s get on the front. Let’s go on the front. But they’ve done it with, you can definitely see knobs to other brands, but they’re all doing that. It’s not that they’re ripping anybody off. Yeah.

Josh (14:25)
Yeah, like the sock, yeah.

Inky Steve (14:27)
but they’ve looked at it and they’ve gone, oh, we like this mesh or we like this mesh. I I’ve tampered with mine a little bit. So, mine’s a work in progress. Sorry, Kipron, but I can’t run in beige shoes. yeah, so this is my, this is the Road Elite Storm Elite.

Josh (14:36)
my gosh.

I, okay.

Yeah, that’s the Kip Storm Elite. That’s their race day road shoe that used to be beige and is now red. ⁓ What else are you gonna do that shoe?

Inky Steve (14:55)
Kicks, slow grip.

No, that’s yeah.

More than 100 % sure yet. That’s why it’s just, it’s stayed like this for a couple of weeks because I’ve just been debating.

Josh (15:14)
How did you do that?

Inky Steve (15:16)
stuck it in a vat of dye. Yeah. No, no, no, straight in. Straight in. It’s just, yeah, just, little bits of the fabric just didn’t take as well. But the foam really took to the foam.

Josh (15:19)
Really? Did you like tape over anything? So it just didn’t stick to one of the parts?

Yeah,

I was thinking that was a different paint that you put on.

Inky Steve (15:37)
but

but but not on that bit how bizarre no no no it’s just a happy accident happy accident but yeah I’m on

Josh (15:41)
Yeah, so that’s what I was thinking, like did you tape that off?

⁓

So in general, yeah, that was gonna be one of my questions. I don’t like white on white. I do like this beige on white. But you, I knew that you would, or I would guess that you wouldn’t, but you really drove that home for me today by showing up with it red.

Inky Steve (16:01)
Thank

yeah

sorry kit rum and the designers at kit rum but i don’t feel like i’ve i feel like i’ve just enhanced enhanced i’ve not ⁓ taken away ⁓ i feel i feel like

Josh (16:21)
Yeah. Do

you think you’d put other color? Like would you do other? I just would love to know, you know, let’s get inside Inky’s head. What’s the perfect version? What’s the perfect color way of this shoe that you could put together?

Inky Steve (16:35)
Not sure. I’m in a million different minds, but this is a comfortable shoe, by the way, guys. Comfortable shoe and it’s light. This is a light, light, light, light shoe. I’m not running it yet, obviously, but it’s got.

loads of tread on it, it’s got a massive carbon plate in it,

Josh (16:57)
I put about, I think this

is probably what led to my injury, because I was just trying so many shoes and I was also like, I’m 43, but I’ve been, running the fastest I had ever been running and I just feel really, really great and I’m going hard. I had a really great five weeks of playing with different shoes and running faster than I should have. But I put in a really solid, I think 24 miler in those ⁓ shoes and my goodness.

And I did a separate 25, 26 miler in the Kip Summit races. It’s just having a blast. And then the bulk of my training was in the Kip Ride Max. The Max has like a really, really soft foam. They call it soft tech. I feel like they built the naming system for idiots like me because it’s not a technical name. It’s just here’s our soft foam for long distances. Here’s our fast tech that they’ve optimized for going faster.

Inky Steve (17:27)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Buster.

And then this one even says, made for race.

Josh (17:56)
Yeah, yeah.

Inky Steve (17:55)
no one’s gonna ever see it right? Unless they’re

right behind you and you’re kicking off and they’re like… There’s no one’s ever gonna see it are they? When you’re sat puking at the end lying on ground

Josh (18:01)
Now that could be true.

Yeah Gosh what else I mean For me my take on this is okay, so we’ve been sort of gushing about them because because I’m impressed of turning something around like they could have started from scratch I think if they started fully from scratch without everyone knowing that decathlon was behind him I think it might have there’s an element of that might have been easier even if they’ve distributed through decathlons 1800 stores worldwide but to me the thing that I that

You know, one great year doesn’t make a heritage iconic brand. To me, what will next year’s models be? And I know I critique that whole system. You have critiqued it too, because you loved the Tecton X2s, didn’t love the X3s, you know.

Inky Steve (18:41)
No. No.

there is something in that like this is a really nice shoe could it be better yeah i don’t think this is finished yet i think they’ll do some other bits to this certainly think they’ll weld to the elite one i think that’ll come in lighter i think they’ll probably foam compound they’ll probably do one of these with dual foams in it a bit like what this one’s got where the heel counter

as a firmer foam than what’s above it to obviously give it that stability when you’re running in this tempo. So I think they’ll do something similar with this where they might have like a harder foam because I’ve got a feeling that this people might say it’s slightly unstable maybe. I mean I’m not around like technical trails but this foam is soft. It is soft foam.

So maybe they’ll do a more stacked version of this for those like 100 milers. Cause I’m not sure there’s enough in this for me to do 100 miler in this. Or maybe they’ll do a max where it is more max, but then they’ll do this one where it’s a bit more techy. Bit like one of the other shoes that we’ll talk about in a bit with what they’ve done with their phone.

Josh (20:21)
Yeah, I feel like the

the on this shoe, this is the race day shoe, the Kip Summit race. I feel like it’s it’s too much shoe for me to do in 100 miler. It’s because of the type of runner I am. And I’m being nice like not a great runner. I don’t want a carbon plate for 100 miles. It hurts. It starts to hurt.

Inky Steve (20:32)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It’s not the it’s the runner. This is something that we always have to address. I talk about shoes that I don’t like, but I don’t like them because I’m not good enough to use them. For somebody else, fantastic.

Josh (20:42)
That’s right. Yeah, it’s not you, it’s me, I promise.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, these Kipron

athletes.

Inky Steve (21:02)
I’m not saying

you can’t run 100 miles in this, people will run 100 miles in this, but they are better than me and the better than you probably, do know what I mean?

Josh (21:09)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, I do think ⁓ If I do a road ultra, I’m definitely going for the kip ride maxes because of that soft tech and As I get more time on feet and get ready to go back to America and figure out what races I’m gonna do this fall I mean the shorter ones I’ll totally jump in with it with a carbon plate But again, it just it’s not where I want to be for longer than a marathon and also that integrated sock ⁓ That starts to hurt the top of my foot

on every in any shoe. It’s not it’s not unique to Brooks. It’s not unique to Kip Run. It’s just that thing always starts to put pressure on top of my foot in a way that feels comfortable over 25 miles.

Inky Steve (21:39)
Yeah, man, just so necessary. So necessary. No.

Yeah, I mean, I’m out of here. I’m out with that, to be honest with you. I just think that’s that that is the the carbon plate phase in the shoe. You know what mean? Where they’ve all gone. We need we need they’re all putting this sock on the on the top of the top of the ankle. We have to bring a shoe out that that that does that. Otherwise people won’t buy it. Yeah, no one cares, honestly. You know, you know.

Josh (22:11)
We’re not legit.

I wish I had the caddies in front of me, but they now put the logo on top of the toe. And I was hanging out with some of them last week, two weeks ago, and they were like, because people take their selfies downward onto their feet, now you can get that and get the normal logo, which to their defense, that shoe, we mentioned it earlier, gosh. Yeah, and I think that’s a good snapshot because they built that shoe, so many.

Inky Steve (22:22)
Yeah.

I don’t know.

It’s a super good chew, super nice chew.

Josh (22:43)
companies have been, you know, as they, optimize their shoe, let’s say portfolio, when they’re considering America, America needs comfortable shoes, like the high stack, all that sort of stuff, like disproportionately. Cause so you got these Alps, these high mountain Alps runners who like, you know, the ground feel and the lower foam and the, you know, more, as always think of like these F1 shoes that are

low profile and America just wants Suburbans, know, wants these big shoes, lots of foam. And so I think that’s what the Max was about. That’s what the normal caddy is about. You know, that there’s still a lot of market share to take in America and it’s a big market. And so there’s optimizing for comfy.

Inky Steve (23:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think like just, you know, the way you run a trail, an American trail, I mean, I’ve never done it. It’s on my list, but I’ve never run a trail in America. But I imagine it’s pretty different to a trail that you’d run in the UK. You know what mean? It’s pretty different to one you’d run in France or Northern Spain or, know, Gran Canaria, you know, because obviously the weather, the climate is different. So.

like here it’s just you’re running through boggy fields so you know you don’t you need grip whereas you know some dusty trails you don’t want a massive you don’t you don’t need that it’s not necessary so trail running is so much harder to navigate than road running because tarmac’s tarmac right you know what mean so you can’t there’s never gonna be the

Josh (24:19)
Good point.

Inky Steve (24:25)
number one trail shoe because there’s a number one trail shoe for that particular event yeah yeah

Josh (24:30)
Big, yes, for Big Mountain, for technical, for desert.

Now I will say,

I thought this was only gonna be a mountain shoe and that’s how I was viewing it, that’s what I was preparing, because where I live is great mountain running in Salt Lake City when we move back. But then Cade Michael goes to Black Canyon and the 50K gets on the podium in this shoe and I was like, wow, okay, I wasn’t expecting that to be like a great desert thing. Not because of, I mean it’s simply because ⁓ the dirt, like,

the dirt getting in to your shoe just rubs your feet so raw over the course of an ultra. So I was surprised to see that, but to your point, I agree that the shoes that I run into my desert ultras were very different than my mountain ultras.

Inky Steve (25:11)
But also, you know, the guy that won that is a great runner. it’s the shoe is the shoe, you know, he ain’t going to be out there that long. I mean, I mean. Yeah, it’s like when we like with Alex doing his one run the other week, he did the Black Canyons, didn’t he? Alex Ohno. Yeah, you know, I mean, like they’re out less than four hours, man. I mean, that’s nothing, is it? Really? In the grand scheme of things, you know, before.

Josh (25:15)
That’s right.

Yeah, he’s doing a 50K in what, three and a half hours or something like that,

Yeah. Zono. Yeah, he did the 50k. Yep.

No. Yeah, they’re not a…

Inky Steve (25:41)
Yeah, before

you’ve… before you’ve… You know your feet are done. You’ve sat there with your beer, aren’t you? And your hamburger or whatever. Chillin’. Watching all these other ones take forever. Now take eight hours or ten hours to get it done.

Josh (25:52)
Yeah. Right.

And to your point, there’s no way they’re enjoying it. They’re enjoying themselves after, but in the middle of it, they’re not enjoying

Inky Steve (25:56)
They’re not enjoying it.

Steve said, Steve said.

Josh (25:59)
Well, I put a bow on it. I think that

go ahead and put your mask back on I Think that you nailed it inky when you said it says return of the Jedi that kip run Started as a young padawan. You know doing this thing and it worked and now all of a sudden they go away they come back and they are They are a Jedi so

Good call.

Inky Steve (26:25)
We are.

Josh (26:26)
Ha ha ha.

Alright man, let’s do it again.