Three weeks ago, I joined the Mizuno Run Clinic to help me improve my running form, make friends with other runners and learn new drills from Coach Ige. As I haven’t owned any Mizuno pair before, I was glad and excited when Ms. Jai Cortez, marketing officer at Mizuno gave me the opportunity to review their product. I asked for a stability shoes and so I got this Mizuno Wave Inspire 4. What makes Mizuno running shoes different from other running shoes is its “wave plate technology” .
That gray plastic looking insert in the midsole is what Mizuno calls their "wave plate technology"
The thermoplastic plate (see above) inserted into the midsole allows compression stiffness to be controlled. In theory, controlling this “stiffness” can be achieved by adding variation in its material properties, thickness, amplitude, and wave length of the WAVE plate insert. Cushioning and Stability feature of any Mizuno shoes can be achieved by playing around this bending stiffness. Hence if you check any Mizuno shoes (this feature is also available in its baseball, volleyball, golf, and other kinds of sport shoes), you will notice that each of their running shoes category (stability, neutral, cushion) has different wave plate design and composition.
Now as for this particular pair I’m going to review, Mizuno Wave Inspire 4, it offers better stability than my Adidas Response Stability (I use this pair for races 21km and above) however I felt like the cushioning needs to be improved. When I checked the foam (insole) under the foot, it looks too thin, hence its not as soft as compared to my other running shoes. Another thing I noticed is that it has a unique heel fit. I’ve heard from several runners that it can take awhile to get used to the Mizuno heel. Thus, I was expecting the heel to feel odd and I did notice a difference but at no time has it ever bothered me. In fact it feels comfortable when you get used to it. From my experience, I can’t use this for road races as I felt its too heavy for me, my speed might suffer. However, I would recommend this trainer for runners with medium to low arches to use this one for their longrun especially if training for 21km or 42km.
It looks like the lace can easily be removed during run so make sure they are properly tied.
Insole
Mizuno Insole
