Fresh Brew Run Club

Here’s why Nike Pegasus Turbo is my favorite shoe of all time; a review.

I love the Nike Pegasus Turbo. This isn’t so much a shoe review, but an ode to a model that is being phased out of existence. I’ve run over 1,200 miles in various colorways of this shoe, set my half marathon PR, run the streets of Madison Heights, London and Paris in a pair of these sneakers.

The Nike Pegasus 35 Turbo was released on July 19, 2018. It was marketed as the “advanced” version of the ubiquitous Nike Pegasus. I actually switched to the Pegasus 35 that year and ran my half marathon PR. I didn’t initially buy the Pegasus Turbo to run in, I just mostly liked the way they looked, especially the “hot punch” colorway. However, I couldn’t just let this comfortable of a shoe be relegated to trips to Kroger, so I started running in them, and haven’t looked back since. Even the shoe came out over two years ago, I still wanted to share my Nike Pegasus Turbo review.

The looks

Deion Sanders once famously stated, “If you look good, you feel good, and if you feel good, you play good.” If there has ever been a shoe that’s lived up to that quote, it is the Pegasus Turbo. The most distinct feature is the bold racing stripe down the middle, which is not something you normally see on a running shoe, and reminiscent of the original Nike Miler track spike. The over-sized Nike Swoosh on both sides stands out, and even the little flare on the heel can turn heads.

Nike went all out with the colorways on this shoe, from the original “hot punch” to all kinds of unique colorways not commonly associated with trainers.

The feel

These are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever run in. They are a very light shoe, but also maintain enough support to be an everyday trainer. The cushion on this shoe, thanks to the ZoomX foam feels incredible. It is one of the smoothest shoes I’ve ever run in. I am also a big fan of the amount of padding on the tongue and around the heel. While many shoes are opting for thinner material in these areas (like the Pegasus Turbo 2), the padding adds a level of comfort that makes up for the increased weight it adds.

This shoe is the perfect mix of something supportive enough to be an everyday shoe, but also light enough to be something worthy of race day. In a world of increasingly specialized shoes for different distances and events, this shoe is a rare Swiss Army Knife.

The durability?

If there’s one downside to this shoe, it is the durability. While I can easily get 400+ miles on the regular Pegasus, the Turbo starts to break down around the 300 mile mark. The most noticeable area is the outsole, which tends to wear down quickly, depending on where you strike your foot. I’m a heel striker (currently working on changing that), so I wore down the heel area first. And once you burn through the outsole rubber, the ZoomX foam gets chewed up pretty fast. Otherwise, the seams, laces insole and upper held together very well.

The Pegasus Turbo 2

A year after the original Pegasus arrived, the Pegasus 2 was released. I was immediately disappointed to see the racing stripe removed in favor of a simpler design. I was further disappointed to find that the Peg 2 was basically a lighter, stripped down version of the original. The outsole and midsole remained the same, but the upper was replaced with a thinner material, removing all of the heel padding. The tongue was also replaced with a near paper-thin iteration. I found the new version to have less support and I’m not a big fan of the thin tongue. While I appreciate the effort to lighten the shoe, but I feel like it lost the comfort of the original. I still use my Pegasus Turbo 2, but mostly for speed work on the track.

The future

It turns out the Turbo 2 would be the last of the Turbo models. Nike has no plans to release a third version of the shoe, but the chatter is the new Nike Tempo Next% is a Turbo-ish replacement. While the shoe has not released in the United States, the reviews elsewhere have been generally positive.

Until that replacement comes, I plan on continuing to re-up on the original Turbo, thanks to the secondary market. While I have also enjoyed the Nike Miler, I have yet to find a shoe with the flexibility of the Turbo. My Nike Pegasus Turbo review may be two years too late, but the shoe still holds a special place on my feet in 2020.

Have you run in the Pegasus Turbo before? Leave your review in the comments!