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6.9 oz. (196 g) for a US M9, 5.5 oz. (156 g) for a US W7.5
33.1mm in heel, 26.3mm in forefoot (6.8mm drop)
Quick road miles
Supercritical ATPU midsole, full length carbon plate, LiquidGrip outsole
Available now for $120
CHAD: I’ll be honest, I was utterly confused when I had a box show up at my door the day this shoe arrived, because I wasn’t expecting anything at the time. I was even more confused when I opened the box and saw the name Allswifit on the top, a brand I'd never heard of. To add to the confused chaos, I opened the lid to find that the box marked US M12 had a pair of US M9 shoes inside, whomp whomp. Don’t worry, though; Allswifit came through and sent me the correct size, and my US M9 went to our resident track star Kaleb, because I thought he would like them.
Once I had my bearings about me and a pair of shoes that fit, I was ready to give the ActiveRise Plus a shot. On paper, the shoe sounded like a pretty solid uptempo trainer option: VERY lightweight, supercritical midsole foam, with a plate. All for a price that bargain hunters around the running world would die for at $120.
JOHN: So believe it or not, this is not my first rodeo with Allswifit. About this time last year, I was doing a podcast with my friend Juliana Coughlin, and I wanted to review an inexpensive shoe from Amazon. She got hers for, I think, $15, but my price was a little higher.
I used that shoe at the rugged CFA 50k at Massanutten here in VA. I finished and, for not being a trail shoe, it really wasn’t that bad! The only description on Amazon was “Allswifit Men's Running Tennis Shoes FlyLife Athletic Gym Workout Cross Training Comfortable Breathable Walking Sneakers.” You know, simple.
I'm not running a rugged 50k in this shoe. Instead, I’m going to do a training run of about 7 miles, the Annapolis 10 miler, and a recovery run of 6 miles.
With rising shoe prices, people are becoming more open to buying brands they haven’t heard of before, like Allswifit. The plan was to push this shoe hard and see what it’s got. Let’s see how it did!
CHAD: Consider my flabbers gasted, because I really enjoyed running in the Allswifit ActiveRise Plus. There's something about the ride of this shoe that just makes you want to go fast and keep going mile after mile. The firm yet responsive feel underfoot between the supercritical foam and the plate reminded me a lot of the Saucony Endorphin Speed 4, which, to this day, is one of my favorite tempo shoes of all time. The ActiveRise Plus comes in at a minuscule 6.9 oz for a US M9, which is darn near race-day weight for a tempo trainer.
The upper is incredibly breathable, with the mesh also being see-through at certain points of the shoe. The fit was dialed pretty nicely, with a reasonably wide forefoot for toe splay room while being snug in the midfoot for that “I wanna go fast” fit.
I used this shoe on several easy runs where no matter how hard I tried, my paces ended up being 10 to 15 seconds per mile faster than I was trying to go, but without any extra effort or increase in my heart rate. But then I took it out for a 4x4 interval workout, running at sub-5k paces, and even that felt easy. I was able to simply set myself at the pace I was looking to hit and just cruise.
JOHN: This shoe is fast. On my first run, I actually had to slow myself down to save something for the Annapolis Ten Miler.
I raced the Ashland Half Marathon the day before in the Hoka Rocket X 3, one of my favorite road racing shoes, then ran Annapolis in the ActiveRise Plus to get a good comparison between the two. The ActiveRise Plus is not the Rocket, but for $120, the ActiveRise Plus really isn’t bad at all. I was able to hold a pretty good pace, and the best comparison I can make is to when Atreyu dropped the Artist. In fact, I’ll probably use this shoe the same way I used that one: for tempo runs and track work.
The fit is true to size, lightweight, and comfortable. For the price, it’s extremely solid.
The outsole has some issues that I’ll get into in the next section, but after 23 miles of running pretty hard, there’s surprisingly little wear and tear.
The ActiveRise Plus felt great at fast, moderate, and recovery paces. No blisters, no foot pain, and no foot problems.
CHAD: This is the time where you get what you pay for. The “running feel” of the ActiveRise Plus is great; the in-hand feel and visual aesthetic are broke as hell. The shoe feels cheap, which makes sense at just $120. The mesh feels plastic-like, and the outsole material is suspect, making a considerable amount of noise. And the design (despite having a thin but padded gusseted tongue) looks like they cobbled together an On shoe and an Adidas shoe and called it a day.
The poor quality also extends to the laces, which, despite being sawtooth, are anything but dependable. They are a very cheap version of sawtooth laces that I’m pretty sure will begin to fray soon, and they even came loose a bit on one of my runs; something I’ve never had happen with higher-quality sawtooth laces.
JOHN: The Allswifit ActiveRise Plus looks suspiciously like an On shoe. The upper has some On vibes, while the outsole mixes a Speedboard-like design with what looks like a Puma-inspired exposed carbon plate. It’s funny, but I encourage Allswifit to be itself. Let that inner Allswifit shine!
The outsole does have issues. I’d limit gravel running because it’s not very stable on loose surfaces (you’ll hear rocks popping and crunching underneath). I’d keep this one mostly on the road, treadmill, or track. Surprisingly, those exposed areas didn’t collect many rocks during testing.
Here’s a question: Is $120 too much?
Against $160–$200 name-brand shoes, it looks like a bargain. But the ActiveRise Plus is made in China, and runners are increasingly buying Chinese brands like Xtep, Li-Ning, Anta, Qiaodan and Bmai directly from China for significantly less.
Being made in China isn’t a criticism; tons of running shoes are manufactured in Asia. It’s about value. If Allswifit offers a capable shoe without name-brand prices, what makes it worth $120 when other Chinese brands can be had for much less?
That’s where Allswifit needs to separate itself: performance, design, quality, and the overall experience.
CHAD: To be frank, if you’re on a budget and can’t justify spending $180 or more for tempo or workout shoes, the $120 you’d drop on the Allswifit ActiveRise Plus wouldn’t be the worst financial move of all time. Realistically, you’re getting the performance of the big name brands that charge the higher price, while getting the build and material quality of…not those brands. But if you value performance over looks and branding, then you’d be getting a pretty good bang for your buck here.
JOHN: Call this an overreaction, but as I was writing this review, I started seeing a lot of reviewers testing Chinese shoes. Mainstream shoe companies need to take notice. The ActiveRise Plus is light, fast, well-made, and only $120, but that may be too much to sway people from big brands and too much to sway people from buying Chinese shoes directly. It has flaws, but as Allswifit continues to narrow the quality gap, more people may start asking: Why spend significantly more?
The ActiveRise Plus is an interesting case study because runners without strong brand loyalty may be much more willing to give a shoe like this a chance. If a $120 shoe performs surprisingly close to a significantly more expensive name-brand shoe and wears at a similar rate, it becomes harder to justify paying the premium just for the name. I really enjoyed the ActiveRise Plus, and if you're asking these types of questions, give it a shot.
Ultimately, all shoe companies need to step up and make better products that last. Times are changing, and I think this review was the big eye-opener for me on how complicated things have become with pricing and quality.
You can pick up the Allswifit ActiveRise Plus for $120 at Allswifit by using the shop link below.
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An attorney by day, Chad lives in Central Pennsylvania with his wife and three kids. Never much for running growing up, Chad began running as a way to improve his physical health. He went from his first 5k in 2015 to running the Paris Marathon in 2016. Given his larger physical build, Chad is the resident Clydesdale runner, providing shoe and gear insights for those with a bigger build and taller stature.
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An obsessed runner, John has run in most ultra races in the Mid-Atlantic area. Since he’s an ultra runner, it’s no surprise he’s also a lover of food. He’s also a dedicated father, caregiver, and veteran.
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