I picked up these shoes in July and started running in them in mid August. I can honestly say they are probably the most comfortable shoes I have worn. They are a neutral cushioned shoe, 8mm drop so not minimalist but not the 12mm drop you find in many shoes. They feel light as well, 10 oz. I use my orthotics so always opt for a neutral shoe to use them in. And I have run in many, many pairs of shoes over the years. As I age I find that I really do need more cushioning than I used to and this shoe is great for that. Especially the forefoot. I am a midfoot striker and find these shoes enable me to move through the entire gait seemlessly. Other neutral shoes I have worn have left my left forefoot quite sore because of the lack of cushioning (or not enough cushioning for my needs) but the Del Mar truly feels as if I am running on a cloud.
The upper fits very well. The heel cup is nice and high and I don’t feel as if my feel will slip out of it. I didn’t have any adjustment period with these shoes, no blisters and no irritating hot spots. I can definitely see myself buying another pair. Since I do triathlon I can see this shoe doing well for a longer event, an Olympic or a half-ironman distance.
Zoot uses BareFit technology which relates to how they put the upper together as seemlessly as possible and make the shoe fit to eliminate blister contact points , Z-Bound which means “less weight, better cushioning”. I do feel they are a light weight, well fitting, extremely comfortable shoe which stay comfortable on long runs.
I got a size 10 which fits pretty true to size. The width of the toe box is pretty standard. I haven’t had a problem with the width. I tend to like a toe box that isn’t overly wide because I have pretty narrow feet but also have a bunion on my right foot and the upper and the overlays haven’t caused any problems for that.
The one thing I noticed about the shoe which I didn’t like was running with them on wet pavement. They were slippery and made an awful squeaking sound which was quite irritating. I would actually think twice about using them for any run longer than a nice slow 5k if there was any water/moisture on the ground.
Aside from the squeaking and the slippery sole on wet pavement, the pros of this shoe heavily outweigh this one con and I would buy this shoe again. The cushioning is outstanding, the fit is near perfect and they are a nice fresh aqua/yellow colour. I am hoping to get a few hundred more kilometers out of this shoe and will consider buying a pair of Zoot for the trails and shorter distance races as well.
