Winners of the iRun 2021 Golden Shoe Awards

We asked iRun readers to vote on their favourite things of the year and no brand won more than Saucony.

With 63 out of 327 votes, Saucony is your iRun 2021 Brand of the Year.

Here is Reid Coolsaet’s review of the Endorphin Pro 2.

Third place: Brooks

There were other big awards in the 2021 iRun Golden Shoe Awards.

We also asked readers for their favourite winter shoe.

Receiving an unbelievable 60 votes is the Saucony Peregrine Ice.

Second place, with 20 votes, was the ASICS GTX.

Third place was the Nike Shield.

261 of 327 runners said that they bought their last pair of shoes at an independent running store.

BlackToe Running is your 2021 Best Canadian Shoe Retailer of the Year.

2021 was the year of virtual races. 260 of our respondents ran a virtual event—nearly 80%.

The top three virtual events of 2021, according to iRun Nation:

3. We Run the North

2. Canada Running Series 10K

1. The Boston Marathon (these Toronto-based athletes obviously ran the actual Boston Marathon; but the photograph still represents the joy of the event).

The 2021 Watch of the Year: Garmin

The 2021 App of the Year: Strava

We want to thank everyone who participated in the 2021 iRun Golden Shoe Awards. A few more take aways:

• Hoka One One was the biggest mover of the year. Not on our list in 2020, Hoka scored 36 votes for Shoe of the Year—just three less than Nike.
• COROS was also a big mover. Only 5 votes beneath Fitbit, COROS definitely is one to—pardon the pun—watch.

Happy holidays, everyone. Here’s to all of us finding new finish lines in the new year.