Product Review: Under Armour HOVR Sonic Running Shoes

Product Review: Under Armour HOVR Sonic running shoes

Disclaimer: I received a pair of Under Armour HOVR Sonic shoes to test as part of the BibRave Pro ambassador program. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Wait.

Under Armour makes running shoes? 

Yes! 

I had no idea!

These beauties showed up on my doorstep in December:

The UA HOVR technology was designed to have a "zero gravity feel" and this was definitely my favorite part about the shoes.  They are very responsive.  The toe box is roomy too, which I am becoming more and more of a fan of when I am looking for running shoes.  (Hello old lady bunions.)

The other amazing part about the shoes is that they track data for you through the Map My Run app.  You download the app (if you do not already use it), and have your shoes nearby and the app syncs to a sensor in the right heel.  Voila.  I do not regularly run with my phone so I can go for a run, come back and click "sync shoes" in the app and my workout data is available.  What does that look like?

When you click on the workout in the app, you get the following summary:

You can then continue scrolling for data on your splits:

And then click on "show more data" for pace, stride length and cadence in line graph form:

Pretty cool, huh?!

Obviously it is winter here so I was running through snow and wet with these, which never impacted the sensor.

I took the shoes out for several easy runs in the 3-5 mile range to get a feel for them and liked them.  I also tried them on a long-ish run (7.5 miles) and a fartlek run.  I like them best in speed work situations so I went all out and wore them for my indoor marathon relay race.  I was very happy with how they felt during this race, as you may have read in my recap.

Another fun aspect of testing out these shoes was "talking shop" with people: 

• I noticed that Mario Fraioli (check out his awesome weekly newsletter, The Morning Shakeout) had a pair of HOVRs on his Instagram Story so I sent him a message about how I liked the shoes and he responded positively as well. 
• My brother-in-law, who is not a runner, brought them up to me because he heard about "these shoes that had some awesome technology in them" on the radio.  He was excited to see them in person.
• Several birds asked me about them at the Marathon Relay, noting how they had heard about them and that they were at a very reasonable price point ($110 for the app-connected version, $100 for the non-connected version).
• Fast Company did an article on the shoe here as did Engadget.

I am excited to continue using these shoes for my track workouts during marathon training!

Here are a few reviews from the other BibRave Pros who are testing out the UA HOVR Sonic shoes:
Amy
Gina
Amanda

Have you ever tried Under Armour running shoes? What did you think?