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On Cloudultra Pro Review

Lucie Hanes

Posted Oct 10, 2025

The ON Cloudultra Pro captures almost all the benefits of plated super shoes without the common pitfalls of bringing carbon technology to the trails.

Total

Form

Performance

Value

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Cloudultra Pro

4.7/5

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Pros

Energetic
Comfortable
Lightweight
Supportive
Relatively wide toebox

Cons

Questionable upper durability

Form

ON has its priorities straight when it comes to the Cloudultra Pro. This shoe is light in the upper and hefty in the sole. While the jury’s still out on how well the minimalist, airy upper will hold up over time, especially in the context of long-distance trail running, I appreciate that there’s no more material here than what’s absolutely necessary. Too many trail shoes waste too much weight and bulk up top in the name of foot protection against the elements, but that’s not going to make a shoe a good fit for fast-paced environments. This is a true racing shoe because it’s built-out where runners who want to move fast over unpredictable terrain need it most: underfoot, not over.

There, the Cloudultra Pro uses a nylon “Speedboard” plate in between Helios HF Hyperfoam, one layer of which is soft and springy while the other is firm and stable. The key aspect that most runners will care about here is the choice of a nylon plate versus a carbon one. Here’s my hot take: carbon plates don’t shine on trails. The terrain is too soft and uneven to get the most out of the rigidity that carbon offers. But nylon plates are more flexible and adapt better to trail surfaces. Sure, you might see a very slight reduction in responsiveness compared to carbon plates in a controlled setting, but that’s the point—trails are anything but controlled settings. In reality, the shoe that’s better at flexing to the environment you’re actually in will ultimately perform better. This is especially true for runners that may not come from a road running background and have a more naturally nuanced stride that moves with variable trails, versus your typical marathoner’s steady metronomic one. I also find that carbon-plated shoes feel alarmingly tippy on trails because of their rigidity. I’d rather strike the middle ground between fast and stable than risk rolling my ankle in pursuit of minuscule performance gains. I know which one is more likely to make or break my race…

Fit

The most common tradeoff I’ve noticed with trail super shoes is comfort. Too plush and you can run forever, but not very quickly. Too rigid and you might fly out of the gate but DNF with debilitating foot pain. What I love most about the Cloudultra Pro is how it strikes the balance so well. I can truly run all day—if not longer—in these shoes without feeling foot fatigue or pain. They are incredibly soft and supportive underfoot, but still plenty energetic. The heel collar and tongue are both pleasantly squishy too, without being so beefy that the shoe feels too structurally bulky. Overly padded shoes tend to make me question my foot placements when I’m moving quickly because they add too much volume and lateral bulk to be precise. These are just padded enough, and only in the places that are most vulnerable to rubbing and hot spots.

Finally, I am a huge fan of the toe box on the Cloudultra Pro. As someone with embarrassingly large bunions, I need a relatively wide toebox—but not one so wide that my feet wiggle around and feel insecure, which also dampens my confidence in a shoe’s precision at high speeds. This toebox keeps my feet in place without constriction, and I find that the loosely woven upper adapts easily to my feet as they swell and change over the course of long miles.

Function

In action, the Cloudultra Pro absolutely nails the combination of consistent comfort and powerful performance. Running in these delays fatigue in my feet and legs for significantly longer than others I’ve tried, including carbon-plated fan-favorites like the Adidas Agravic Speed Ultra, while still making me feel 98% as speedy. And I’ll clarify that statement, too: If I was making a direct comparison between these two shoes on hard, flat ground, the ASU might feel faster. But I’m not running on hard, flat ground—so that’s why I’d pick the Cloudultra Pro every time for my purposes. I ultimately feel faster in these on trails because I run more confidently in them. That assurance more than makes up for the difference in plate design.

There’s also a lot to be said for the performance benefits of a shoe that you can trust to keep your feet and legs feeling fresh, comfortable, and intact for miles on end. A fast shoe that gives you nasty blisters will set you back farther in the long run (literally) than a plush and unresponsive shoe. Luckily, the Cloudultra Pro is neither. It doesn’t feel like a sacrifice to choose this shoe in the name of long-lasting comfort, because you’re not actually trading speed for sustainability. You get the speed of a plate, the flexibility of nylon, the comfort of cushion, and the precision of a secure fit. Creating a fast long-distance trail shoe is not about winning any one of these categories. It’s about balancing them all well enough to lock in for miles and miles, hours and hours, across a wide range of demands. The Jack of All Trades wins out, and that’s the Cloudultra Pro.