ASICS Men's GEL-Venture 5 Trail Runner

My son just returned from Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Dominican Republic and all Caribbean Islands. The challenge involves different kinds of terrains, plus the unpredictable tropical weather, with temperatures raging between 2 to 0 Celsium degrees (26 degrees in daytime when arriving at the starting point in La Ciénaga town, and 0 degrees at the top of Pico Duarte), Wind,sun, cold, rain, lots and lots of mud, rocky paths slippery with mud and rain, and the beautiful tropical forest everywhere... Going up, then down, all day long. He walked about 60 kilometers, distributed more or less evenly in three days. All that said, now what you need to know is that my son absolutely loves his shoes! He told me they are very light, dried quickly, and were comfortable.He also told me that he is still wondering how these shoes got though all what he did to them, and came out of this rough test almost perfect! (the rubber at a little part of the tip of one shoe will need a bit of glue to be good as new). At one point, when coming down from one of the many mountains, there was a lot of mud in the rocky path. He was more or less ¨skating¨ downwards, because he was tired and he just didn't care what happened to the shoes, as long as he got to the bottom (where the camp was) soon. Afterwards, when washing the mud away, he was surprised to see no damage was done to the shoes! It was raining almost all the time, so he just put his shoes near the fire they built every night, and in no time the shoes were dry again. He had another pair of shoes, just in case, but didn't use them because they were not as comfortable and light as his new shoes. He also told me that he noticed the shoes somehow repelled the huge amounts of mud they were supposed to be caked in. When the shoes were too full of mud inside and everywhere, he just took them in the river and washed away the excess. He was so glad to have these excellent shoes for this trip. Many of his friends had heavier shoes, tenis or boots, and not as comfortable, and they had blisters from day 1. My son told me that he got through the hardest parts of the trip, and had not even one blister (he was using one number up from his normal size, but the strain of the rough paths were enough to damage shoes and feet alike, and my son got away from that with his feet intact!).

I have a tendency to invert my right foot which causes my foot to slide sideways off my shoe. I searched through at least 100 different athletic shoes to try to find one that would adequately stabilize my foot and keep my right foot from sliding laterally off my bike peddle. I saw these and thought that the overall construction would do the trick but was almost put off by the low price, thinking that if it is 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of my usual brand shoe that I would be getting less quality in architectural support. I have now gone a few hundred miles in these and am delighted with their construction, comfort/fit and durability. Another plus is that they stay tied! I do not have to double knot these. UPDATE 6/6/2020: I am STILL in this shoe with more than a thousand cycling miles. I like it so much I bought another pair that are sitting, unused, on the shelf in my closet because I just can't seem to wear out the original pair. I am on my 50th cycling workout for this year and the shoe is like new. Comfortable with good support.

I've been happily running in various ASICS running shoes for over 20 years, like the DS-1000 & 2000, Gel-Kahana, and DS-Trainer (my fave, but too expensive for my needs these days). I'm an 8-1/2 in street shoes but have always sized a half size up with my ASICS shoes, to a 9-D, and the fit has usually been perfect. The only exceptions, interestingly my two most recent pairs of ASICS, were the Gel-Kahana, which was just a tad too large, and the DS-1000, which was a bit too narrow. It was time for a new pair and I'd read good things about the Gel-Venture, so I ordered a pair of 9-Ds from Amazon (after trying them on in a local store to make sure the size was right). But when I got them, I could immediately tell that they were too narrow, and they actually hurt one foot that's slightly bigger than the other. I thought that maybe my feet had swelled due to the heat wave we've been having here, and waited a few more days to try them again, but no difference. Same thing several days later. So I'm going to be sending them back for a refund. Pity, as I really liked the shoes otherwise, and I do mostly trail running these days. However, when I saw that the same model, but in a wider 9-4E, had just jumped down in price here, I decided to order those and try them out. I get them in a couple of days. Hopefully, they'll fit much better and I'll keep them. Sadly, they're not available in my preferred color scheme, but I guess you can't have everything! I'll post an update when I get the new pair and try them on. Bottom line, though, some ASICS shoes appear to run even smaller and/or narrower than they usually do. Perhaps my feet have just gotten bigger. But I had the same exact problem with a pair of DS-1000's that I bought last year, so who knows. UPDATE: I ended up ordering a wide pair and they turned out to be too wide. And by the time they arrived, the first pair was now fitting me just fine. I think I know what the problem was. It's been incredibly hot and humid here in the northeast all summer, and I found out that such weather can make feet swell. That was almost certainly the case with me. Once it cooled down a bit and I tried them on again, they fit perfectly. I returned the second, wide pair, and tried running in the original, standard width pair. They had slightly less arch support than I'm used to, but then they're listed as Neutral, not Stability shoes, so that makes sense. It took a little getting used to, but now I like running in them, on paved and unpaved surfaces (grass, trails, dirt paths, etc.) I wouldn't call these hard-core trail shoes, for long trail runs on poorly maintained trails with roots, rocks, streams, etc. But for casual off-road running they're more than adequate. Plus they're light and cushiony enough for paved surface running. They're also good for walking around. Ironically, they're actually a bit too large sometimes, when I'm wearing very thin socks, so I insert an old pair of orthotics to make them fit properly. With thicker socks I don't need the orthotics. I'm wondering how they'll perform when it starts to get cooler, over fallen leaves, snow, ice, etc., when traction is important. But, overall, I like them so far.

Good quality..

Brilliant wide size selected due to bunions!

Würde ich jederzeit wieder bestellen, tolle Farbtiefe, gute Verarbeitung ist zwar nicht ganz günstig aber Qualität hat halt seinen Preis

Got them for my son and he is really happy with these

Fits my narrow feet well. Good looking shoe. Comfortable