18 Brands Like Saucony for Quality Running Shoes
The one shoe that suits you gets a version bump, the fit shifts half a size, and suddenly your reliable pair isn't reliable. Or it sells out in your width for a season. That's usually the moment you start looking past Saucony, and it's worth knowing the running market is crowded with brands solving the same problem in different ways. Here are 18 alternatives, what each one does that Saucony doesn't, and what you'll pay.
One thing to flag before the list. Saucony's own site serves a UK storefront at saucony.com in pounds, with free shipping over £75, so the currency you see there won't match the dollar figures below.
Quick comparison: the closest swaps for a Saucony daily trainer are Brooks, ASICS, New Balance and Nike. For maximum softness, look at Hoka, and for the opposite, Mizuno. For a wider toe box, Altra and Topo Athletic. For trails, Salomon, Inov-8, Merrell, Columbia and Arc'teryx. For the least money, Reebok and Under Armour. On Running, Lululemon and Karhu sit apart, sold on design as much as on splits.
| Brand | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Brooks | Mid-range | Everyday miles with support built in |
| Nike | Mid-range | Race tech you'll also wear to lunch |
| ASICS | Mid-range | Marathon training on tired joints |
| New Balance | Mid-range | Feet that need a width, not a size |
| Hoka | Premium | The softest landing on this list |
| Mizuno | Wave Rider 29, $150 | A firmer, snappier ride |
| Altra | $150 to $230 | Zero drop and a foot-shaped toe box |
| Topo Athletic | $150 to $175 | Toe room without going fully zero drop |
| On Running | Premium | Runs that end at a coffee shop |
| Reebok | Mid-range | A first pair you won't resent replacing |
| Karhu | €155 to €180 | A brand nobody at your club is wearing |
| Lululemon | Premium | Short runs stacked with gym sessions |
| Salomon | Mid-range | Technical trail and ultra distance |
| Columbia | Mid-range | Wet trail miles in bad weather |
| Merrell | $110 to $185 | Trail running that doubles as hiking |
| Under Armour | $85 to $160 | Tempo work without the tempo price |
| Inov-8 | Premium | Grip on wet rock |
| Arc'teryx | Premium | Mountain running in weather that turns |
Brooks
Brooks is where most Saucony runners look first, and price isn't the reason. Brooks Sports sells direct from brooksrunning.com in the same mid-range bracket Saucony occupies, so a switch costs you a fitting rather than an upgrade.
If Saucony's Guide 19 nearly works for you but your arch gives out in the last few miles of a long run, Brooks is the fitting to book next. It's a running specialist rather than a sportswear company with a running aisle, so the whole catalogue is aimed at the customer you already are.
Best for: high-mileage weeks where holding your form beats a fast race shoe.
Nike
Nike, run out of Beaverton, Oregon, gives you the widest spread on this list, from a shoe you'll wear on a treadmill to a carbon racer built for one morning of your year. Prices land in the mid-range band for daily trainers and climb steeply for the race models.
Against Saucony, the gap is styling. Saucony designs a running shoe that happens to look good. Nike designs something you'll keep on after the run, which matters more than runners admit when the shoe has to come to the office afterwards.
The catch is the size of the range. Nike lists more running shoes than most people can sensibly compare, and the naming doesn't help you narrow it. Decide on your distance first, then filter.
Best for: one shoe that covers the race and the rest of the day.
ASICS
ASICS was founded in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka in Kobe, Japan, and the name comes from the Latin Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, a sound mind in a sound body. Nearly eighty years of distance running sits behind the current range, which prices in the same mid-range band as Saucony.
Runners come to ASICS for cushioning, and it's a different cushioning to Saucony's. ASICS leans towards absorbing the impact rather than firing you off it, which is the trade you want if your knees complain after a long weekend rather than your legs feeling slow.
Read our fuller take in brands like ASICS.
Best for: marathon blocks, and anyone whose joints file complaints.
New Balance
New Balance, based in Massachusetts, is the answer when the problem is width rather than model. Standard running lasts suit a narrow band of feet, and New Balance is the brand that has made fitting the rest of them part of the job.
Price sits mid-range, which puts it level with Saucony, and the lifestyle crossover is stronger. Plenty of New Balance shoes on the street never run anywhere, and that's fine by us. It means the colors stay wearable and you're not stuck with three shades of neon.
If you've been sizing up in Saucony to get room across the forefoot, stop doing that and get measured for a width instead. We covered the brand's ethics in is New Balance fast fashion.
Best for: wide or narrow feet that never fit a standard running last.
Hoka
Hoka, owned by Deckers and run from Goleta, California, is the maximalist option, and the thick midsole is the entire argument. It's a premium brand, so you'll pay more than Saucony asks, and what the money buys is distance between you and the road.
That's the whole pitch, and it splits runners cleanly. If Saucony's midsoles feel firm on your fourth run of the week, Hoka fixes that immediately. If you like feeling the road, you'll hate it.
Our full rundown of the alternatives sits in brands like Hoka.
Best for: recovery runs, long slow distance, and coming back from an impact injury.
Mizuno
Mizuno sells the Wave Rider 29 at $150 on its US store, which puts it a little above a mid-pack Saucony trainer and squarely against the models most runners end up choosing between.
Mizuno's ride is the reason to move. The Wave plate in the midsole makes the shoe feel structured underfoot rather than plush, so you get a snap out of the toe-off that a soft foam swallows. Runners who find modern cushioning mushy tend to end up here and stay.
The Wave Rider 30 and the Neo Zen 2 are both live on the US site, and shipping is free over $75.
Best for: a firmer, more connected ride at daily-trainer money.
Altra
Altra builds every shoe on a zero-drop platform with a foot-shaped toe box, which means your heel and forefoot sit the same distance off the ground and your toes get to spread. On the US site the Vanish Pulse is $150 and the Olympus 7 is $195, with a Gore-Tex version of the Olympus at $230.
This is the biggest structural departure from Saucony on the list. Zero drop changes where your calves work, so the switch needs a few weeks of shorter runs before you commit to a long one. Runners who make that transition rarely go back.
The Torin 9 and Escalante 5 are the current road models. We compared the field in shoe brands like Altra.
Best for: wide forefeet and anyone whose toes go numb after an hour.
Topo Athletic
Topo Athletic is the middle ground between a conventional Saucony last and Altra's zero drop. The brand describes its shoes as having a roomy toe box, a secure midfoot and a low heel-to-toe drop, which is the important word. Low, not zero.
Prices run from $150 for the Phantom 4 and the Ultrafly 6 to $165 for the Atmos 2, with the Vista at $175 on the trail side. That's premium money for a small brand, and what you get for it is a fit few other brands offer.
If you tried Altra and your calves rebelled, Topo is the shoe that solves the toe-box problem without asking your Achilles to relearn anything.
Best for: toe room without a full zero-drop transition.
On Running
On Running is the Swiss brand behind the Cloud series, and it now trades at on.com rather than on-running.com, which redirects. It's priced as a premium brand, above Saucony, and the design does more of the work than the running does.
The CloudTec pods on the outsole are the signature, and opinions on them are split. Some runners love the firm, propulsive feel. Others pick gravel out of the pods after every trail detour. What's not in dispute is that the Cloud and Cloudtilt look better with jeans than anything Saucony makes.
The Cloudmonster and Cloudsurfer are the cushioned road options if you want the look with more foam. More options in brands like On Running.
Best for: people who run four times a week and want the shoe to cover the other three days.
Reebok
Reebok is the cheapest way onto this list without dropping to supermarket shoes. It's a mid-range brand, and its running collection is a short, unfussy range rather than a wall of options you have to decode.
Against Saucony you're giving up midsole technology and keeping some money. For a beginner logging three easy runs a week, that's the right trade. For someone building towards a marathon it isn't, and you'll notice it somewhere past the ninety-minute mark.
Best for: a first pair, or a second pair you keep in the car.
Karhu
Karhu was founded in Helsinki in 1916, making it older than almost every brand here, and it started out making skis and javelins from Finnish birch before it made running shoes. In 1986 its R&D team worked with the University of Jyväskylä to develop Fulcrum, a propulsion system designed to give more energy at toe-off.
The current range prices in euros on a European storefront, with the Ikoni 3.5 at €155, the Fusion 5.0 at €170 and the Mestari Run 2.0 at €180. Check shipping to your country before you fall in love with it.
The ride is closer to Saucony's than the aesthetic suggests, and the shoes look like nothing else in a start pen.
Best for: runners bored of seeing their own shoes on every other pair of feet.
Lululemon
Lululemon sells technical apparel, footwear and accessories for yoga, running and training, and the footwear arm is the newest part of that. It's a premium brand, so expect to pay above Saucony for a shoe with less running heritage behind it.
That's not the whole picture though. Lululemon designs for a customer whose week mixes a 5K with studio classes, and a shoe built for that pattern beats a pure running shoe at it. Try a pair on in a store before you commit, and take the socks you run in.
If you're weighing it against a maximal cushioned option, we've done that comparison in Lululemon BlissFeel vs Hoka.
Best for: shorter runs stacked between gym and studio sessions.
Salomon
Salomon is the serious trail answer. Its parent company, Amer Sports, points to 11 wins by Salomon runners at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, which is the race that decides reputations in the sport.
Pricing sits mid-range, level with Saucony, and the difference is what the shoe is protecting you from. Saucony's trail models handle a gravel path. Salomon builds for rock, mud and descents where a slip costs you a season.
Sizing is the thing to get right. Trail shoes are cut closer than road shoes so your foot doesn't slide on a descent, and that closeness is unforgiving if you guess.
Best for: technical trails, and long days where the ground keeps changing.
Columbia
Columbia, based in Portland, Oregon, sells trail running shoes alongside its outerwear, and its current model is the Konos Speed Trail ATR. Worth knowing: the Montrail name that used to sit on these shoes has gone from the site, so search for Columbia rather than Montrail.
It's a mid-range brand and the pitch is weather. Columbia's whole business is built on keeping people dry and warm outdoors, and that engineering carries into the footwear in a way it doesn't for road-first brands like Saucony.
Best for: winter trail miles and rain you can't wait out.
Merrell
Merrell gives you the widest trail range at the friendliest prices. On its US site the Agility Peak 6 is $160, the Gore-Tex version is $185, the Nova 4 is $140 and the Antora 4 is $150. At the minimal end the Trail Glove 8 is $130 and the Vapor Glove 7 is $110.
That spread is the point. Merrell covers barefoot-style ground feel and cushioned mountain running in one catalogue, which no other brand on this list does at these prices.
The overlap with hiking is real too. If your weekend involves running out and walking back, a Merrell handles both, where a dedicated Saucony trail shoe is built for one of them.
Best for: mixed days on foot, and testing minimal shoes without spending $200.
Under Armour
Under Armour is the value pick for a proper running shoe. On the US site the Velociti Pace is $100, the Velociti SPD 5 is $130 and the Velociti Distance is $160, with the Charged Rogue 6 at $85 if you want the cheapest entry.
One correction worth making. The HOVR name has largely moved to track spikes and the HOVR Silencer ($110), so the road running you're comparing against Saucony now sits under the Velociti label. Look for that word, not HOVR.
A lot of the range was marked down when we checked, with the Charged+ Chase listed at $60 against a full price of $80, so the number you pay is often below the number on the tag.
Best for: tempo runs and race pace on a smaller budget.
Inov-8
Inov-8 is a premium specialist for fell and ultra running, and it now trades at inov8.com without the hyphen. The old inov-8.com address redirects there, which is worth knowing if you've bookmarked it.
Grip is the whole proposition. Where Saucony's trail shoes aim at a broad range of surfaces, Inov-8 builds for wet rock and steep ground, and it sells that grip as the reason to buy rather than as a feature list. Expect a shoe that sits closer to the ground than a cushioned road trainer.
Best for: fell running, and any race where the ground is wet and the gradient is rude.
Arc'teryx
Arc'teryx is the most expensive brand on this list, and its trail running line sits inside a company built for alpine conditions. Arc'teryx Equipment is based in North Vancouver and owned by Amer Sports, which also owns Salomon, so two of the picks here answer to the same parent.
The reason to consider it over Saucony is narrow and specific. If your running happens in mountains where the weather changes mid-run, Arc'teryx makes shoes and shells designed as one system. If your running happens on pavement, you're paying for capability you'll never touch.
Best for: mountain running where the shoe is the least of your worries.
How to Choose the Right Brand for You
Start with the thing that made you look past Saucony in the first place. If it was fit across the forefoot, go to New Balance for a width or Topo Athletic for a shape. If it was firmness, Hoka softens everything and Mizuno goes the other way. If it was money, Reebok and Under Armour both undercut Saucony without dropping to supermarket shoes.
Trail runners have a clearer path. Salomon and Inov-8 handle technical ground, Merrell covers you if half the day is walking, Columbia is the weather answer, and Arc'teryx is for mountains rather than woodland.
And do the boring thing before you buy. Measure your foot in the evening, in the socks you run in, and check the return window covers a real run rather than a lap of your hallway. More alternatives across the running category sit in our archive.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
