Shoe Spec Database (2026): 44 Shoes, Every Published Number and Who Published It
Stack heights, drop, weight, toe-box width and price for 44 shoes, each with a named source. Every brand publishes price; none publishes toe-box width.
On this page
- The short answer
- What gets published, and what does not
- The database: 44 shoes, every published figure
- Who published each number
- Widths at the point of sale
- What 34 measured toe boxes actually show
- Where the arithmetic does not close
- How to read a spec sheet after looking at this table
- Questions people ask
- What happens next on this page
- Sources
- Related charts & reference pages
Forty-four shoes, every published specification we could find for each one, and a named source for every single number. Read the list below from the top: the manufacturer publishes the price for 41 of the 44 shoes, the drop for 34, the weight for 32, the heel stack height for 12, the forefoot stack height for 11 — and the width of the toe box for none of them at all. The easier a number is to put on a box, the more reliably the brand publishes it. The more it decides whether the shoe actually fits your foot, the more likely you are to have to get it from someone else, or go without.
That last row is the one worth stopping on. Toe-box width — the internal measurement that decides whether a bunion, a bunionette or a neuroma has room — exists for 34 of these 44 shoes, and every single one of those 34 figures came from a laboratory that cut a retail pair open. Not one manufacturer on this page publishes it. Every gap below is printed as a gap rather than filled with an estimate.
Testing status: every shoe on this page is a spec analysis. The figures are transcribed from the manufacturer or from a named third party and checked against each other — none of them were measured by us. Nothing here carries a score or the Podiatrist Tested seal until Tom has weighed, measured and worn the shoe himself.
Paid link. We earn a commission at no extra cost to you; commissions never influence a score, a ranking or the seal. Price and availability change, so check the listing.
The short answer
- Price is the one number that is never missing. 41 of 44 shoes carry a manufacturer list price. Two of the three that do not are builds sold only through a retailer; the third is the ASICS Novablast 5, which ASICS has taken off its US site in favour of the Novablast 6.
- Drop is the best-published measurement, and the least useful on its own. 39 of 44 have one, 34 of those from the brand. A drop figure tells you the difference between two heights without telling you either height.
- Heel stack height is published by the brand for only 12 of 44. A third party — a retailer, a reviewer or a lab — supplied 21 more, and for 11 shoes there is no figure anywhere. The brand is the minority source for the number that decides how high off the ground you are standing.
- Forefoot stack is worse: 11 from the brand. For 12 shoes there is no published forefoot height at all, which means their stated drop has only one of its two terms available to check.
- Eight of these 44 shoes have no published weight anywhere. Of the 36 that do, 32 come from the brand — and across all 44 reviews only three say what size the shoe was weighed at.
- No manufacturer publishes an internal toe-box width. None. All 34 figures we hold come from one laboratory, and 10 shoes have none at all.
What gets published, and what does not
This is the whole finding in one table, and the column to read is From the brand: 41, then 34, then 32, then 12, then 11, then zero. The rows are ordered by how often a figure exists at all, and that order happens to run from the number that sells a shoe to the number that fits one.
| Measurement | Shoes with a figure | From the brand | From someone else | Not published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| List price (MSRP) | 41 of 44 | 41 | 0 | 3 |
| Heel-to-toe drop | 39 of 44 | 34 | 5 | 5 |
| Weight | 36 of 44 | 32 | 4 | 8 |
| Heel stack height | 33 of 44 | 12 | 21 | 11 |
| Forefoot stack height | 32 of 44 | 11 | 21 | 12 |
| Toe-box width at the big toe | 34 of 44 | 0 | 34 | 10 |
Counted on 27 September 2026 across all 44 shoes on this site, from the per-field source recorded on each review. “From the brand” includes a manufacturer figure we converted between units; it does not include a figure a retailer reproduces from a brand spec sheet, because a reproduction is not a publication and the retailers on this site disagree with each other more than once.
The database: 44 shoes, every published figure
Alphabetical by brand, because that is how people look a shoe up. Each name links to our full analysis of that shoe, where the same figures appear with the exact wording of the source beside them. An em dash means no figure is published anywhere we could find — it does not mean zero, and it is not an invitation to assume the shoe resembles its stablemates.
| Shoe | Heel stack | Forefoot stack | Drop | Weight | Toe box at the big toe | List price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altra Paradigm 8 | — | — | 0 mm | 278 g | 82.3 mm | $170 |
| Altra Torin 8 | 30 mm | 30 mm | 0 mm | 288 g | 83.6 mm | — |
| Altra Torin 9 | 28 mm | 28 mm | 0 mm | 269 g | 82.2 mm | $160 |
| ASICS GEL-CUMULUS 28 | 37.5 mm | 29.5 mm | 8 mm | 259 g | 74.4 mm | $145 |
| ASICS Gel-Kayano 32 | 40 mm | 32 mm | 8 mm | 304 g | 73.9 mm | $165 |
| ASICS GEL-NIMBUS 28 | 35.5 mm | 27.5 mm | 8 mm | 281 g | 72.5 mm | $170 |
| ASICS GT-2000 15 | 40 mm | 32 mm | 8 mm | 252 g | 71.3 mm | $150 |
| ASICS Novablast 5 | — | — | 8 mm | 255 g | 74.4 mm | — |
| Brooks Addiction Walker 2 | 35.7 mm | 23.5 mm | 12.2 mm | 411 g | 68.3 mm | $140 |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 24 | 39 mm | 27 mm | 12 mm | 283 g | 73.7 mm | $140 |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25 | — | — | 10 mm | — | 72.8 mm | $155 |
| Brooks Beast GTS 26 | 38 mm | 28 mm | 12 mm | 354 g | — | $170 |
| Brooks Ghost 17 | 36.5 mm | 26.5 mm | 10 mm | 286 g | 69.6 mm | $150 |
| Brooks Ghost 18 | 36 mm | 26 mm | 10 mm | 289 g | 70.6 mm | $150 |
| Brooks Ghost Max 4 | 39 mm | 33 mm | 6 mm | 289 g | 71.3 mm | $165 |
| Brooks Glycerin 23 | 37.2 mm | 29 mm | 8 mm | 300.5 g | 73.9 mm | $175 |
| Dansko XP 2.0 | 43 mm | 25 mm | 18 mm | — | — | $165 |
| HOKA Arahi 8 | 39 mm | 31 mm | 8 mm | 278 g | 73.6 mm | $150 |
| HOKA Bondi 9 | 43 mm | 38 mm | 5 mm | 297 g | 72.5 mm | $175 |
| HOKA Bondi SR | 40 mm | 33 mm | 6 mm | 397 g | — | $180 |
| HOKA Clifton 10 | 42 mm | 34 mm | 8 mm | 277 g | 73.1 mm | $150 |
| HOKA Clifton 11 | 42 mm | 34 mm | 8 mm | 283 g | 70.9 mm | $155 |
| HOKA Gaviota 6 | 39 mm | 33 mm | 6 mm | 291 g | 76.7 mm | $180 |
| HOKA Mach 7 | — | — | 5 mm | 237 g | 72.9 mm | $145 |
| HOKA Transport 2 | 38 mm | 26.8 mm | 5 mm | 298 g | 70.2 mm | $155 |
| KURU ATOM 2 | 39.9 mm | 26 mm | 10 mm | 371 g | 70.7 mm | $169 |
| New Balance 928v3 | — | — | — | — | — | $159.99 |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v15 | 40 mm | 34 mm | 6 mm | 261 g | 73.2 mm | $169.99 |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1540v4 | — | — | 4 mm | 363 g | — | $199.99 |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 860v15 | 43 mm | 35 mm | 8 mm | 331 g | 75.1 mm | $149.99 |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 880v15 | 40.5 mm | 34.5 mm | 6 mm | 299 g | 74.6 mm | $149.99 |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X More v6 | 42 mm | 38 mm | 4 mm | 306 g | 71.3 mm | $159.99 |
| New Balance Made in USA 990v6 | 39.1 mm | 23.8 mm | 15.3 mm | 366 g | 67.3 mm | $199.99 |
| On Cloudmonster 3 | 35 mm | 29 mm | 6 mm | 295 g | 71 mm | $190 |
| On Cloudrunner 2 | — | — | 10 mm | 277 g | 72.4 mm | $160 |
| OOFOS OOahh Slide | 20 mm | — | — | — | — | $59.95 |
| Orthofeet Coral | — | — | 15.7 mm | — | — | $119 |
| Saucony Guide 19 | 35 mm | 29 mm | 6 mm | 275 g | 72.8 mm | $150 |
| Saucony Ride 19 | 36 mm | 28 mm | 8 mm | 255 g | 72.8 mm | $144.95 |
| Saucony Triumph 24 | 43 mm | 33 mm | 10 mm | 250 g | 71.4 mm | $170 |
| Skechers Aero Burst | 42 mm | 36 mm | 6 mm | 309 g | 70.7 mm | $155 |
| Skechers GO WALK Arch Fit 2.0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Skechers Hands Free Slip-ins | — | — | — | — | — | $110 |
| Vionic Walk Max | — | — | — | — | — | $175 |
All heights and widths in millimetres; weights in grams; prices are the manufacturer’s list price in US dollars, not a street price. Men’s figures where a brand publishes both; where a figure is stated at a women’s size instead, that shoe’s own page says so. Toe-box width is the internal width at the big toe — taken 28.3 mm back from the tip of the shoe, which is where the big toe ends — and not the widest point of the forefoot, which is a larger number and a different measurement. Altra’s 0 mm drops are Altra’s own published figure and the stack heights bear them out.
Who published each number
This is the table no other shoe site publishes, and it is the reason the one above can be trusted. Every figure on this site carries the name of whoever put it into the world. Where a cell names a retailer or a review site, the manufacturer published nothing and we went and found it; where it says the sources conflict, they genuinely do, and that shoe’s own page sets out the disagreement rather than picking a winner.
Show who published every figure, shoe by shoe (44 rows)
| Shoe | Stack heights published by | Weight published by | Toe box measured by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altra Paradigm 8 | — | Altra, men’s US 9 — Altra’s unsized listings and REI give 10.9 oz / 308 g instead | RunRepeat lab |
| Altra Torin 8 | Altra | Altra | RunRepeat lab |
| Altra Torin 9 | Altra | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab, internal width at the big toe (tested September 2026). |
| ASICS GEL-CUMULUS 28 | Marathon Sports | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| ASICS Gel-Kayano 32 | Retailer | ASICS | RunRepeat lab |
| ASICS GEL-NIMBUS 28 | Fleet Feet, men’s — ASICS publishes no stack height. Running Warehouse lists 42 mm and RunRepeat measured 39.5 mm; the retailers conflict by 6.5 mm. · Fleet Feet, men’s — ASICS publishes no stack height. Running Warehouse lists 34 mm and RunRepeat measured 34.3 mm; Fleet Feet is the low outlier. | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| ASICS GT-2000 15 | Running Warehouse | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| ASICS Novablast 5 | — | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Addiction Walker 2 | RunRepeat lab | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 24 | Retailer | Brooks | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25 | — | — | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Beast GTS 26 | Running Warehouse | Brooks (published), size not stated | — |
| Brooks Ghost 17 | Retailer | Brooks | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Ghost 18 | Retailer | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Ghost Max 4 | Running Warehouse | Running Warehouse / Believe in the Run | RunRepeat lab |
| Brooks Glycerin 23 | RunRepeat lab — Brooks publishes no stack height | Brooks (published, en_us and en_gb), size not stated | RunRepeat lab |
| Dansko XP 2.0 | Dansko, converted from the 1.7 in heel height on its XP 2.0 product page · Dansko, converted from the 0.98 in platform height on its XP 2.0 product page | — | — |
| HOKA Arahi 8 | Fleet Feet | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Bondi 9 | HOKA | HOKA | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Bondi SR | OutdoorGearLab measured | HOKA, converted from 14.00 oz | — RunRepeat’s only figure for this shoe uses its older method, which it says cannot be compared with the current one |
| HOKA Clifton 10 | HOKA | HOKA | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Clifton 11 | HOKA | HOKA | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Gaviota 6 | Doctors of Running | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Mach 7 | — | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| HOKA Transport 2 | RunRepeat lab | RunRepeat lab | RunRepeat lab |
| KURU ATOM 2 | RunRepeat lab, cut-in-half measurement of a retail pair. KURU publishes no stack height: its 28 mm is the heel cushion thickness (18 mm at the toe), which is where its stated 10 mm drop comes from. | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab, internal width at the big toe. |
| New Balance 928v3 | — | — | — |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v15 | New Balance (published), men’s — RunRepeat’s lab measured 37.0 mm on a retail pair · New Balance (published), men’s — RunRepeat’s lab measured 30.6 mm on a retail pair | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1540v4 | — | Holabird Sports (retailer), men’s US 9 — New Balance publishes no weight | — |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 860v15 | Running Warehouse | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 880v15 | Retailers — conflicting | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X More v6 | Running Warehouse (retailer) — New Balance publishes no stack height | New Balance (published), size not stated | RunRepeat lab |
| New Balance Made in USA 990v6 | RunRepeat lab, cut-in-half measurement of a retail pair at men’s US 9. New Balance publishes no stack height for this shoe. | RunRepeat lab, 12.9 oz weighed at men’s US 9. | RunRepeat lab, internal width at the big toe. |
| On Cloudmonster 3 | Doctors of Running | On (published), size not stated | RunRepeat lab |
| On Cloudrunner 2 | — | On | RunRepeat lab |
| OOFOS OOahh Slide | OOFOS | — | — |
| Orthofeet Coral | — | — | — |
| Saucony Guide 19 | Saucony (published) — resolves the 35 vs 37 mm split in retailer listings · Saucony (published) — resolves the 29 vs 31 mm split | Saucony (published), size not stated | RunRepeat lab |
| Saucony Ride 19 | Saucony (published, inside “Offset: 8mm (36/28mm)”) | Saucony (published), size not stated | RunRepeat lab |
| Saucony Triumph 24 | Saucony | Saucony | RunRepeat lab |
| Skechers Aero Burst | manufacturer | manufacturer | RunRepeat lab, internal width at the big toe. |
| Skechers GO WALK Arch Fit 2.0 | — | — | — |
| Skechers Hands Free Slip-ins | — | — | — |
| Vionic Walk Max | — | — | — |
“Manufacturer” is used where a brand publishes a figure on its own product page without our needing to name a regional site. The third parties named here are RunRepeat’s laboratory, OutdoorGearLab, Running Warehouse, Doctors of Running, Believe in the Run, Fleet Feet, Marathon Sports and REI. We do not treat a retailer reproducing a brand spec sheet as the brand publishing it, because on this site retailers have disagreed with each other about the same shoe more than once.
Widths at the point of sale
Stack heights and weights describe a shoe from the side. Width is the dimension that decides whether a bunion, a neuroma or a swollen forefoot can be accommodated at all, and it is the one specification where the honest answer is often a sentence rather than a number. These are the widths each shoe is actually sold in, as published at the point of sale.
Show the widths every shoe is sold in (44 rows)
| Shoe | Widths offered at the point of sale |
|---|---|
| Altra Paradigm 8 | M/W: Regular, Wide (2E) |
| Altra Torin 8 | Regular; a wide (2E) option is listed at retail |
| Altra Torin 9 | M/W: Regular, Wide (2E) |
| ASICS GEL-CUMULUS 28 | M/W: Standard, 2E, 4E |
| ASICS Gel-Kayano 32 | Medium, Wide, X-Wide (men) |
| ASICS GEL-NIMBUS 28 | M: D/2E/4E · W: 2A/B/D |
| ASICS GT-2000 15 | M: D/2E/4E · W: 2A/B/D |
| ASICS Novablast 5 | B (standard) / D (wide) / 2E (extra wide) |
| Brooks Addiction Walker 2 | M: B/D/2E/4E · W: 2A/B/D/2E |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 24 | Narrow, Medium, Wide, X-Wide |
| Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25 | Narrow, Normal, Wide, X-Wide |
| Brooks Beast GTS 26 | M: D/2E/4E · W: B/D/2E |
| Brooks Ghost 17 | Narrow, Medium, Wide, X-Wide |
| Brooks Ghost 18 | Narrow, Normal, Wide, X-Wide |
| Brooks Ghost Max 4 | M: D/2E/4E · W: B/D/2E |
| Brooks Glycerin 23 | M: D/2E |
| Dansko XP 2.0 | Regular and Wide by style |
| HOKA Arahi 8 | M/W: Regular, Wide, X-Wide |
| HOKA Bondi 9 | M/W: Regular, Wide, X-Wide |
| HOKA Bondi SR | Regular, Wide |
| HOKA Clifton 10 | Regular, Wide, X-Wide |
| HOKA Clifton 11 | Regular, Wide, X-Wide |
| HOKA Gaviota 6 | M/W: Regular, Wide, X-Wide |
| HOKA Mach 7 | Regular and Wide |
| HOKA Transport 2 | Medium, Wide |
| KURU ATOM 2 | M: D/2E/4E · W: B/D/2E |
| New Balance 928v3 | Multiple widths offered; New Balance does not publish a single list |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v15 | M: D/2E/4E · W: B/D/2E |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 1540v4 | M: D/EE/4E/6E |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 860v15 | M: B/D/2E/4E · W: 2A/B/D/2E |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X 880v15 | M: B/D/2E/4E · W: 2A/B/D/2E |
| New Balance Fresh Foam X More v6 | M: D/2E/4E · W: B/D/2E |
| New Balance Made in USA 990v6 | M: B/D/2E/4E/6E |
| On Cloudmonster 3 | M: D/2E · W: D |
| On Cloudrunner 2 | Not published by On; one width (D) listed at retail |
| OOFOS OOahh Slide | One width only, whole sizes |
| Orthofeet Coral | W: A/B/D/2E |
| Saucony Guide 19 | M/W: Regular, Wide, Extra Wide |
| Saucony Ride 19 | M: D/2E · W: B/D |
| Saucony Triumph 24 | Regular and Wide |
| Skechers Aero Burst | Medium only in the lace-up (style 246210); Medium and Wide in the Slip-ins build (style 246215) |
| Skechers GO WALK Arch Fit 2.0 | Standard and Wide by style; X-Wide offered on some styles |
| Skechers Hands Free Slip-ins | Not published at point of sale |
| Vionic Walk Max | D, E (men’s 7-14) |
Width letters are not standardised between brands. A 2E in one line is not a 2E in another, and one width letter is worth roughly three to four millimetres of forefoot girth — see our shoe width chart for what each letter means and how far apart the steps really are.
What 34 measured toe boxes actually show
These figures now have a page of their own, charted and sorted widest first, with the fittings each brand sells beside every measurement: the toe box width chart. It also carries both forefoot figures for all 34 shoes — the big toe and the widest point — which is where the two rankings stop agreeing.
Because no brand publishes this number, the 34 figures above are the only cross-brand comparison of internal forefoot width we know of, and they say something a spec sheet never could: 27 of the 34 sit inside a single six-millimetre band, between 70.0 and 76.0 mm at the big toe. Whatever the marketing on the box says about a roomy forefoot, most of these shoes are the same width where the big toe lives.
The shoes that escape the band are worth naming in both directions. The three widest are the Altra Torin 8 at 83.6 mm, the Altra Paradigm 8 at 82.3 and the Altra Torin 9 at 82.2 — all three zero-drop shoes built on a foot-shaped last. The three narrowest are the New Balance Made in USA 990v6 at 67.3 mm, the Brooks Addiction Walker 2 at 68.3 and the Brooks Ghost 17 at 69.6. That second one is the finding that matters clinically: the Addiction Walker 2 is a motion-control walking shoe, the kind of shoe routinely put on a foot that needs support — and it is the second-narrowest forefoot we hold. Fifteen millimetres separate it from the Torin 8, about four width letters’ worth of room.
None of that means a narrow toe box is a bad shoe. It means the number is not on the box, is not in any brand’s spec sheet, and cannot be guessed from the width letter — which is exactly why a laboratory has to cut the shoe open to get it.
Where the arithmetic does not close
Drop is heel stack minus forefoot stack. That makes it the one specification a reader can audit, and four shoes on this page fail the audit.
| Shoe | Heel | Forefoot | That is a drop of | Stated drop | Who said what |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOKA Transport 2 | 38 mm | 26.8 mm | 11.2 mm | 5 mm | Both stack figures are RunRepeat’s laboratory measurements of one retail pair; the 5 mm is HOKA’s own published figure. |
| KURU ATOM 2 | 39.9 mm | 26 mm | 13.9 mm | 10 mm | Both stack figures are RunRepeat’s laboratory measurements of one retail pair; the 10 mm is KURU’s stated drop, the difference between its 28 mm heel cushion and 18 mm toe cushion. |
| Brooks Beast GTS 26 | 38 mm | 28 mm | 10 mm | 12 mm | Both stacks are Running Warehouse’s listing; the 12 mm is Brooks’ published figure. |
| HOKA Bondi SR | 40 mm | 33 mm | 7 mm | 6 mm | Both stacks measured by OutdoorGearLab; the 6 mm is HOKA’s. |
The Bondi SR’s single millimetre is the kind of gap rounding produces and is not worth a reader’s attention. The Beast’s two millimetres are borderline. The Transport 2’s 6.2 mm is not: a shoe sold as a 5 mm-drop platform measured, in a laboratory, as an 11 mm-drop platform — and if you chose it because of its low drop, you did not get the shoe you chose. The KURU ATOM 2’s 3.9 mm has a different cause: KURU’s 10 mm is the difference between its heel and toe cushions, not between the heights of the whole shoe.
There is an honest caveat that cuts the other way and matters more than any individual discrepancy: you cannot subtract a laboratory forefoot from a brand heel and expect the brand’s drop to fall out. The two numbers were taken on different pairs, in different places, possibly with different insoles in the shoe. That is precisely why the source table above exists, and why the larger study of this question — every stated drop beside the same lab’s measurement of the same shoe, so the comparison is like for like — lives on our heel-to-toe drop chart.
How to read a spec sheet after looking at this table
A drop figure is a difference, not a height. An 8 mm drop describes a 42/34 platform and a 20/12 platform equally well, and those two shoes do not feel remotely alike underfoot. If a brand gives you drop and nothing else, it has told you the least informative of the three numbers it holds.
Nobody states whether a stack height includes the insole. Not one of the 44 shoes here says. A removable insole is typically three to five millimetres, which is larger than most of the drop differences that shoe marketing is built on.
A weight without a size is close to meaningless. A men’s US 9 and a men’s US 12 of the same shoe differ by a useful fraction of the figure on the box, and of the 36 published weights on this page only three name a size: the KURU ATOM 2 at a US 9, the Skechers Aero Burst at a men’s US 9 and the HOKA Clifton 11 at a UK 9.5 — which is not even the same scale. Our shoe weight chart sets out how wide the spread gets.
Width letters are brand-relative, and internal width is unpublished. A 2E is roughly three to four millimetres of forefoot girth more than a D within one brand’s line, and means something different in the next brand’s. What it is never paired with is an internal measurement in millimetres — the number a bunion or a neuroma actually needs. See the shoe width chart for the letters, and wide toe box shoes for what the measured widths mean in practice.
And if the question you are actually trying to answer is whether a custom orthotic will fit in the shoe, no published specification on this page answers it. That is what the orthotic volume rating exists to express.
Questions people ask
Why print an em dash instead of an estimate?
Because an estimate in a table is indistinguishable from a measurement, and a reader has no way to tell which they are looking at. A shoe with no published forefoot height is a shoe whose drop cannot be checked, and saying so is more useful than inventing a number that looks like the rest of the column.
Did you measure any of this yourselves?
No, and that is stated on every shoe page as well as this one. Every figure here was published by the manufacturer or by a named third party, and we transcribed it and checked it against the other sources we could find. When Tom has weighed, measured and worn a shoe, that shoe’s page changes from a spec analysis to a tested review, gets a score, and the measurements on it become ours. None of the 44 have reached that point yet.
Which of these numbers should I actually use?
For most feet, in this order: the toe-box width if we have it, then the widths the shoe is sold in, then the heel stack, then the weight. Width decides whether the shoe can fit at all; heel stack tells you how much material is under the part of the foot that takes the first impact, which is what matters in plantar fasciitis and Achilles problems; weight is what you notice by the end of a twelve-hour shift. Drop comes last, and it matters most in one specific situation — coming out of a boot after an Achilles repair — where it stops being a preference and becomes a rehabilitation decision.
Why does no brand publish a toe-box width?
Because obtaining it means destroying a shoe. Internal forefoot width is measured by cutting a retail pair open, which no brand is going to do to its own product in public and which costs a reviewer a pair of shoes per figure. Every one of the 34 we hold comes from one laboratory that does exactly that. It is the single largest hole in published footwear data, and it sits precisely where foot problems live.
How current is this page?
Every figure was re-read from its source, and this whole page rebuilt from the shoe pages themselves, on 13 September 2026. Brands revise specifications quietly between colourways and model years, so where a figure here disagrees with what you are reading on a brand’s site today, the brand’s site is the newer document — and we would like to know, because that disagreement is itself the sort of thing this page exists to record.
What happens next on this page
Three things, in this order. Shoes move off the spec-analysis tier as Tom benches them, and as each one does, its row here gains measurements that are ours rather than the brand’s — weighed on a scale, stacks cut and measured, internal forefoot width gauged at the big toe. The ten empty toe-box cells are the priority, because that column is the one our patients ask about and the one no manufacturer will fill. And the table grows as reviews are added, so a shoe missing from it is a shoe we have not written up yet rather than one we have ruled out.
Sources
- Manufacturer product pages and published specification sheets for each shoe listed, read through 13 September 2026. Regional sites differ: HOKA publishes stack heights on its UK site that do not appear on the US one, which is noted per shoe where it applies.
- RunRepeat laboratory measurements, the source of all 34 internal toe-box widths and of several stack heights. Figures obtained by cutting a single retail pair of each shoe; toe-box width is taken 28.3 mm from the tip of the shoe, where the big toe ends.
- OutdoorGearLab measured stack heights, used where the brand publishes none.
- Retailer specification listings — Running Warehouse, Fleet Feet, Marathon Sports and REI — used only where the manufacturer publishes no figure, and labelled as such in the source table above.
- Independent review measurements from Doctors of Running and Believe in the Run, used on the same basis.
- Each shoe’s own page on this site, which carries the full wording of the source for every figure, including the cases where two sources disagree and we print both.
Recently reviewed
Individual shoe pages state their evidence tier, published measurements and who should skip them.
Saucony Endorphin Speed 5
Spec AnalysisLight plated neutral trainer. Saucony publishes both stack heights and they match its 8 mm drop — not yet tested.
HOKA Mach 6
Spec AnalysisLower, firmer neutral HOKA. HOKA publishes a 5 mm drop and neither stack height — not yet tested.
ASICS Novablast 5
Spec AnalysisBouncy high-stack neutral. ASICS publishes an 8 mm drop and neither stack height — not yet tested.
Our funding and evidence policy
We earn affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases. Our policy is to assess published evidence and fit needs rather than rank products by commission rate. Current reviews are specification analyses; see our method for their limits.