A customer also said that the laces are thin and loose after some time, and the underfoot cushioning is something bad with a less breathable mesh upper that makes these shoes imperfect on hot days.

During the tempo speeds, I saw this shoe shine. With the 0-drop design, I feel I can lean forward more and push the pace with great energy return. I have enjoyed running in the Rivera. I find that I start of my easy runs at a nice slow pace but, then as I get into my rhythm the shoe encourages you to go faster. The bit of bounce in the midsole and the way the shoe flexes moves my pace effortlessly up. This means that I have to exercise a bit of self control in easy to runs to maintain and easy pace. However, in steady/tempo runs you can just leg go and bool along. To pull off the foot hold in such as soft pliable upper and with a wide toe box the length is on the short side and the front height low, but unless you are on the high side of a half size up I would not consider sizing up Up front we have longitudinal pads of only slightly softer rubber than the rear protruding from above deep grooves into the midsole. In conjunction with the Inner Flex grooves into the top of the midsole we have an easy but not overly easy long flexing shoe with the broad forefoot platform and outsole contributing to good front stability. Some runners prefer the narrower toe boxes of shoes like Reebok’s Forever Floatride Energy. Lakota Gambill A Natural Take on TechAltra makes some of the best running shoes in the business, but there are plenty of excellent shoes from other brands. See the best running shoe brands 2023 for more great shoes.

The Altra Ego material has a nice bounce, and I felt very happy with the performance when I took it for tempo runs. In fact, this is where I plan to keep this shoe for the moment.

Altra Women's Rivera

The midsole of Rivera 3 is made from Altra EGO Max for a softer and more responsive feel compared to Rivera 2. In general I prefer Altra's EGO midsoles to Quantic as it just feels like the more modern foam compound. If I want an overly cushy shoe, I will go for a Hoka or one of New Balance's softer iterations of Fresh Foam X. The EGO foam of the Rivera just works better across a wider pace range, especially given how much of it is under the foot compared to the Escalante. This isn’t a con, but just a reminder. We all (should) know the drill about the adaptation it takes to running in low-drop or zero-drop shoes. If you’ve been running shoes with a 4mm drop, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. But if you’ve been running in shoes with a 6mm to 12mm offset, then you might feel some tightness the day after the first several runs in a zero-drop shoe. Wow Altra is getting sleeker in their designs and for sure more modern. Gone in the Rivera 3 are the toy like look of past Altra and the somewhat goofy looking and hard for me to secure toe boxes of the classic Foot Shape fit, a plus for me but a minus for some.