Here are 5 new running shoe brands we’re excited about

The start of something new

As you can no doubt imagine, we get a lot of shoes through the door. We’re shoe reviewers — it’s the job. Sometimes, that means reviewing the umpteenth shoe in a series, like the Mizuno Wave Rider 30 (which we liked, by the way). Other times, it means trying on a shoe from a brand we’ve never even heard of. It would be wrong of us to play favorites, but there really is something special about experiencing a debut.

So, we decided we’d put our heads together and pick out a few of the new running brands that we’re most excited about. Now, we’re not looking at brands that primarily offer clothing — you know, like Currently Running or Minted NYC — but rather the ones that have jumped right in with running shoes for all occasions.

We’ve also decided to stick with running shoe brands you can easily access in the US, though we’re keeping a very close eye on the rise of competitors like Dynafish and Li-Ning… maybe that list is coming soon.

Also, in case you were curious, it doesn’t take a good shoe review for us to be excited about a brand. We didn’t give every shoe mentioned on this list a glowing grade, and it’s important we didn’t. We didn’t find our own voice and personality with the very first review we published — we worked at it and refined over time. These are brands that we think show promise, and that’s enough for us to keep our eyes on them going forward.

With that, let’s get into some exciting new running shoe brands.

Of the brands on this list, January might be the newest — and the smallest. It only has one shoe, the January Scignal, and it’s not even available for open sales just yet. Instead, you can pre-order a pair, and the company says it’ll ship in mid-August. And yet, they still found a way to get Thomas a pair.

In fact, they got Thomas his pair so early that he wasn’t allowed to take pictures of them in case the design changed somewhere along the way. But now that the Scignal is official, he’s allowed to shout about it from the rooftops. And, while the design — which sits somewhere between retro and futuristic — might prove divisive, he really liked the dual-density supercritical KineXion foam underfoot.

Other bits, like the honeycomb tongue and fully padded collar, go a long way in making the upper fit comfortably, while the reflective details around the heel bring the whole design together. We also dig that January’s colorways draw directly from the brand’s home in the San Francisco Bay Area, with blues, greens, and oranges across the board.

January is also woman-founded and BIPOC owned, adding new voices to the running shoe game.

Hylo is, admittedly, not quite as new to the running shoe game as you might think. Sure, the brand only has two models, but we first checked out the Hylo Impact back in March 2024 — an eternity in shoe years. We didn’t necessarily love the shoe back then, feeling like its eco-minded tech was a step behind the good, old dinosaur bone-fueled foams that everyone else was using. However, we know a good-looking shoe when we see it, and the Impact was as clean as they come.

Now, Hylo has a second shoe, the Axis, and it’s doubling down on its green ethos. That means continuing to emblazon the outsole with “Run Like The World Depends On It” and using 50% bio-based materials in each pair. We’re… still working on falling in love with the environmentally friendly foam the way the crew at Hylo has, but we’ve seen enough growth from the first shoe to the second that we’re willing to bank on further progress.

By the way, the Axis uses materials like corn, castor beans, seaweed, and natural rubber in the manufacturing process, so if that’s not transparency, we don’t know what is.

If January is the traditional, Cali-coded pick, and Hylo Athletics gets a green thumbs up, R.A.D is on a mission from outer space. There’s no other way to say it — these designs are out there. According to our review comments, they’re a little too out there for some readers, but we’re not going to question a brand for trying something totally new. I mean, R.A.D’s first model was called the UFO, for Pete’s sake. That’s out there.

That shoe, which R.A.D bills as its supertrainer, rides on a dual-density bed of SupeFoam — a brand-new PEBA compound. There’s a ton of it underfoot, and it’s shaped kind of like the Nike Invincible that we loved for long, bouncy miles a few years back. R.A.D’s rounded geometry is designed to encourage quicker turnover, letting you roll the 42mm heel stack across long runs and quick stuff, too.

The brand also has a lower-stacked daily trainer, the Mallow, which has to be felt to be believed. Thomas described the midsole as putty-like, which sounds like a dig at first, but it’s actually responsive and seems to mould to your foot as you add up the mileage. The secret lies in the bio-based SwellFoam, which is still stable enough for everyday wear but offers enough pop to toss in a few strides at the end of your run.

If you like a subdued colorway, R.A.D might not be up to your speed, but that’s the beauty of it — these are loud, spacey shoes that aren’t afraid to be their own thing.

It’s not a contest, but if it were, we’d say ACT Running has one of the cleanest design languages in the game. Its colorways are simple and refined — so much so that it only makes sense the brand comes from the fashionable streets of Paris. And yet, ACT finds a way to keep a (green) thumb on the pulse of the environment, too.

Its debut shoe, the C1, features a bio-based BioFlite upper, which Thomas found fit well during his review period. Underfoot, ACT’s nitrogen-infused SupraFoam offers some pretty nice rebound to go with a fairly extreme rocker design that’s meant to promote forward motion — you know, like most rockers.

We will, of course, say that the C1 still needs a little fine-tuning before it’s ready for the big leagues. We didn’t get as much bounce out of the SupraFoam as we have with other similarly stacked trainers, and the eco-friendly upper, though breathable, took a while to shape to our feet. We’re suckers for sawtooth laces (ACT calls the technology LaceLock), though, and it’s clear to us that the design team thought through every last little detail along the way.

Perhaps the one critical flaw the ACT C1 is facing at the moment is its price. After converting from Euros to US Dollars, the shoe costs $202, putting it in competition with standout options like the Asics Superblast and Adidas Hyperboost Edge. There’s still a lot of potential to come out of the bright start, but we’re waiting to see just a little more.

Is this cheating? This feels like cheating. Oh well, we’re going to stand by it. If there’s one shoe brand that’s come onto the scene and shown just what it takes to launch a running shoe, it’s Mount to Coast. The brand has expanded from debuting the R1 in 2024 to more than half a dozen options today — yes, including a co-branded BITR x Mount to Coast H1. We’re not just picking Mount to Coast because of that shoe, though. We genuinely believe in the rest of the lineup for almost any run in our weekly schedule.

From the CircleCell-based C1 and H1 to the Vibram-treaded T1, Mount to Coast has found (and filled) niches for every type of run. Sure, it started with ultra-distance road runs, which we thought was an interesting pick, but it’s since spread its wings to cover trail runs, gravel runs, and max-cushioned road adventures. What makes a max-cushioned road shoe different from one designed for ultra-distance road runs? We’re not sure, but I guess they’re distinct.

Anyway, the coolest part about Mount to Coast is that it just keeps exploring. It has introduced several new technologies in the last year and found ways to make them work across categories, unlike several brands that operate distinct verticals for roads, trails, and beyond. Up next? The Mount to Coast M1, a mountain-ready shoe that sounds like it’ll combine the best of all the worlds we’ve seen so far.