I think it’s a combination of poorly mixed rubber and not enough adhesive on the outsole. Was not much, just a millimeter tear, but this became a frequent problem until little pits would develop on the edges. Just walking down the stairs in these shoes to go out on my first run caused one of the corners to rip a little. I would attribute it to an odd accident if it was only on one shoe, but both have this problem on all corners of the TRIFLEX design. I think Saucony made a mistake though in this release of the Ride 13s, or I might have received a bad production run as the blown rubber components of the outsole tore away at the corners pretty quickly. You’ll see various lateral and longitudinal grooves within the TRIFLEX design itself to provide even more traction. Saucony has been optimizing it over time, however. Also similar to older models is their special TRIFLEX layout of rubber. Saucony’s special blend of carbon rubber (XT-900) and blown rubber (iBR+) are the same as used in the previous Rides. Saucony places the industry standard layout of durable carbon rubber around the toe and heel of the shoe, and high cushioning blown rubber around the midsection of the sole. I welcomed this addition to my unboxing experience and stuck with the Neon Green laces over the darker blue. It’s rare nowadays to find a shoe that offers choice in the box, and seemingly almost as rare for the laces to be elastic. What surprised me trying these on for the first time was the inclusion of TWO lace choices. I think this might be one of the higher overall stack heights we’ve seen in the Ride series, and you can be certain this extra foam provides high quality cushioning through the stride. The Ride 13s have a 32mm heel stack height and a 24mm forefoot stack height on the shoe, which gives the shoe an 8mm drop. This makes the Ride 13s feel pretty peppy for a trainer.
They’re a step up in cushioning, durability, and weight compared to the Kinvara 11s, but still share a lot of design compared to the Kinvara 11s.
RIDE 3 REVIEW SERIES
The Ride series of shoes sits on the neutral side of the support spectrum, and have a moderate amount of cushioning. Saucony created their Ride series of shoes to give runners a “signature neutral running experience”.