About & methodology
Running Shoes HQ is a running-shoe database built on one rule: say where every number came from, and admit what we don't know.
Why this exists
Shoe specs disagree between sites. Weights are quoted for different sizes, stack heights get rounded differently, and marketing copy rarely distinguishes a measurement from a claim. If you're trying to compare two shoes honestly, that's a bad starting point.
So this site keeps three kinds of information strictly apart: facts, opinion, and what we don't know.
Facts
Specs — weight, stack heights, drop, plate, midsole, MSRP — come from the manufacturer's own product page, which is cited and dated on every shoe. Where a manufacturer publishes a value, we record it as published; we don't round it to look tidier, and we don't copy numbers between sites.
Weight is for a single men's shoe unless stated. Prices are MSRP in USD and go stale quickly — always check with the retailer.
What we don't know
This is the part most sites skip. If a manufacturer doesn't publish a stack height, we show that it's unknown rather than estimating one and presenting it as data. Plenty of entry-level shoes publish a drop and nothing else — so that's exactly what you'll see on those pages.
A blank is information. It tells you we didn't find a trustworthy source, which is more useful than a confident guess.
Opinion
Each shoe also gets a written read — how it's meant to ride, who it suits, when to avoid it. That's interpretation, generated from the verified specs and then reviewed by a human before it ever appears. It is deliberately written as prose rather than as a score out of ten, because a number implies a precision we haven't earned: we haven't run in every shoe or lab-tested any of them.
Where an opinion is thin, we'd rather say less than dress up a guess.
Independence
Nothing on this site is paid placement. No brand pays to appear, to rank higher, or to have a shoe covered. Rankings in the best-of guides and race guides come from the shoes' own specs and our assessment — not from commercial relationships.
If that ever changes — for example if we add retailer links that earn a commission — it will be disclosed clearly on the pages where it applies, and it still won't affect what gets recommended.
Corrections
If a number here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it: hello@runningshoeshq.com. Corrections are genuinely welcome — an accurate database is the whole point.