The HOKA brand seemed to explode out of nowhere a few years ago. It seemed like everyone at the hospital I work at was wearing them, and the general consensus was “they are so comfortable.” I never bought myself a pair because their style didn’t match my taste. Quite frankly that huge sole just looks nerdy.

For Christmas one year, my wife Christine gifted me a pair of HOKA SpeedGoat with a zero drop heel. Immediately upon donning them, they felt completely different to any shoe I’ve ever worn. That’s because HOKAs have a “meta-rocker” i.e. a rocker bottom shoe. This means your heel and forefoot are the same distance to the ground. The end result for me was rapid onset of plantar fasciitis. Bet you can guess what my ranking on that particular shoe would be. 

There are reasons why a person would actually need a rocker bottom shoe. As Podiatrists, we prescribe a rocker bottom stiff soled shoe primarily for midfoot or great toe arthritis. They are also featured in all fracture boots and post op shoes. So what’s the supposed benefit for those without those conditions? To help a runner roll through their stride. 

The Tecton X 2 is HOKA’s high end trail running shoe and has won accolades from various outlets for being one of the best running shoes of the year. It’s a heavy price tag at $225 but I wanted to try the best. These feature a low drop heel of 5mm which I thought would be more tolerable than the zero drop heel of the SpeedGoat. Unfortunately that was not the case and I have been battling recurrent plantar fasciitis since seriously trying to break in these shoes.

A beautiful shoe with carbon fiber plates and a Matryx upper give the Tecton X 2 the newest technologies available. They get more style points than most of their models so I’m not self conscious about wearing them to work, however the meta-rocker leaves me feeling unbalanced while walking. Running in them is how to truly appreciate the rocker bottom experience. It will take some alternating with my usual Asics (see last blog post) to resolve my plantar fasciitis. Due to this my Tecton X 2 ranking is low at 2/10. Try at your own risk!!

Written by: Dr. Richard J. Rand III, DPM