Product Review: Night Runner 270

We run a lot at night. Whether it's due to some crazy overnite race training or because it's cooler out, we do it.

It adds a huge sense of adventure to an otherwise hum-drum run and it makes every trail feel brand new.

But the risks of running at night are quite obvious and these Night Runners help alleviate the biggest one. Visibility!

Even brighter against a yellow toe box

 At 150 Lumens, these are quite bright. The 270degree of light insures anything heading your direction (car, dog, bear) will see you. 

There is also a bright red rear facing light, again making sure you are readily seen.

Unlike a steady beam flashlamp or reflector, the movement of these lights on your feet is almost impossible to miss. Similar to pedal reflectors, the eye really catches the motion.

We've worn these on several trail runs, using several different pair of shoes, under different weather conditions. But the consensus for each run has been the same:

These are a great supplemental light source.

Let's get into some thoughts on the product itself:

They are light weight. With the possible exception of running in Vibrams, you won't notice anything extra on your feet. (We don't have scale to weigh them.) 

They are very simple to get on your shoes, and better yet, easily interchangeable. There is no need to unlace your shoes. Simply slide the clip in place under your laces. And they always felt secure.
This factor is quite important. If you are doing a race where you need to change your shoes for some reason, you probably dont want to have to unlace your shoes to re-apply your lamps to new shoes.

They are weather resistant. Running in the rain presented no problem. However, we did not submerge them.

One button, easily accessible, to operate. Steady and Flash mode. 

USB charging. That's pretty convenient. You can charge them anywhere.

There is a 5-8hr battery life. We can currently easily attest to 2.5hrs .
Easily adjustable tilt angles.

Running at night requires you to able to see, and you being able to be seen. These lights do the latter with flying colors.

Using only these lights on your feet however, you never end up with a steady light source on the ground in front of you. In fact, the constant up and down movement of the light can be rather discombobulating.

And although bright, the way these set on your feet don't really allow you to see many technical trail features, even with the multiple angle adjustments.

When used with a headlamp or knuckle light however, these lights rounded out a good lighting system. A brighter main lamp will drown out the previously mentioned  up-down movements. The light weight of them makes them easy to forget they're on, yet if you're in a pinch and your main lamp were to fail, you could easily remove one of these from your shoe and utilize as a hand held. (My advice is to always have a backup lamp.)

I also can't stress enough just how visible these make you. Always wear reflective gear and lamps.

Dual USB cable included

These are currently selling directly from Night Runner for 59.95




Update 10-23-15
I've since taken these on a couple of road runs. I received complements from other runners on how bright I was. That's a plus.

But the right unit no longer works. It faded out 2miles into run last week and now won't even charge properly. I can't say why, but these little units are definitely not meant for being fixed at home.

I haven't tried to contact Night Runner as of yet, but I can tell you this...unless you have a lot of extra money to spend on a unit such as this, I would just stick with ankle reflector bands and run smart, ie, don't run on busy roads at night.