Two-minute review
The UA HOVR Mega 2 Clone marks the primary time Under Armour has dropped its Clone higher onto a working shoe, aiming to supply a extra supportive, adaptive match for all sorts of runners. Except it didn’t really feel like the proper match on this impartial shoe possibility.
While that higher wraps nearer to your toes than most, we discovered it fairly tight in locations, making it a lower than comfy working expertise on all of our runs.
On the plus facet, you do have Under Armour’s HOVR cushioning tech planted within the midsole, which is properly responsive, however the general weight of the shoe makes it arduous work if you wish to run rapidly or use it for lengthy distance runs.
What the Mega 2 Clone has in abundance is safety, with beneficiant padding and a TPU heel wrap that provides assist in the fitting locations. There’s a stable rubber outsole right here too that provides nice traction, and it looks like a shoe that’s constructed to chew up plenty of working time.
UA contains its Record sensor, which suggests you’re getting the flexibility to trace working metrics and use its MapMyRun app to investigate working kind and get teaching suggestions. The focus is on enhancing cadence with further metrics on provide if you wish to dig deeper into points of your working kind.
Overall although, the Mega 2 Clone isn’t a groundbreaking working shoe with a revolutionary higher, and there are definitely sneakers on the market to placed on as a substitute that can higher deal with these simple effort runs and massive lengthy coaching runs, and provide a extra dependable match.
Price and launch date
The UA HOVR Mega 2 Clone was launched on August 18 2021 priced at $140 / £130 (about AU$190, although no official Australian pricing was out there on the time of writing).
Design
In maintaining with the UA sneakers which have packed its HOVR cushioning tech previously, there’s definitely nothing discreet concerning the look of the Mega 2 Clone. It’s a giant, daring shoe, with our explicit colorway providing splashes of UA pink, and the brand new grey Clone higher with an arrowhead impact sample that provides it severe carpet vibes.
That Clone higher is the headline draw right here, as Under Armour adopts an higher strategy it’s already utilized to its soccer boots and boxing boots. It makes use of an auxetic materials with that arrowhead design that conforms to totally different zones of the foot, and is designed to adapt to each runner’s foot {shape} and the way they transfer. Ultimately, it ought to create a greater match for all.
When you slip on this shoe and expertise that higher for the primary time, the auxetic materials has a noticeably stretchy really feel, which extends to areas across the tongue. Once your foot is in, it does actually hug round it.
It usually felt high quality across the sides and the again of the foot, however up entrance within the toe field in our traditional UK dimension 8, it was a particularly tight match and felt uncomfortably cosy on runs. We tried carrying pairs of barely thinner socks, however that discomfort upfront remained, so it’d require leaping up a dimension for some.
In phrases of these key shoe specs, you’re a shoe with a excessive 8mm heel-to-toe drop sitting at 31mm on the heel and 23mm on the forefoot. So that is one to cater for midfoot strikers. At 309g for a males’s UK dimension 8.5 and 257g for a ladies’s UK dimension 5, it’s not the lightest of sneakers, and it reveals when you get transferring in them.
Joining that distinctive higher is a set of spongy laces (although not fairly as spongy as those on the Saucony Ride 14). The tongue is sweet and padded, and it’s an analogous story on the heel collar to supply that snugness in the fitting locations. A TPU heel wrap is in place to maintain issues locked down and provide some added safety. There’s additionally reflective parts across the again to present you a small visibility enhance for early morning and evening time runs.
On the outsole, you’re getting a beneficiant quantity of rubber with carbon rubber additional again to bolster sturdiness on the heel, and blown rubber up entrance within the forefoot, which is designed to supply some spring if you attempt to decide up the tempo.
Sandwiched between that Clone higher and rubber outsole is an EVA molded sockliner with UA’s HOVR cushioning foam and Charged foam to ship a easy, secure journey and to verify it delivers sturdy power return too.
Lastly, these sneakers have been planted with UA’s Record sensor although it’s not a sensor you possibly can visibly see. Its presence means you possibly can observe working metrics and you are able to do it with or with out UA’s MapMyRun app. Take your cellphone out with you and you may get real-time suggestions on working metrics like cadence. Post-run, you’ll get an evaluation of your run together with points of your working kind to hone in and work on.
Performance
The general feeling of working within the HOVR Mega 2 Clone is that we discovered it a little bit of a clunky shoe, even at sluggish to average paces. UA’s HOVR cushioning felt responsive in a really constant method, and clearly makes it an excellent match for lengthy, simple runs. That midsole isn’t too mushy or agency, however it was arduous going choosing up the tempo in and we’d put that all the way down to the load. There simply wasn’t any satisfying snap to them.
Our grievances with the tightness within the toe field apart, that bulkiness is generally current behind the shoe the place there’s just a little extra occurring so far as housing that heel wrap and simply being a little bit of a bit again there. We had no problems with slippage although, and it’s clear UA has bolstered the fitting areas to present it construction, assist and make this a shoe that you simply’ll need to use and put plenty of miles in day by day.
Where you possibly can’t actually fault the Mega 2 Clone is the rubber outsole, which feels constructed to final and grips nicely on dry pavements and holds up nicely on extra gravel-like surfaces. We can’t say we actually skilled that spring within the toe-off from the carbon rubber positioned up entrance, however the raised outsole seems to be feels it’s constructed to resist plenty of working time and has proven no worrying indicators of wear and tear in our testing.
Another plus is the UA’s related smarts, with the monitoring sensor planted into the fitting shoe and might precisely serve up information like distance, tempo. You can even map routes if you pair them up with Under Armour’s MapMyRun cellphone app. With plenty of working tech on the market exterior of watches promising to enhance your kind,
UA’s strategy of specializing in cadence and offering recommendation and recommendations on how you can make enhancements works fairly nicely. It’s not delivered in an awesome method and even skilled runners and newbie runners can profit from the insights.
This is a shoe that will get plenty of issues proper from a consolation and cushioning perspective that ought to make it a each day coach possibility for straightforward to average effort brief and lengthy runs. That Clone higher did not completely work for us and if you have a look at the choices out there round this worth and for much less, you might discover a lighter shoe that provides a much more thrilling cushioning tech and is nicer to run quite a lot of paces and periods in.
Buy it if
You’re not fussed about racing
Think of the Mega 2 Clone as a shoe to show to for straightforward to average paced runs and may very well be an excellent possibility for mixing in some working along with your gymnasium time.
You need a sturdy, protecting shoe
This shoe gives a supportive, secure journey making it one for anybody that’s searching for one shoe to eat up plenty of working miles in.
Don’t purchase it if
You like a lightweight, breathable shoe
The Mega 2 Clone is certainly on the heavy facet and whereas that Clone higher hugs cosy to the foot, it’s thick and never an excellent possibility for decent climate runs.
You need a shoe to run fast in
This is a each day coach shoe that undoubtedly veers extra in direction of one thing to run simple miles in and doesn’t provide a lot snap to make you need to run sooner in them.
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