Mizuno Mens Trainers

Mizuno is a Japanese sports company that has been making running shoes since the 1980s, and most of what sits here comes out of that archive rather than the current racing line. The Wave Rider

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32 products

About Mizuno trainers

Mizuno started in Osaka in 1906 selling sporting goods and has been making athletic footwear for most of the century since. It is better known in Britain for running, golf and baseball than for anything worn casually, which is roughly why the older running models have become interesting again — they were designed as serious shoes and never as fashion, so they look unlike the reissues everyone else is putting out.

The thing that runs through the range is the Wave plate. Where most cushioning relies on foam compressing, Mizuno moulds a wave-shaped plate into the midsole that flexes and disperses impact sideways as well as down. It is why a Wave Rider feels firmer underfoot than a modern max-cushioned shoe, and why the Wave Prophecy looks the way it does — on that model the plate is exposed rather than buried.

Mizuno Wave Rider and Wave Prophecy

The Wave Rider is the model with the longest run, and what is here is largely the Wave Rider 10 and the Beta — reissues of the mid-2000s shape rather than the current running version. Silver, black and mesh, low to the ground, and unmistakably from a period when running shoes were designed by engineers.

The Wave Prophecy is the opposite of subtle. The plate is on show through the side of the midsole, stacked and skeletal, and it is either the reason you want the shoe or the reason you don't. The 13.2 and the LS are the versions stocked.

Mizuno MXR, Contender and trail models

MXR is the flattest and plainest group — Trainer, Sport, Tech and Casual variants, closer to a court shoe than a runner, and the easiest Mizuno to wear with ordinary clothes. The Contender sits nearby and is the one term on this page already ranking at the top of page one.

At the other end, the Wave Mujin and Wave Ibuki are trail shoes with lugged outsoles, several with GORE-TEX linings, and the Wave Daichi sits between trail and road. If you want a Mizuno for wet British ground rather than pavement, that is the group to look at.

Browse all trainers at Yards Store, read our Wave Rider 10 Premium feature, or see what we have in our Manchester and Sheffield shops.

Mizuno FAQs

A wave-shaped plate moulded into the midsole. Instead of relying only on foam compressing underfoot, the plate flexes and spreads impact sideways as well as downwards. It gives Mizuno shoes a firmer, more stable feel than most cushioned trainers, and on the Wave Prophecy it is left visible through the side of the sole rather than enclosed.

The Wave Rider is a running shoe — higher stack, more cushioning, built for road miles. The MXR is flatter and simpler, closer to a court or training shoe, and it is the easier of the two to wear with everyday clothes. Both come out of Mizuno's own archive rather than being new designs.

The models here are the archive and lifestyle side of the range rather than current performance running shoes, so yes. The MXR and Contender are the flattest and plainest; the Wave Rider sits in the middle; the Wave Prophecy is the one that will get commented on.

Some of the range is carried in our Manchester and Sheffield shops, though what is in store varies from what is online and changes through the season. Worth calling ahead if you want a specific model in a specific size.