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Hoka Tracer

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Hoka Tracer Review}}

The Hoka Tracer builds on the success of the wonderful [[Hoka Clifton]]. The Clifton is one of the best selling shoes, and I feel the Tracer is remarkably close in its function and design. Both shoes have stunning cushioning for their weight, with the Tracer coming in about an ounce lighter than the Clifton, but with slightly less cushioning. Using the [[RMAT]] foam as the outsole material works rather well, and I think the Tracer shows Hoka's growing maturity with this advanced material. Their initial attempts to make a shoe using [[RMAT]] for the midsole produced a heavy and hard shoe that seemed remarkably pointless to me. However, they found that [[RMAT]] has great grip on a wide variety of surfaces, and makes an outstanding outsole as it combines this grip with better cushioning than a traditional rubber and better wear characteristics than an exposed midsole. They've used [[RMAT]] to great effect on the [[Hoka Mafate]] and my favorite hiking boots, the [[Hoka Tor Ultra]]. When you run in the Tracer it feels a lot like the Clifton (both the first and second versions), though I found the upper to be slightly less comfortable. My main quibble with the Tracer is in the shape of the toe box, but this is a problem with virtually every running shoe on the market. I have some minor concerns with the way the midsole extends out from the outside edge of the forefoot, as noted below under "structure". The Tracer is rather pricy, so if you're after something with similar cushioning, for less money and with less weight then check out the [[Asics Gel Hyper Speed]]. Overall the Tracer is an outstanding shoe, and I've rated it as "The Best of the Best." {{H:WhatToLookForInShoes}}

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=Characteristics=

* {{H:cushioning}}. The Tracer does not have the massive cushioning that has made Hoka famous and justifiably popular. The midsole foam is a more conventional thickness of 21/24mm fore/rear, which is closer to the [[Asics Gel Hyper Speed]]'s 22/26mm than the [[Hoka Clifton]]'s 31/36mm or the [[Hoka Bondi]]'s massive 41/45mm. The midsole foam is also rather firmer than a traditional Hoka shoe, which results in a reasonable but uninspiring level of cushioning. However, the Tracer is also fairly light at only 7.4oz (in my size 10), so it's cushioning-to-weight ratio is again reasonable but uninspiring. It's surprisingly close to the [[Saucony Kinvara| Saucony Kinvara 7]] both in terms of weight and cushioning. The Tracer has two different densities of foam; the white foam in the picture above is a little softer than the red foam by about 20%. The idea is to give a softer shoe in the heel, but a firmer more responsive cushioning in the forefoot. This often happens in a running shoe due to the drop, which means the cushioning is thicker in the heel the forefoot. If you want a shoe that is cushioned in the heel and firmer in the forefoot, but want to avoid running in high heels, then this is a nice option. . My quantitive analysis of the cushioning suggests that it's less than 10% difference, and in practice was rarely aware of it. It's only when swapping to a different shoe mid-run, or wearing a different shoe on each foot, that the difference becomes clear. Even then, it's not a huge difference, though I could tell a slight difference compared with the [[Saucony Kinvara| Saucony Kinvara 7]].<br/>[[File:KinvaraTracer.jpg|rightnone|thumb|500px300px| His me testing the Tracer on one foot with the [[Saucony Kinvara| Saucony Kinvara 7]] on the other. I would recommend doing this very often, and it's a recipe for injury. (That's a [[MilestonePod]] you can see on the Kinvara.)]]

* {{H:drop}}'''. '''The Tracer only has 2mm drop, which is effectively zero-drop.

* {{H:structure}}. The Tracer uses two different densities of foam, with the firmer foam in the forefoot. There is some overlap of the two types of foam as you can see in the photographs above. The denser rate of foam comes up further back on the inside of the shoe creating a slight [[Pronation| medial post]]. Practice, I couldn't detect any additional firmness on the inside of the heel, and I don't believe that it will interfere with your biomechanics. There is only a slight rise under the arch, so this is unlikely to irritate or calls planter fasciitis. The Tracer runs smoothly and neutrally, and I never felt it interfered with my stride.

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