The Best Men’s Running Shoes, From Carbon-Plated Rockets to Everyday Workhorses

Somewhere around 2020, the running shoe industry decided that the laws of physics were merely suggestions. Nike stuffed a carbon plate—a rigid sliver of fiber that acts like a springboard with every stride—into a foam sandwich and broke the two-hour marathon. Adidas responded with its own supercritical foam. Hoka made maximalism mainstream. And then everybody—Saucony, Asics, New Balance, brands making perfectly competent shoes for decades—entered a materials arms race involving nitrogen-injected cushioning...