Heather bought these for me last time she was kicking at Reebok HQ. She wanted to score me new pair of shoes and on a whim, I asked her for these. Because, ya know, they're really weird looking.
I've done a few runs, a few hashes and 2 pretty gnarly trail races, and a wimpy OCR in these. (Seven Sisters and Pisgah, thanks to Relentless Forward Commotion for the links)
And I gotta tell ya, I was pleasantly surprised. Well, not wicked surprised. (See my review on the Outdoor Wild.) I knew this shoe'd be good.
First, Reeboks fit me perfectly. A size 9.5 fits. Spot on, fits. Although I supinate, I don't have any kind of goofy shaped foot. No webbed toes, no gross sausage toes, no big ugly toe knuckles. I don't need a stupid large toe box for my flipper to splay in. This shoe gets it.
There is cushion in this shoe folks. It's not a little barefoot thing.
There's support.
And there is really freeeeeking strange tread.
Just look at it!
Well, that tread is awesome. Ya, it's not your typical off road shoe traction, but it works. I ran on everything that Spring in New England can offer. Rocks, roots, rivers, mud, wet leaves, dry leaves, scree, road, cart road, singletrack....all of it. They were great.
Now, I'm not positive if this is what the design originally entailed, but because there are only 19 lugs on the bottom, all the runner's body weight is concentrated into that small lug. This puts a good chunk of pressure from each little lug into the terrain, making them stick and dig a bit into the ground. They are phenomenal on soft terrain, even grassy slopes.
That being said, take them on to pavement. Well, you can def feel the lugs. It's not horrible, but you feel a rolling sensation coming from the lugs. I don't think I'd want to run a 10k in 'em, but if your trail has a bit of pavement....it's all good. This shoe is cumf.
"How's it perform wet?" you ask. Well, the traction is still great. The shoe does get wet inside and it gets spongy. But! The fit never changed and my foot NEVER slides around in the shoe. You are locked in to this thing. It doesn't drain particularly well, but it's a damn trail shoe, not a flip flop. If you want a shoe that drains like a sieve, you may want to look elsewhere.
I'm trying to get used to running in wet shoes, so I'm fine with this.
The problem however, it that they shrank a bit after washing them. Now, I should know better..ya, ya. I didn't dry them, just washed 'em in cold. They shrank maybe 1\8 of a size, tops. It's been my experience though, that all shoes do this. So it's not really a jab, just something to share.
We all like sharing.
What d'ya think of those colors too? Flash! The colors have held up wonderfully. Even when I have to wear my stupid steel toe shoe covers over them, you can still see the flash.
But really, how do they feel on trail? You will know you are wearing this shoe. It's not stupid light, and it certainly isn't small.
But it is pretty nimble (at least for my fat ass) and it descends as well as it climbs.
You won't get every nuance of the trail. Duh. Look at it. But you will still get a nice grounded feeling.
I'm thinking it's going to be hard to roll and ankle in this shoe. Those lugs...those lugs basically keep your foot where it belongs, even with my supinatation, I never felt nervous about rolling.I didn't even tape up.
Update 9-4-15.
I'm on my second pair. I like this shoe. They last a pretty decent amount of time and are really nice if your run is going to bring you varying terrain. Hell, I've worn them a couple times for The Seven Sisters Trail Race, and they worked pretty well on that slop.
Update 9-21-15
I wore these for my Myrtle Beach GORUCK and they were fine.
