Customer Reviews Hoka Gaviota 5

This is the floating boxcar, the land yacht, the Edsall of the running shoe world. The toe box is huuuuuuge. Makes you look like a kid wearing your fathers shoes, even when you're 70! This is radically different from the Gaviota 4, which I loved and wore every day for the last 3 years (owned 2 pair); so different Hoka shouldn't be allowed to call the 5 a Gaviota.

It took a long time to find the HOKA Gaviota 4 as a stable supportive replacement for the beloved Brooks Beast worn for 8 years. Brooks unsuccessfully tried to reinvent the wheel when they changed the support system in their best selling stability shoe. I am sad to say that HOKA has done the same by changing the exceptional J-frame support of the Gaviota 4 to a mushy, sometimes unstable H-frame in the G-5. In addition, believe the other reviewers who say the toe box is twice as big, which adds to the disaster of this shoe by allowing the foot to slip around and causes pain and an unbalanced walk/run. Hoka directs customer to the Arahi as a substitute for the Gaviota 4, but it is a poor substitute for someone who needs the stability and cushion. Arahi is a very aggressive arch support with little padding. If HOKA is listening, please bring back the Gaviota 4 which was the both of best worlds - perfect support/stability with perfect cushioning.

Very different from the 4 model. Much wider and thus created foot pain from rolling when getting up

looked wider in person vs picture

I ordered this style shoes hoping that they would work for me on an upcoming trip in which I am going to do a fair amount of walking in different terraines. Overall the shoes run big and they don't have much cushion on the bottom.

They were sent used and dirty with mud

Gaviota 4 provided much more stability. This feels cheaper. It also hits my arch with the plastic in an uncomfortable way. Please go back to making the Gaviota more stable. These feel like the other models at this point, and I can’t wear them.

The new model has a huge toe box that allows one’s foot to slip around in the shoe. If you bend your foot while getting up, the shoe crumples…..caused a huge bruise on my left foot. Compared to my gaviota 4 and toe box is ar least 50%larger. Defective design!

I've been a huge fan of the Gaviota for many years, but the Gaviota 5 has taken the model down the wrong design path. The toe box is too wide, the "narrow" width feels too wide, and—most importantly—the shoe's sole is now too squishy, negating the stability I need and could once rely upon with the Gaviota. I had this same issue with the Brooks Adrenaline years ago when they changed their design, which led me to Hoka in the first place, but now I'm back where I started—stranded without a favorite shoe. Fortunately I was able to find a pair of Gaviota 4s on sale. I'd recommend stocking up if anyone has the same issue (and it looks like a few similar reviews are coming in). Please revert back to the previous design Hoka, the "improvements" are not improvements. Keep the "innovations" to color and textural tweaks, not structural and material changes. I'll check back when my Gaviota 4s wear out.