Gear Review: NURVV Run Smart Insoles

Smart insoles? Why not?

TL;DR

When I first got the press release about the new NURVV Run insoles, I knew I needed to try them.

But first, on the transparency front, I need to tell you that I was sent this set of insoles for me to review, but I’m not being compensated for it and no one will see this before I post it.

So what are these space age looking insoles?

Well, not unlike the watch you wear on your wrist they give you a bunch of data for you to geek out over.

Now, these are GPS-enabled so you’ll get the usual metrics that you’re used to, like:

Heart rate (with an attached HRM)
Distance
Time
Pace
Splits
Cadence

And what’s cool about these is that you can run with or without your phone. Those pods that attach to the outside of your shoe will collect the data and then sync with the app when you’re in range of your phone.

What Sets NURVV Apart

But the metrics that I think set these aside are step length, footstrike, pronation and balance.

Like most running products on the market, NURVV has a proprietary app. And the interesting feature of the NURVV app is that you can not only see all of the metrics I mentioned above, but also includes a foot strike trainer. And as a heel striker who’s been told my entire running life that I run “wrong”, I’m interested to see how that works.

The app also has what they call your Running Health score. Here’s how it works, once you’ve run at least 10km and four separate runs, you get a personalized Running Health score between 0-100 which indicate how sustainable your running is based on Training load, Pronation, Cadence and Left/Right balance.

The NURVV insoles come in at just under an ounce each – 8/10ths to be exact, so I don’t think weight will be an issue.

You get five hours out of each charge, so if you’re a marathon plodder, this might not be the product for you, or you might use this as an add on for training.

But at $300 a pair, it would be an expensive add on.

So let’s talk about the good.

The Good

I love that you can track your running and fitness without a watch. This means that if you’re like me, you don’t have the option to constantly look at your watch to see if you’re on pace, or when that interval will be over so you can throw up, or if you’re hitting your HRM zone.

In essence, you learn to run more by feel than being mandated by our wrist.

But that can be a negative as well. Because until you learn to run by feel, who knows if you’re going to be able to hit your goals in your workouts or races (when they come back).

I love that there is something that will give me definitive data on where my foot strike is. Do I land on my heel or midfoot. And if I want to train myself to hit in a different spot, there’s an app for that built in. I won’t have to hire a coach.

The Bad

Most of the things I didn’t like about the product were more about the build. I’m not a fan of these huge pods hanging off the side of my kicks. I don’t think they got in the way of the running, but I don’t like the way they look.

I can get over that.

What I can’t get over is that when I wore shoes that had a thicker collar, the pods were hard to get clipped in and I found that they were rubbing my ankles.

And that caused blistering. So I found that running in Mizuno Wave Riders were better than say, ASICS Nimbus.

Also, the satellites took forever to find. Now granted I live in NYC. But other GPS products I’ve used have been able to overcome the NYC issue. Even after updating and running in an open park, I found I had an issue with finding.

I haven’t taken them out of the city to check if it’s a city thing or a product failure, because, well, COVID. So if you get a pair, you might not have the same issue I have.

Would love to hear your thoughts on these and if you think the technology warrants the price tag.

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My Current Running Gear

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