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tl;dr — I bought a pair of "Saucony Triumph 20" from a store on AliExpress. It was delivered from China in 10 days. It felt like a well-made product and runs great, however I can never be certain that it's a genuine Saucony.
I am a middle-age middle-of-the-pack hobby jogger that have been trying to run 2,000-3,000km a year, and due to the mileage I run, I usually use up 3-4 pairs of running shoes each year. I've posted a few running shoes related deals and have been on the lookout of cheap shoes to make my hobby more affordable (despite running is probably one of the cheapest sports already). One recent deal that caught my attention was this Hoka Clifton 8 for $79.99 from Kogan (getting older, needing more cushioning shoes) but unfortunately missed out.
However while researching for running related gears on AliExpress, I found that some stores are selling "Hoka Clifton 8" for around the same price or cheaper delivered! Upon putting in some shoe brand names in the search (Altra, Brooks, Hoka, Saucony, etc) and that really opened a can of worms. "But it's on AliExpress so they gotta to be fake, right?!" I too felt sceptical when I saw these products at discounted price. However for the sake of experiment I decided to order a pair from AliExpress, to see how well these cheap and potentially fake running shoes perform.
Order & Delivery
Since I was looking for a plush max cushion shoes, I ended up ordering a pair of black "Saucony Triumph 20" from this dodgy-sounding store "Aucony Sports Store" for around US$60 delivered. Note that there are multiple AliExpress stores that sell "Saucony Triumph 20" (some called Saucony Victory 20 due to direct translation from its Chinese model name), and most are around the same price. You can also find Triumph 19 for a little bit cheaper although you won't be able to find the latest Triumph 21 on AliExpress (yet). Saucony Triumph 19/20 were made in China and Triumph 21 are made in Vietnam — so a made-in-China Triumph 21 is most likely fake anyway.
- Ordered 14 August
- Delivered 23 August (AliExpress Standard Shipping → AusPost)
Not bad, took less time from China to Sydney than me sending a hoodie from Sydney to Perth.
Initial Impression
I had bought 2 pairs of Saucony previously (Freedom & Guide 15) from Running Warehouse Australia, and this "Triumph 20" from AliExpress also came in a genuine looking box similar to what I had before. Here's the sticker on the box:
Manufactured on 15/04/2023
By Xiamen Saucony Brand Operation Ltd
RRP: 1399 RMB (~A$300)
The RRP in China does appear to be even more outrageous than the RRP here for Saucony Triumph 20. Xiamen Saucony Brand Operation Ltd turned out to be the actual distributor of Saucony products in China since 2019, and currently is a joint venture between Wolverine Worldwide (Saucony's parent company) and Xtep (Hong Kong based sports brand that has its own line of running shoes).
Well, that's just the packaging. The shoes itself looks fine. It's weights about the same as my Saucony Guide 15, despite having thicker midsole & way more padding around the ankle. Many fake/replicas are much heavier though, due to material used. The build quality matches up to what I expect from a Saucony. I usually wear US10.5 for other brands and this pair from AliExpress is also true to size & fits well.
Review
There are heaps of reviews on Saucony Triumph 20 on the Internet (e.g. Road Trial Run, RunRepeat, Solereview etc) so this won't be yet-another-review. I took the shoes out for a few runs from 10-15km, mostly easy 6min/km pace mixed with 4:30min/km fartlek. After ~50km I'll have to say that it's probably one of my favourite pair in my rotation right now. I've not run in a max-cushion shoes before but that 37mm of "Pwrrun+" E-TPU foam certainly feels sweet — pretty much matches the reviews I've read.
Genuine or Fake?
So, is this a genuine pair of "Saucony Triumph 20"? Since it's from AliExpress I can never be sure (so I'll keep it in inverted commas). However it runs great therefore to me, it's still a bargain. It felt like other Saucony's that I had before, and Pwrrun+ foam feels like what the reviews have described it. So I won't discount the chance that it might actually be a genuine Saucony product made by their factories in China. I've only had 50km on this pair so far. Maybe I'll change my mind if it falls apart at less than 500km.
Do note that it's my own experience with this specific model from this specific shop on AliExpress. It does not mean you'll get the same experience from other branded running shoes on AliExpress. YMMV.
Usually if it’s fake, don’t the pictures normally have no branding on it??