Kit & Gear

REVIEW: Mizuno Wave Rebellion

The Wave Rebellion is the product of Mizuno's quest to bring extra pace to everyday runners.

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Aim for your fastest runs ever with the new road running shoe, built for speed that doesn't skimp on cushioning. Offering a boost of propulsive power, it is equipped with MIZUNO ENERZY lite for cushioning and incredible energy return. MIZUNO WAVE guarantees smooth stability and the G3 sole delivers amazing grip.

Created with a simple goal in mind: to help everyone run fast, whatever their fast is.

At last, super-fast shoes, not just for super-fast runners.

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Our Sportsshoes.com athlete and GB international, Jenny Nesbitt, has been testing the Wave Rider 25. Here’s what she had to say;

When I first received the Mizuno Wave Rebellion I was excited to try a ‘fast’ shoe that is designed to be a little more forgiving on the legs than some of the carbon options on the market. Let’s face it, most of us won’t be blasting out world-class mile splits any time soon, so Mizuno released the Rebellion for runners of all standards looking to experience extra speed in comfort, whilst feeling like they are in control of their run.

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With a midsole of a bio-based wave plate, made with castor beans, nylon and reinforced with glass fibre, Mizuno claim this shoe to be significantly more responsive than previous releases – which is a win-win in a training/racing shoe! This was an element of the shoe I was really interested to see, as I try to move away from doing all my ‘faster’ work in carbon plated shoes.

So, heading out on an evening build run, I laced up the Mizuno Wave Rebellion in the hope I would have an extra pep in my step as I tried to hit my splits! Surprisingly the first mile felt very easy, almost too easy…the second one I clipped off at what felt like a canter too. Third mile down, then the fourth and finally the fifth. I felt like I had a heightened responsiveness underfoot and a spring in my step! An extra bonus was the sole had a great amount of grip, so running fast over those wet leaves didn’t alter my stride at all!

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I think the noticeable spring of the fork-shaped Wave plate was enhanced by the new foam running the full length of the shoe. Appropriately called Enerzy Lite, the shoe feels incredibly light – 218g to be precise, but one thing I noticed was the firmness of the shoe itself. For a runner like myself, I would veer towards using this shoe for shorter runs and races, where I can really get an advantage from the responsiveness this shoe provides, rather than longer, marathon type runs, but that is personal preference and over a longer distance I prefer a little more softness.

As someone who likes a good-looking shoe, the Wave Rebellion ticks that box. Not a ghastly shade of fluorescent, but rather a nice purple. This colour was kindly provided by Mizuno France while I was training out there, but the UK colour available at SportsShoes is even more dramatic and dare I say, looks faster – a zebra stripe design with a 3D ‘Runbird’ logo. I feel good when I put them on… and as they say, look good, run good!

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One thing of note was that the tongue is attached to the shoe in gusset format for extra support so I had to experiment with the lacing system to improve the fit, but once I found what worked for me, the shoe has remained well-fitted during use.

Overall, I have been really pleasantly surprised by this shoe, and will be adding it to my armoury of training shoes. I will primarily wear these for those runs where I am working slightly harder than at an easy pace, more towards a steady effort where I want to feel like I am floating down the road!

SHOP THE MIZUNO WAVE REBELLION ROAD RUNNING SHOE HERE

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