If you haven’t checked out the shoes from Italian footwear brand Diadora lately, the brand’s all-purpose Frequenza training shoe is a good place to start.
You might not be aware of Diadora as a running brand, but you’ve probably seen their soccer shoes in action if you’re a fan of World Cup futbol. The brand has been making a strong push into the U.S. running market for the past several years and its shoes – which have always been known for bold, eye-catching aesthetics – have really started to push the envelope of performance this year. (The $300 Diadora Gara Carbon racing shoes rank up there with the best carbon-plated max-cushion racing models on the market, and one I’d recommend to any marathoner who has yet to decide on their shoes for a fall marathon.)
The shoe I’ve been running in consistently for the past two weeks is Diadora’s Frequenza everyday training shoe. Frequenza is the Italian word for “frequency” and given how well this shoe embellishes high-cadence running, it seems to be an appropriate name. It’s not hyperbole when I say that the Frequenza is a plateless shoe that rivals the energy return of shoes with carbon-fiber plates – much in the way the nylon-plated Saucony Endorphin Speed 2 did a few years ago. Just as I loved that shoe for its versatility and speediness, I have really enjoyed running in the multi-talented Frequenza. Long runs? Yes, indeed! Speed workouts? Yep! Easy-paced recovery runs? Absolutely.
More than any other shoe I’ve run in this year, this one seems almost too good to be true. It’s a versatile shoe that’s incredibly light, incredibly soft, incredibly responsive, and incredibly fast, too. It’s a rare shoe that can do everything exceptionally well, but it’s also a shoe that seems to do a lot of the work for you.
What’s New: The Frequenza is a brand new shoe with three extraordinary components – the very soft but very responsive Anima N2 supercritical EVA midsole, an airy nylon mesh upper, and the reliable Duratech 5000 outsole rubber – that are not only individually superior, but also much greater than the sum of their parts when combined.
Fit/Feel/Ride: The Diadora Frequenza fits true to size with a narrow-medium interior volume that serves up a snug, connected feeling in the heel and midfoot and a little bit of extra room in the forefoot. It has a plush, comfortable interior that’s enhanced by extra softness throughout the entire heel cup. The thin tongue isn’t gusseted (and can feel like it’s awkwardly floating around), but it contributes to the snug fit when it’s properly laced up. As soon as you start running at any pace, the first thing you notice is the squishy-soft sensation of the midsole foam. It’s almost marshmallowy soft, but it’s also surprisingly springy, too.
What makes the Frequenza special is the bouncy and resilient high-energy ride that’s tied to the super soft and extremely responsive Anima N2 supercritical EVA midsole. The midsole is created in an innovative foaming process that increases rebound over typical midsole materials by 40%, while reducing its weight by 40%. Diadora says its internal lab-testing has shown that the total energy return of the midsole compound is about 72% – and that puts it on par with best foams in the industry (even without a propulsion plate). That’s truly stunning, and you can definitely feel it in every stride you take.
Why It’s Great: The Frequenza is great because it’s incredibly versatile. You can feel the liveliness of the midsole on faster-paced runs like speedy intervals and tempo runs, but you can also immediately sense it on long runs and slower recovery runs, too. Because it’s not a fully maximally cushioned shoe, you can feel the ground (especially under the forefoot) better than in most everyday trainers, and that contributes to the agile handling and proprioceptive feel this shoe serves up. Is this a true do-everything shoe? Yes, it certainly is. If you want only one pair of shoes in your quiver – or if you’re going on a work trip or a vacation and want to pack only one pair – this do-it-all model is like the multi-tool you can stash in the glove compartment of your car or truck. No doubt it’s kind of a pricey shoe ($180), but you get what you pay for by way of versatility.
SpecsWeights: 6.6 oz. (women’s 8), 8.1 oz. (men’s 9)Heel-Toe Offset: 8mm; 35mm (heel), 27mm (forefoot)
Why You’ll Love It: You might love it for its energy return. Or that it’s impossibly light for such a cushy shoe. It reminds me a lot of the original Hoka Clifton that debuted in 2014 and helped Hoka blast off as maximally cushioned shoes took off in earnest. Because it’s one of those rare shoes that can truly do everything very well, you don’t have to think twice about lacing it up every day of the week. But because it puts such a spring in your step, it’s a shoe that’s going to promote faster running at every pace. I surprised myself by running a 10-miler about 30 seconds faster per mile than I thought I would, but it also made every recovery run slightly faster than it should have, too.
Pro: Most shoes this light and soft are also relatively unstable, but the wide footprint of the Frequenza gives it a surprising amount of inherent stability. It might be a challenging shoe to adapt to for runners who are excessive overpronators, but I didn’t find it wobbly or imbalanced at any pace as it seemed to do a very good job of channeling my directions.
Con: While it’s light and responsive enough to be a 5K/10K racing shoe, it’s still not going to be as all-out fast as a carbon-plated shoe. On top of that, I wasn't a fan of the tongue or the overly long, flat/rippled laces, but neither was a detractor to the fit or performance of the shoe.
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