Hop on over to Rabbit for their first ever shoes – the Dream Chaser

When we were asked to review a new pair of Rabbit shoes, our first thought was “I didn’t know Rabbit made shoes!” As it turns out, Rabbit is new to the shoe manufacturing game, and the Rabbit Dream Chaser is their first dip in the pond. Since they’ve always made great clothes – stylish, comfortable, and of good quality – we were eager to see what they could do with a pair of shoes. What we found was that they knocked it out of the park for an inaugural launch.

Looks

The look of the Dream Chaser is really sharp. Rabbit wanted to honor the Boston Marathon, so they released a special edition Boston colorway and they are gorgeous. The mix of yellows and blues throughout the shoes is striking and we got compliments from the first time we left the house. A nice little touch? The sayings on the back: “dream chaser” on one and “born to run free” on the other. This is a small-batch, limited launch, so we feel pretty honored to have them – though also very curious about what’s coming next!

Function

The Dream Chaser is meant to be an everyday trainer, something you reach for as you’re headed out for your daily run. They are blessedly light, and the knit upper not only breathes well (thank you Rabbit for those perforation holes!) but wicks away sweat and keeps your feet dry and cool. This will become increasingly important as we continue into those double-digit mile days throughout the summer in preparation for Fall marathons.

The Dream Chaser has both a men’s and women’s shoe. Rabbit cares about the details, so constructing a tailored fit for each sex and respecting the anatomical differences between men and women was important to them.

Construction & Fit

Rabbit puts a lot of thought into every aspect of this shoe. The Carbon Trax technology really separates this shoe from the others in responsivity and bounce. The shoes are also soft rather than stiff, but supportive too, like a gentle foot hug. The Flowstate ETPU Foam throughout the midsole felt dreamy, as not all shoes feel supported through the arch like these do. There’s a substantial amount of cushion that is visually evident when you take a sidelong glance at the shoe, but the Dream Catcher is surprisingly not heavy, perhaps due in part to that polyester knit upper made with the “softest threads in existence”.

For those who prefer a wider toebox to feel truly comfortable while running, and the Dream Catcher definitely meets this requirement. We got our usual running shoe sizes and they seem to fit true to size. Our feet and toes did not feel squished, and I have felt comfortable throughout all of the runs we have so far subjected the Dream Catcher to. The heel has felt great too, as well as that responsive midsole already mentioned.

We found the Carbon Trax additions to be an odd choice. They didn’t seem to contribute much, and we experienced a lot of grinding and scraping even while walking. The strips quickly got scratched up, and the grating sound became quite obnoxious. Overall, we don’t think these strips provided enough benefit (if any) to justify their overall intrusion.

(editors note 6.4.24: rabbit has told us that they are updating the sole of the shoe to add rubber protection to the Carbon Trax and eliminate the cracking noise. Their main launch on June 20^th will feature this edit.)

According to the website, the Blumaka insole (made from 85% recycled ETPU for those who worry about the environmental impact) is guaranteed to last 10x longer than competitors, and having shoes built to withstand the beating that runners put them truly really means something these days.

The Dream Chaser are one of the most comfortable first release shoes we’ve tried on in recent history – and maybe edge towards the top right in the mix with the big companies. And let’s face it, Run Oregon bloggers get to try A LOT of shoes. In one day, we took these for a 6-mile test run, walked around on them at work, and then wore them on a 2-mile dog walk, and our feet felt just as good at the end of the day as they did at the beginning.

They look cool, they feel cushy, and I can’t WAIT to see what else Rabbit has in store moving forward.