Price: $140
Weight: 6.7 oz (M), 5.8 oz (W)
Type: Road racing
The right shoe for: 10K racing flat for efficient, veteran racers
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A Hoka One One in name only, the EVO Rehi is like nothing else the brand has put out in its young history. This elf slipper-like shoe doesn’t have the thick, soft midsole you’ve come to expect. Instead, it’s a low-slung, rock-hard racer, designed to do one thing—go fast over short distances.
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Its design gives a nod to the brand’s heritage, but don’t let that white heel fool you. The foam there is little more than a stabilizing feature, wrapping up around the edges of your heel. In fact, your foot sits lower into the midsole, so there’s not much cushioning between your foot and the road. The foam that is there, however, does a decent job taking the sting out of pavement if you make a light touch down with your heel at fast paces.
Because it’s a racing flat, all emphasis is on reducing weight. Thus, there’s no rubber outsole—a rubberized foam midsole is used instead, which holds up fairly well to contact with concrete. And the upper has been stripped back to lightweight elements—there’s no heel counter or heavy overlays to slow you down.
Weightless Upper
Hoka shrouded the shoe with its Matryx upper, much like what we’ve seen on the EVO Mafate. The mesh is woven with exceptionally light and strong Kevlar threads. Kevlar won’t absorb any water if you’re racing on rainy days, which means you won’t get weighted down if you have to splash through puddles like you would with more conventional materials.
That thread also gives you all the strength and structure you need from the mesh, but it doesn’t stretch at all. To counter this, Hoka added a stretchy panel on the vamp, the top of the toe box. But, it has little effect really. If you have a high volume foot, you’re out of luck, says our test team. The length is spot on, but the shoe fits snug in the forefoot, especially in toe box height.
Flexible, Responsive Ride
To be clear, this shoe is a racing flat. It’s supposed to be hard. That’s a good thing here. When you land, it absorbs a little bit of impact, but doesn’t compress much, which would otherwise slow you down at 5K and 10K speeds. The thin forefoot really feels explosive, thanks to flex grooves that are positioned diagonally across the sole, allowing it to bend effortlessly as you toe off.
Our test team favorably compared the Rehi to a Nike Free and even said it behaves like track spikes—without the steel pins. We regularly employed them for quarter-mile repeats on the track and one-mile intervals on the roads. In both cases, the shoe felt quick and comfortable for the intended purpose, but most of us didn’t want to push it for longer road races like a half-marathon or 26.2 miler.
Pros
- Behaves like track spikes, minus the steel pins
- Kevlar upper is exceptionally light
Cons
- A firm platform—this shoe is meant for racing
Wear Tester Feedback
Michele G., tester since 2012
Arch: Medium | Gait: Overpronator | Footstrike: Heel
“I have mainly worn these shoes for track workouts and tempo workouts on roads. I used them for short sprints, 400M on the track, and on the road I used them for mainly 3 mile repeats. I’d suggest only purchasing these to wear in races and for speed workouts. My feet wouldn’t be happy after a 20-plus-mile long run. If the shoe is used for what it’s meant for, I think it’s top quality and highly recommend them.”
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
