Topo Athletic FLI-LYTE 6 Review

Release date: Estimated sometime in August of 2025
MSRP:$125 (est. per spec sheet)
Weight: 7.8 OZ (M9) / 6.3 (W7) per sample size
Weight as found: In my Men's size 12: Left 8.9 oz, Right 9.0 oz
Outsole: Rubber outsole, 2.5 mm thickness
Stack: Heel 23 mm
Drop: 3 mm

I did 12 activities in the shoes to present my feedback on the shoe.  These activities range from: Walks, sprints, runs including a 6 mile run, calf lifts, RDL's, Farmers walks and walking my crazy dog Scooby.  

The upper is a lightweight engineered mesh that is very breathable and great for the summer heat in Houston.  I can see my socks through the engineered mesh.  The upper does have some overlays to provide some structure to the upper so it isn't just a loose upper.  The shoe has a solid toe bumper to provide structure at the front of the shoe.  The shoe does come with Topo's foot shaped design in the forefoot, which I am a fan of. 

The heel is a semi rigid construction with a nice heel flare.  The collar padding is minimal, but provides exactly what is needed for the use case of the shoe......honestly, not sure why some shoes have more than this padding as it holds the foot and heel in well without adding non-value add weight. 

The laces are a nice ribbed style of lace that stayed tied during my runs, are not too puffy and look to be a durable quality lace.  I encountered no issues with them coming undone during any of the activities. 

The tongue is not gusseted, but they have lace loops on the top of the tongue that keeps the tongue securely in place during runs and it performed great on all runs.  The Topo design on the tongue with the loop has proven to be a good option to gusseted tongues. 

For a lighter shoe, there is solid rubber coverage and is not showing any signs of wear to this point.  It is strategically place allowing the shoe to maintain some flexibility, while still providing protection and durability. 

I did a 6 mile run in the rain on track and paved surfaces, no slipping issues at all.  I had full confidence of traction during the entire run.  

During walks with weights, the shoe's traction did great, I never felt slipping on any surfaces. 

The shoe uses a formulation of Topo's ZipFoam, which provided a nice ride with some ground feel and responsiveness under foot.  The shoe has nice flex to it, which was beneficial for the calf raises, sprints and track work used with the shoe.  The underfoot feel of the foam to me has a great balance of enough responsiveness without too much stack for a multi-purpose shoe. 

Trying to split this into 2 categories of "testing".  First being movement based.  Walks, sprints, scheduled runs.  

Summary of a work out routine I used the shoe in: I have a parking lot down the street at our neighborhood conference center.  I park in the lot and there is a pseudo loop around 2 islands with trees in them in the parking lot.  Each loop is around .15 miles.  

I do a 3 loop routine.  Loop 1: Farmers walk (walking while carrying 20 lb dumbbell in each hand), Loop 2: Walk (allow finger recovery time) loop 3: Sprint and then on some work outs I include a session of calf/achilles after the 3rd loop before running through the routine again (see next session for the calf/achilles info).   I normally have 2-3 miles of movement in by the time the routine is complete. 

The shoes provided everything I would want for these types of workouts.  The foot shaped toebox allows me to splay my toes and hold my base while holding the extra weight and walking.   It is light and responsive for the sprints and I enjoy walking in this shoe quite a bit, enough so that I enjoy having this shoe on for around the town activities including walking my dog Scooby. 

When I first received the shoes and saw the specs, I didn't expect to use this shoe for anything over 3 miles for the running usage.  I went to a really nice local park in Houston, memorial Park, that has paved trails, limestone trails, true off road trails, a really nice track, water stations and restrooms.  It is a great park to run at.  I brought 2 pairs of running shoes as my plan was to run 2-3 miles on the track in the Fli-Lyte's and then switch shoes.  With the limited stack height, I didn't think I would want to go much further than that in the shoes. 

It was a rainy day, tempering the heat in Houston some, and when I hit mile 3 in the shoes I decided I was doing my whole run in them.  They felt fun underfoot, I was feeling great in them and they were providing very nice feedback underfoot.  So, I pushed to 4 miles on the track and then did 2 more miles on the paved trails.  I had some fun running through puddles and just really enjoying the ride of the shoe.  Also, with the rain and the upper, the shoes did not retain water.  They shed the water nicely. 

For the added calf/achilles raises on my loop routine: I do reps of standard calf raises with feet straight out, then reps with heels in, reps with heels out (hitting the different sections of the calves) and then bend the knees to lower the stress point into the achilles area do reps there.  

I really like having the extra toe room for these routines and it helps make me feel balanced with the toe splay during the routine.  It is not something I had thought of before, but it is something I noticed during these routines. 

Farmers walks.  The shoes prompted me to start doing these.  My first set was using 25 lb weights in each hand but that proved to be too much for my hands.  I have some tendonitis and arthritis pain from jobs that were very rough on my hands in my 20's.  I moved down to 20 lb weights, got some gloves and this proved to be the right weight to start at.  I am hoping to move up over time. 

The shoes performed excellent while carrying an extra 40 lbs on the loops.  With the low drop, wide toe box, just right amount of stack for the activity, the shoes worked great for the farmer walks.  I can't emphasize enough that the ability to splay my toes out and hold my base while moving with extra weight, really does increase stability throughout the work out. 

As noted earlier, I originally thought this shoe was going to be a true cross use shoe and may not be enough shoe for a normal daily trainer.  However, I have amended that thought after usage (with a caveat).  This shoe does great with movement exercises, feels connected to the ground on foot while doing various weight based exercises as it gives a very nice supportive and stable base.  If you are someone who likes a lower stack lower drop shoe, I also think this shoe can be a great daily trainer for the right runner.*  I really enjoyed my time running in the shoe. 

*Caveat: It's not a shoe I would recommend for someone who is used to high stack and/or high drop shoes without getting the proper guidance on how to transition to a lower stack/lower drop shoe to reduce risk to injury.  That has nothing to do with the shoe, only making sure to properly transition. 

I have this shoe rated as a 5, based on my usage and review in reflection to the use case as understood from Topo Athletics.  Based on my usage, my mechanics and my own biases, the shoe meets and exceeds the expectations I had from the shoe going into the review. 

If you are someone enjoyed the Brooks Hyperion or a similar shoe, I would strong recommend checking this shoe out. 

Final note: To me, the white colorway is fire.  The only sad part is I got it dirty, but it was fun getting it dirty.