Nike Air Pegasus +29--A Shoe Review

A Brand New Pair of the Pegasus' +29 Model

    For fans of this blog, you have read about my love for Nike's Air Pegasus running shoes before in several previous posts. If you want to read the main precursory post about them just place your little mouse here and read with pleasure (I hope). I have written about them more than once because to me, they are the most consummate running shoe around. I don't say this flippantly, but rather because I have been wearing them on and off almost exclusively for the past six years. They have been my go to training shoe and at times racing shoe for almost every race I have trained for during that time. 

A little boy trying to figure out why his dad sits him down to take pictures of an old pair of shoes. 

       

     The Air Pegasus is Nike's most popular and most successful running shoe. They have been making it  since 1983 with a few lone exceptions somewhere around the early to mid-90's and a couple times in the early 2000's. They stopped for some reason and then brought them back somewhere around year 2000, 2002, and 2005. (If you can read French or at least like to look at pictures, a French fellow wrote a pretty complete little history of the shoe line or he at least found some good pictures of the shoe line from the first version to the latest version and you can check that out here) As I mentioned previously, I did not  start wearing them till around 2007, but my older brother ran track in high school and he had one of the early 90's models that he passed onto my granddad and he sported them around into the early 2000's. Each year, Nike tools around with the shoe and changes something about. All shoe companies do this, but Nike is famous for it and this has caused much dismay and because Nike is so popular other shoe companies have followed this line of thinking to the constant frustration of the running hordes. If fact, there is a little phrase you will hear often among the running community and that is, "just the time you finally find the perfect shoe, ___________ (fill in the blank with the company name of your choice: Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Brooks, etc), will go and change everything you like about it." I have heard it from others and I have said it myself a time or two.

 
What a pair of 29's look like after they have a quarter of a XC season in them, a little over 200+ miles on them, and track season conditioning on them. 

      However, since 2007, I have owned either one or two pairs of each current version minus the +26 version. I was even at the store to buy that model when I stumbled upon a two year old model for $20 and instead bought those. Each year, I run somewhere between 850-1250 miles. A well built running shoe can safely handle somewhere between 300-500 miles on them. Sometimes its more and other times its less all depending on the runner and the type of running he or she is doing. If a runner is a heavier runner (above 150+ lbs.), a heel striker, and does most of their training and racing on concrete, it would be best to go with the lesser number of miles. I say this because the runner will get injured in some way, not because BIG SHOE COMPANIES are paying me because if they are, then I'm not sure how. However, if the runner is in-shape, does most of their runs on trails, and maintains a healthy weight, then one can get far more than 500 miles out of a pair of shoes. (The guy I coach XC with got a 1000 miles out of one pair of Pegasus +25's last year).

"Enough with the pics of old shoes, dad. Pick me up and let's do something I want to do for a change!"

     So, you are now into paragraph four of this post and very little has been said about the +29 model of the Air Pegasus. As the song goes, "be patient, be patient, don't be in such a hurry...", you are in the thick of it now. The +29 model was released early last summer at the starting price of $100, but I don't actually know anyone that paid that much for them; most places sold them for $79-$89. Unless you got a special model (Trail, GTX, Shield, etc), then you paid more for those and you got what you paid for. I bought my pair in the last month of XC season out of desperation.  I had purchased an older model that I was sure would last me over the 500 mile mark, but I lost the sole of the newish pair of shoes in the clay one day during a very wet and muddy run which I was shocked by because I have owned around 8 pairs of Pegasus shoes and not one of them has ever even tried to tear up.  

   The +29 model ends up being much different from the previous models I have owed in a variety of ways. The liner of the shoe is called the FITSOLE 2 and it was a descent enough liner and contained much more padding than the previous models, but if you do any real running, you will desire an orthotic or some other inner sole. The actual sole of the shoe is composed their patented Cushlon materials, but it ends up feeling more like the Nike Lunar series of  shoes instead of what I have come to expect from the Cushlon. The toe box is wide, which is good because as you run your toes splay outward and you need the room. The mid-foot portion of the shoe is firm, but padded. And the heal is a little high, but you don't notice that much while you are running. The upper part of the shoe is breathable and the middle portion of the shoe is held together with an early version of what is now Nike's Fly Nit technology. The +29 model is similar to the +28 model, but is a far cry away from the other previous models. 

   Some pros for the +29 model is that it is a great all around shoe and can be depended on to be just that on a variety of surfaces and for a variety of uses. I have enjoyed them on long trail runs and have enjoyed them on a track during lengthy and fast interval sessions. I have also used them as a casual shoe and for race distances ranging from 400m-10k. The only con I can really think is that I at times wish the ride was a little less plush. I have only owned one pair of Nike Vomero's and they feel more like that pair than the desired responsiveness that I have come to love from the Pegasus model. 

   I am not sure if Nike is planning on a +30 model as of right now or I can't seem to find any information about it via the web and they haven't started phasing out +29 model options yet. They usually release new models of shoes in the late, late spring or early summer, so we may get a new model just yet. I do know that once Nike releases a model, they let several months go by and then they begin offering a variety of options for that model to be had by the public as I have mentioned earlier in this post. Right now, the current special option is the Shield option which is pretty neat and useful if you are like me and run at night and during a variety of weather conditions because the Shield technology is both to help against water and darkness.And I received a very cool pair of the trail version of the Pegasus for Christmas that I am saving for XC season. 

Happy running and happy reading. Let me know your thoughts on the Pegasus +29 if you have them. I have enjoyed them and plan on buying another pair in the future. 

Enjoy,

   David