New Running Shoe Releases: Four Models Worth Watching This Season

Introduction

This season brings a genuinely mixed bag of running shoe releases: a lightweight Puma racer aimed squarely at the supershoe-adjacent daily trainer crowd, a familiar Brooks daily staple with a refreshed upper, a dramatically revised Hoka max-stack machine, and an expensive Adidas collaboration built on an outgoing silhouette. Here is how they stack up, and who each one actually makes sense for.

Puma Deviate Nitro

The Deviate Nitro reads like a deliberate answer to the Adidas Evo SL. It borrows the heel cup area of the Velocity Nitro and the midsole sculpting of the Deviate Nitro 4, but drops the plate entirely. Underfoot sits nitrogen-infused PEBA foam, the same formula family as the Magnify Nitro, and a familiar reminder that Puma’s Nitro compound behaves slightly differently in every shoe it appears in.

The numbers are compelling: 38mm of heel stack, 30mm in the forefoot for an 8mm drop, and a sample weight of just 220 grams, which works out to roughly 250 grams in a UK 11. That puts it very close to the Evo SL in weight, which is welcome news for larger-footed runners who usually find max-cushion models too heavy. The outsole also carries slightly more lug depth than the Evo SL.

It is priced at £130 in the UK and is clearly being positioned as a direct competitor to the Evo SL, with an early June release window. Puma has produced some excellent shoes in recent years without quite winning mainstream adoption, possibly due to its wholesale distribution approach, so it will be interesting to see whether this one breaks through.

Brooks Ghost 18

The Ghost 18 is very much an upper update. The DNA Loft v3 midsole carries over unchanged, so expect the same cushioned ride that has made this line a daily staple for walkers and runners alike. Early feedback suggests a slightly roomier toe box and vastly improved overall lockdown compared to the Ghost 17, which some runners found a touch loose at the heel.

The profile looks sleeker and more slender, while the 10mm drop and weight remain almost identical to the previous version. That means the choice between 17 and 18 will likely come down to which upper hugs your foot better rather than any ride differences.

It launches on 1 June in the UK at around £135, a reasonable price for a premium daily trainer with a bit more heel stability than the super-light models. If the Ghost formula has always worked for you, this version simply refines it.

Hoka Skyward X 2

The original Skyward X was a colossal shoe: 46mm of stack, supercritical EVA and PEBA foam, a carbon plate you could barely trace, and a weight that pushed past 350 grams in larger sizes. It was wide, bulky, and hard to love.

The Skyward X 2 changes almost everything. Stack drops to 44mm with a 5mm drop, the weight falls by about an ounce, the fit is noticeably narrower, and the carbon plate has been refined and repositioned within the midsole. Very few updates change this much at once. It remains a heavier option than sub-300g big-stack rivals, but fans of the rocker design with bevelled heel and forefoot may find it a more peppy and fun ride than before.

Adidas Adios Pro 4 x Satisfy

The Adidas x Satisfy collaboration takes the Adios Pro 4, a silhouette that launched back in January 2025 and is now widely discounted well under £150 in the UK, and dresses it up as a £250 limited release. The hook is a special 360-degree colour design that looks different from different angles, plus serrated laces the standard shoe never had and some reflective stripes. Everything else is identical to the standard shoe.

For the price of one collab pair you could nearly buy two discounted standard versions, which makes this a hard sell unless you are a devoted fan of the brand or genuinely love the colour-shifting look. It would arguably have made more sense on the upcoming Adios Pro 5. If you are tempted, pairs are sold through the Adidas Confirmed app.

Buying Advice

If you want one shoe to run in most days, the Brooks Ghost 18 is the safest and best-value pick. If you want something light and fast for tempo days, the Puma Deviate Nitro looks like the most exciting new arrival of the bunch. The Hoka Skyward X 2 is for runners who genuinely want a towering, rockered max-cushion ride and accept the weight that comes with it. The Adidas x Satisfy collab is best skipped unless the design alone wins you over; discounted standard Adios Pro 4 pairs remain the smarter buy.

Conclusion

Four releases, four very different propositions: a promising lightweight Puma challenger, a comfort-first Brooks refresh, a rebuilt Hoka giant, and a flashy Adidas collaboration that asks a premium for little that is new. Match the shoe to the running you actually do, and the right choice here is fairly clear.