Saucony Guide 13 Review

The release of Saucony Guide 13 brought to the market another model of running shoes that offers a new midsole technology, particularly focusing on securing good stability and soft ride. The older version of Everun midsole that you may find in a vast majority of Saucony shoes, has been replaced by a new one, PWRRUN. What can be said about it? Well, I investigated these for more than a month of intense running, for approximately three times per week,  and I am brave to say that its quality and feel is definitely comparable to other stability shoes.

Stability Shoe

The same as Brooks equipped its stability models (example Brooks Adrenaline GTS 20) with the GuideRails technology, Saucony Guide 13 got a medial TPU frame. That is a piece of thermoplastic polyurethane made for guiding your steps and thus, hindering overpronation. Anyone having flat feet should thus feel very comfortable in these shoes. I can just confirm that it worked pretty fine for me. The same as in Brooks Adrenaline GTS 20, I felt very comfortable at this point. Just the midsole is different so I can say, if you know Brooks shoes, you will also notice the difference. 

Midsole unit technology

As previously mentioned, Saucony Guide 13 got a new midsole PWRRUN. And it truly feels different from Everun midsole. First, it is lighter. A lot lighter. I ran before in Saucony Triumph ISO 5 and those were over 310 grams. While these Saucony Guide 13 in my man’s version of the US size 9, accounted for 260 grams. That’s a 50 grams difference! That’s what you will definitely recognize between shoes. A big thumb up for the lightness. Next, PWRRUN is supposed to give you some 5 % more energy return than a traditional Everun midsole. To be honest, you won’t easily notice the difference. And to be even more honest, I have seen no difference. No matter the distance I have gone for, it always felt the same. Simply you still need to run by yourself and with your own strength. The midsole feels otherwise very soft. Definitely softer than Everun that feels rather resilient and durable. These shoes I might be worried to use for a longer time, that they would start getting wasted soon. It hasn’t happened after a month of my usage so in the end, it might be just my feeling… Otherwise, the cushioning is good. 

Overall shape

The standard version is designed in light-blue color turning into dark blue/white with stripes all over the upper. Very futuristic for me. I always loved Saucony for their unusual design and still they make me impressed. For a running shoe, this variation of blue is perfect, because it is well visible at night and you will simply look awesomely cool. At least, that’s how I felt when running around the city. The small white dots added to visibility. My only problem with these shoes was the sizing. I tried size 8 that I normally have and the model was crazily narrow. Seriously, I went by the whole size up. If this happened to a small starting sneaker company, I would better understand it. But in the case of Saucony, that quite surprised me. I believe it might be caused by the fact that the company started using the new midsole unit PWRRUN and thus, hopefully, for a newly released version, it will not be an issue.

To sum it up…

Except for this last point, Saucony Guide 13 would be otherwise really good. Thank God, this can be solved by going for different sizing but I completely understand that then, the length might be an issue. So in ranking, one star down for this. If it fits good in sizing, for long-distance running or other running activities, it can be a good deal and I would definitely enjoy it as an every-day trainer.