The CoreScore is a 0-100 score that indicates how liked a shoe is based on reviews and ratings from experts and users.
How the CoreScore is calculated
The CoreScore is a weighted average of user ratings and expert reviews adjusted for spam, shoes with few reviews, what version is reviewed and the credibility of the expert reviewer.
User ratings
Anyone can contribute with user ratings of shoes he/she has tried. To avoid bias, shoes with only a few (good) ratings reach the top of the ranking lists, adjustments are made:
- 1-10 user ratings: subtract 15%
- 11-25 user ratings: subtract 10%
- 26-50 user ratings: subtract 5%
- >50 user ratings = no adjustment
User rating distribution
Below is an illustration of how users rate shoes at RunRepeat. 71% give 5 stars.
Number of user ratings
Below is illustrated how many ratings each shoe has. 64% of all shoes have 1 to 99 ratings. The most popular shoes get more than 1,000 reviews.
Expert reviews
If an expert scores a shoe as 8/10, it will be converted to 80/100. In the same way, a score of 3/5 becomes 60/100.
In case an expert does not attribute any numerical score, three RunRepeat team members independently interpret the reviews and suggest a 0-100 score. An average of the three interpretations is applied. Any expert can ask to adjust scores.
To be an expert one must publish reviews at other websites (typically his/her own) or apply to become an independent expert with RunRepeat. In addition, we manually judge if the quality is good enough.
How respected an expert is, is a subjective matter, which can be discussed for decades. To keep things simple, and to avoid subjective judgment, we attribute each expert with a level from 1-5 depending on how many reviews the expert has published.
- 1-2 reviews: level 1
- 3-5 reviews: level 2
- 6-14 reviews: level 3
- 15-30 reviews: level 4
- 31+ reviews: level 5
The higher the level the more the reviews weight.
- Level 1: 100%
- Level 2: 200%
- Level 3: 300%
- Level 4: 400%
- Level 5: 500%
Please note that expert reviews are not done for sneakers as they're more fashion-focused as opposed to the functional running, hiking, training, football and basketball footwear.
Expert level distribution
Below is illustrated how most experts are level 1 experts and only 2% of all experts are level 5. Though, the 2% level 5 experts account for more than 35% of all reviews.
Expert review distribution
The average expert review is 85/100. Below you see the percentage distribution of all expert reviews.
And below is the correlation between the number of expert reviews and the CoreScore. Generally, shoes with more expert reviews have higher scores. Shoes with a CoreScore in the region of 80/100 has an average of 10 expert reviews, whereas shoes with the highest CoreScores also have the highest number of expert reviews, around 30-40 per shoe.
The final calculation
The 0-100 CoreScore is finally calculated by weighting the user ratings and expert reviews.
- User ratings: 67%
- Expert reviews: 33%
The color of the CoreScore depends on its rating:
- 80-100: Green
- 60-79: Yellow
- 00-59: Red
CoreScore distribution
80% of all shoes have a CoreScore between 73 and 90 with an average of 81. Shoes with a CoreScore above 81 is better rated than the average shoe. Below is illustrated the distribution of the CoreScores in percentages.
Potential flaws in the CoreScore
The CoreScore is not a universal truth of how good shoes are. Here are a few potential flaws:
- Brands have a special interest in high CoreScores on any of their own shoes and low CoreScores on all other brands. They might try to manipulate the CoreScore by adding many user ratings. We are aware of this, and this has in fact been a problem (the brands will not be mentioned). Each user can only give 1 rating to each shoe. In addition, we have a spam detector that checks for certain patterns, which we obviously will not explain how works here.
- Some experts are biased since they get free samples (and cash) from brands.
- Experts who do not give a numerical score will be judged by three independent RunRepeat members. We try to be as neutral as possible, but we cannot guarantee that some members will attribute some expert reviews with a slightly more positive score because they themselves are personally biased with own experiences of that specific shoe.
- An expert might have done 18 reviews without knowing more about that type of athletic shoes than an expert who has published 2 reviews, though his/her reviews weights more in the final calculation.
Keep in mind that choosing the right athletic shoe is individual and that athletic shoes with low CoreScore can still be loved by some, which might be you. We suggest that you use the CoreScore with a grain of salt.