KIT ZONE

HOKA ONE ONE CARBON X2

£160 Enter Hoka’s newest carbon-plated running shoe

Where once bike brands focused their entire marketing strategy on carbon (before it became so commonplace that the PR needle turned to aerodynamics), the same is now happening in running. Cue this second-edition of Hoka’s Carbon X, which faces carbon competition from the likes of Adidas, Brooks and the giants who re-started this carbon craze, Nike (Reebok and Zoot were both experimenting with carbon soles in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively).

How much is performance-based versus sellable-based is hard to quantify short of a lab, especially in the X2 as the carbon plate is sandwiched between a soft-foam insole and rubberised-foam outsole that results in a foundation that’s 32mm at the heel and 27mm in the forefoot (it’s 30mm heel, 25mm forefoot in the women’s version). The result is a carbon plate that’s arguably consumed by foam, meaning