I finally found them. For now.
When I first started running a few years ago, I started with whatever New Balance shoes I had, I think they were 860. It turns out they were stability shoes. The first shoes I intentionally bought for running were Adidas Supernova Glide 8. I loved them. Some of that was probably going from a stability shoe to a neutral one. I bought a second pair in a better color (the first were black, the second were blue) but I ruined them prematurely by getting them wet and not drying them properly. They stank. I did everything I could to get the smell out but there were still whiffs no matter what I did.
The next shoe I tried were the Adidas Ultraboost. I had tried them when I tried the Supernova but something seemed a little weird about them. I did like the “sock feel” though so I decided to give them another try. They were okay but I didn’t love them. When it was time for a new shoe, I went back to the Supernova. Unfortunately, Adidas changed them to the 9, and I didn’t like them at all. They felt heavy and clunky. But the 8 were gone. I couldn’t find them anywhere.
After that I tried some inexpensive Adidas I found at the outlet mall, and Altra Paradigm after that. I didn’t love any of them.
Meanwhile, Lori seemed to like the Adidas Solar Glide or whatever Solar model she got, so I looked them up to see if they were the replacement for the Supernova, which was now gone from Adidas’ lineup. One review on a site that I really like (solreview.com – they seem to be more than just regurgitating press releases for affiliate links like some sites appear to do) said yes they were Adidas’ replacement for the Supernova, but if you’re looking for the Supernova 4 – 8, these only have some elements of those but not all. I thought, funny they specifically stop with the 8. They seem to like the same things in running shoes that I do.
I poked around more on their site and found their Best Running Shoe of 2019, the Reebok Forever Floatride Energy. In the article, they said it was “spiritual successor of the Glide [8] Boost.” Wait a minute! The Glide 8 was my shoe! Even better, these shoes retail for $100 and searching around, some colors are being closed out for even less. I bought a pair of red ones including tax and they were $54. Guess what? I love them. For whatever reason, Adidas’ subsidiary Reebok is now making great running shoes, as good as Adidas was making a few years ago but seems to have moved away from. The only negative I see is that they aren’t readily available in stores around here. I’m going to try the local outlet mall and see if the Reebok store has them. If not, I’m going online. Either way, I’ve learned my lesson and I’m going to stock up on a few pairs. I know running shoes don’t have an infinite shelf life, but I want a few pairs in case Reebok follows Adidas’ lead and screws them up with a new model I don’t like. But I know I’m happy for a few hundred more miles, at least.