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La Sportiva has made a great mid cushioned trail shoe for varied terrain. After about 25 miles and three good varied runs I am really enjoying this shoe. First off the positives. I'm a mid foot striker and even without a rock plate this shoe has great mid foot cushion for anything that you can throw at it. I tried to pick a good amount of rock and root heavy trails to see how my feet would feel after miles of running. typically after a ten plus mile run my feet are achy and sore. This shoe did a nice job of keeping the trail feel without compromising cushion. That being said, it doesn't have a lot of "pop" coming off of it. I never felt super fast, but I know that if I was doing a heavy mile run with rockier, harder terrain I would reach for these. These shoes maid me want to do a summer run on the Loowit Trail with its mix of boulders and packed earth. The shoe is super breathable, but they also did a great job at picking wear protection is needed. My toes hit a few times on roots, but I just kept chugging along with no issues. The small rocker in the heal helped keep me going when I began to tire and the grip across the tread is top notch. It excelled in slightly muddy to moist dirt trails. Never slipping and even on muddy downhill trails I felt secure in my footing. The lacing system worked well and once I adjusted a few miles in on my first run I had no pressure issues on top of my feet, which is common for me with other running shoes.
My only issue is the heel cup. I did slide a bit, but I think with a bit more adjustment with the laces I could have fixed that problem. When I originally tried them on I was worried about blisters on the heel, but that never became a problem. It was more finding the balance between having my heel secure so I felt good on my run, and having it loose enough to not have heel slip and end up with blisters.
All in all, I think this shoe will work great for some of my fastpacking adventures in the Cascades where I need extra protection and cushioning, but am not trying to break any speed records. I wish it was mid summer to really put some long miles in the mountains with these shoes. Anything technical and this shoe would feel at home. It could be a great trail shoe for long runs, but I would hesitate for using it in races because of the weight and it not having that springy "pop" I want to really go fast in a race.
This is a great technical trail running shoe build for putting down long miles.
I own a few of their climbing shoes, but this is my first trail runner by La Sportiva. In the low 100 as far as miles go with them.
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