The On Cloudboom Strike is a soft, bouncy and cushioned racing shoe that blends comfort and speed. Like all top-tier marathon racing shoes in 2024, the Cloudboom uses a full-length carbon-fiber plate in the midsole to stabilize the race foam and direct your force forward—the difference here is that foam is one of the softest and most pleasant foams we've tried, without being too mushy. There's the perfect amount of foam above the plate in the forefoot to deliver a pleasantly cushioned ride that's deceivingly fast. We've had some of our best workouts of the year in this shoe, setting a few 5k PRs along the way. While the midsole set-up is great, the major downside of the shoe is everything happening with the upper. It's baggy, ill-fitting and so sloppy on foot that we mistook the bunched fabric jumping up and down on top of our forefoot for untied lacing flopping everywhere. That feeling wasn't the laces, but funny enough, lace drama was indeed going down too—the factory laces are hands down the worst we've tested on any shoe this year regardless of price or category, as they came untied no fewer than THREE TIMES on our first run and one minute into our second workout. We ran back home and switched them after that. Upper issues forgiven, this is one of the most fun shoes of the year, and it's a great choice if you're looking for a race shoe with soft comfort, a stable platform and a fast ride. If you want a slightly firmer ride or don't want to fuss with switching laces on a nearly $300 shoe, check out the Hoka Cielo X1 (max stack, cushion and bounce) or Adidas Adios Pro 3 (stable race day workhorse).

Category

Race day

Release Date

August 2024

Plated?

Yes

Type of Plate

Full carbon plate

Foam

Helion HF

Foam Compound

PEBA

Ride

Bouncy, Cushioned, Soft

Heel Stack (mm)

43.0

Forefoot Stack (mm)

39.0

Drop (mm)

4

Weight (mens size 9)

7.5

Support

Neutral

Fit

Roomy