Saucony’s ProGrid Ride 1 Returns With the Line Now at Ride 19

Saucony brought the ProGrid Ride 1 back on June 26 in a colorway it writes as White and Buttercup, and the shoe arrives carrying an odd piece of context. The Ride line never stopped. It is currently on its nineteenth version. So this is a heritage reissue of the first entry in a series that has run without a break for eighteen years, which is a different proposition from digging up something a brand abandoned and hoping nobody remembers why.

The correction first, because this post had it wrong: the ProGrid Ride 1 is not an early 2000s shoe. Saucony’s own release for the reissue says it was originally released in 2008 as a versatile everyday trainer, Saucony’s product copy repeats the year, and Saucony’s own framing of the return as coming nearly eighteen years after the debut only adds up from 2008. That places it late in the decade, in the middle of the daily-trainer arms race rather than at the start of it. The tech underneath is worth separating from the marketing. GRID arrived in 1991 as a woven Hytrel filament web in the heel, built to spread impact across the foot rather than only absorb it. ProGrid was the next generation of that same system, moved closer to the foot for more cushioning without giving up support, and built with Respon-Tek impact deflection over an SSL-EVA midsole. PowerGrid came later and swapped the SSL-EVA for injection-molded PowerFoam. No citable source gives a launch year for ProGrid itself, so the honest description is mid-2000s. Keep the Ride separate from the ProGrid Triumph 4, which is a 2007 shoe, and from the ProGrid V2, which Saucony dates to 2011.

Saucony’s string for this pair is White | Buttercup, with the pipe, and Buttercup is Saucony’s own word rather than a retailer’s invention. The earlier version of this post called it Buttercup Yellow, which is nobody’s official wording, and Saucony never writes yellow anywhere in its copy. Retailers use White/Buttercup, 43einhalb tacks on an OG tag Saucony does not use, and Foot District describes the shoe as silver, white and yellow, which is its own reading rather than Saucony’s. One more thing worth knowing: Buttercup is a new colorway, not a revival. Per Sneaker Freaker the White/Racing pair is the one reviving an original 2008 launch color, and Buttercup was made for 2026, shown at Paris Fashion Week ahead of retail and released as a limited edition at select shops. The sibling codes in the run cover Black | Gunmetal, Ivory | Silver, Silver | Fog | Pine, White | Racing and White | Slime.

Saucony now runs the most disciplined archive program in the category, and the Ride 1 is the clearest evidence yet. The ProGrid Triumph 4 came back in November 2022 and has since been worked into Heritage, Chrome, Utility, Glossy and Fabricated Future variants plus a Westside Gunn collaboration. The Omni 9 ran hard through 2025. The V2 returned in 2026, a V2 Mule followed in August, and the Guide 7 and Ride Millennium sit in the same slate. Where the Ride 1 differs is its position: it is the cheapest full-price ProGrid retro in the line, which reads as a volume play rather than a collector release. Reissuing the first Ride while the nineteenth is on shelves is a bet that the runner and the collector are now the same customer, and Saucony is further down that road than anyone else currently in the retro-runner conversation.

Retail is $140, and this needs a flag. Saucony’s own press release for the reissue printed a suggested retail of $175, which contradicts Saucony’s own storefront. Saucony’s US site lists the model at $140, Feature listed this colorway at $140, Saucony Canada has it at C$170 and Saucony UK at £130, all of which land around $140 rather than $175. At $175 the Ride 1 would tie the ProGrid Paramount as the most expensive shoe in the ProGrid range, which the store page contradicts outright. Against that range, $135 for the Guide 7 up to $185 for the Paramount, $140 sits near the floor. For a longer view, the Triumph 4 reissue launched at $150 in November 2022, so a comparable Saucony retro is $10 cheaper four years on.

Released June 26 as a limited edition at select retailers, with the wider ProGrid Ride 1 rollout following on July 15. Style code S101807-1010, parent style 61245U, $140, unisex 3.5 to 12 plus 13 and 14. The colorway has since been delisted from Saucony’s US site but remains live and in stock at Saucony Canada and Saucony UK, with Rock City Kicks and Fresh Rags carrying US stock. More in the ProGrid Ride 1 hub, across Saucony, and on the ProGrid V2 Mule.

Source: Feature

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The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

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