Picked up a new pair of shoes this past weekend. My Saucony Guide 7s are getting up there in miles, so I wanted to have something to replace them with once they got too worn out. My main shoe right now is my Brooks Ravenna 5, but I don’t care for the Ravenna 6, so I’m experimenting with replacement lines.

While at the store I got to try on both the v3 and v4 of the 870, and wow, what a difference. The v3 felt like a completely different shoe. It felt heavier and stiffer, whereas the v4 is super light and the material of the upper feels more flexible and soft. The cushioning is much softer in the v4 (at least to my feet), and the small bit of motion control is what I’m looking for in my shoe. I tried the v4 with a Saucony Guide 8 on the other foot and the two shoes are almost identical. So if you like the Guide series of shoes, you’ll probably feel very at home with the 870v4.

This morning I got a chance to take them out on an inaugural run. Overall I was very satisfied with the amount of support and cushion that they give, and only had one minor gripe. The tongue on the right shoe felt like it was sliding to the side. However, that could very well be due to not having the laces tightened correctly, so I’ll work with that a bit to see if I can mitigate that small imperfection.

Very happy with this shoe, and I look forward to a lot of miles before the snow flies.