On “Cloudstratus” shoe review

I’ll be honest, I haven’t had much luck with On running shoes for my feet. They’re design is kinda the opposite of what I typically wear which is Altra. Altra’s have a wide”natural” foot shape toe box and no heel lift, although I add a heel cushion for 2-3 heel lift.

Back to the On’s. I recently got a chance to try out the On “Cloudstratus” a high end running shoe that possibly has changed my tone for On shoes. This review will be broken into 5 sections and a closing statement.

I’ll start with FIT which was surprisingly good. Not tight nor blousy. Materials are very good and functional without being over the top techy. There’s a plastic external heel counter for a nice snug heel fit and offers additional heel support which was a nice welcome as I need that these days. The forefoot fits wider than any other On I have tried in the past which always pinched my bunions. No pinch here, just super comfortable straight out of the box. Not unusual for this category of shoe. I’ll touch on that later. Anyway the fit is on the short side so I had to go up a half size. Other than that they fit very good unless your feet are really wide or your feet are really narrow and you like your shoes uber snub, aka too tight. Materials are soft and form fitting. Arch fits snug, but not intrusive. The instep “top of the arch” fit snug and comfortable, the laces did not pinch. Speaking of the laces there is an unusual lacing pattern to these shoes, but I did not notice anything negative from it unlike most shoes with weird lacing designs. In general the fit is snug, but not tight.

Next, the CUSHIONING which was moderate. These nor soft or hard. Making the shoe padded, but also really and I mean really responsive. My cadence “foot turn over or steps per minute” was at least 10 more steps per minute than my recent runs in my personal shoes. That’s how responsive these were, making them super fast feeling and fun to run in. Again, they are not cushy and definitely not mushy which is great. So, did they feel hard? Surprisingly no, just responsive. You can tell these are made my a performance shoe company. Now there is an 8mm drop which is more than I like, but the shoe was so lightweight and responsive it kinda made up for it. I say “kinda” because I also walk and that is when I really noticed the 8mm drop. Not so much the heel being high, but the forefoot being low and thinner feeling. Reminder...I wear Altra’s with zero heel lift. So, compared to everything else in its class the cushioning is there, but these are not slug around running shoes for walkers. These were clearly designed for runners who like fast, responsive shoes with some cushioning. More than other On’s for sure. I think most walkers won’t notice the 8mm heel lift as they are probably wearing shoes now with more lift than that.

No pun intended, but let's move “on” to STABILITY & SUPPORT. Let’s start by explaining the difference between stability and support. Stability has to do with keeping your ankle in a straight up and down position. If you over-pronate which is when you ankle rolls inwards too much then there are stability categorized shoes that help control the excessive amount of rolling inwards, aka over-pronating. Support has more to do with how the shape of the shoe fits and supports your arch. Now that we got that cleared up. These On’s do have an angle to the heel you can see in the provided photo which does help with over-pronation.

In my experience I have not found On’s shoes have enough stability for most runners. These on the other hand were quite stable, even when I was walking. And yes, walking requires more stability. Look out for my video on that on my YouTube channel soon. The Cloudstratus was surprisingly stable. They don’t look stable, but I felt zero pressure on my bunions nor any on my big toe. These are common discomforts when a shoe is not providing enough stability or support. So, how is On doing this? You’ll see by the provided picture there’s an orange plastic shank running through the whole shoe. P.S. this doesn’t just provide some awesome stability, but helps with rock protection on trail, not that there are trail shoes in any and mean any imagination. Unless you love rocks getting stuck in the bottom of your shoes. Also, the platform of these On’s is wider than other models adding to the stability. You’ll see from the photo the bottom of the shoe is greatly wider than the fit of the upper. Nice addition and needed in order to compete with the competition in this category. Overall the stability is very good providing you’re ankles don’t over-pronate severely

I think we will all agree running shoes are a functional piece of equipment providing the athlete protection, yes? But, we also know that we are wearing them out in public and because of that they better look good enough. This isn’t 1996 when running shoes looked, will let’s just say they looked liked running shoes. As for STYLE & LOOKS there’s no questioning the style that On has brought to the market is clean, sharp and sophisticated. I have seen celebrated like Kevin Bacon sporting On shoes and others. To make this short, they look fantastic and cool. And thank goodness as I’ll mention in the next section.

PRICE, O’BOY! These are not cheap. At $170 I do think you get the best of what On has to offer and yes there a slew of other shoes in this price. Obviously the Asics Kayano which started this category of the premium running shoe (not the New Balance 990) is the Cloudstratus’s biggest competition I’d have to say these are lighter feeling and more responsive. Definitely more responsive. On the other hand the Kayano’s can control more over-pronation. These also have an 8mm drop compared to 10-12mm of the Asics.

In CLOSING, if what you want an awesome looking, great fitting, lightweight and fast paced shoe with moderate cushioning and stability shoe it is really hard to beat the On “Cloudstratus. Just be prepared to pay for it.