Running Shoe Reviews and Information

Altra Escalante Racer Review — The Altra Escalante 1.5 is one of Altra’s most popular shoes. The Escalante is a lightweight trainer or even racer. The midsole is responsive but cushioned and soft enough to do some mileage in it. As the name might suggest the Altra Escalante Racer is the faster, lighter version of the Altra Escalante. Outsole As with all Altra shoes the Escalante Racer is Zero Drop. This is to encourage a more midfoot landing with the foot touching the floor under the runner’s centre of gravity.... Read More

My First Altra Running Shoes – Lone Peak 4.0 — My First Altra Running Shoes I was very excited to put the Altra Lone Peak 4 through its paces, as Altras were a brand that I’d heard good things about but had yet to try myself. Altra are a US brand and it has been via my trips to California that I became aware of them and their popularity among trail runners and hikers alike. In fact, they are Altra’s most popular trail shoe and were the second most worn... Read More

Topo Terraventure 2 — Topo shoes distinguish themselves as a brand creating lightweight running shoes designed to work with the foot’s natural movement. That means all Topo running shoes have a rounded toe box, to encourage your toes to spread on impact and naturally function as they would if you had no shoes on at all. This means that you get cushioning, stability and propulsion and all from your feet, not just the shoes! One of the advantages of increasing this natural function is that your feet and lower legs... Read More

Introducing the Altra Superior 4 — For Altra fans, the new Superior 4 will be an exciting introduction to Altra’s range of Zero Drop trail shoes. Altra’s most popular road shoe in its latest version is the Altra Escalante 1.5 and the new Superior 4 is in effect the trail version of that shoe, kind of the ‘escalante for the trail’. Altra have taken an already light, fast and comfortable trail shoe and made it lighter, added a bit more bounce and flexibility to the midsole and a grippier rubber... Read More

How Does the New Roclite 275 Fit, Feel and Perform? —- Roclite Range A lot of customers find the Inov-8 range confusing. Lots of shoes designed for different types of trail running that the Inov-8 marketing team describe with similar phrases making it hard to find the shoe that will work for you on the terrain you run on. The Roclite trail shoe range has always been the most versatile shoe. A shoe that would do a bit of tarmac, hard packed trails, cushioned enough for some muddy bits and... Read More

New Goals and Challenges in 2019? We’ve Boiled Down 10 Fantastic Options — Off-Road     Inov-8 | Roclite 275 G-Grip — Replacing the 305, this BRAND NEW shoe has 8mm drop, slightly softer cushioning, with high flexibility and uses G-Grip with Graphene to boost outosle durability by 50%. These are additions that will make this new Roclite very popular in 2019.   Altra | Lone Peak 4 Mesh — Where to start? It’s a cushioned, Zero Drop & FootShape trail shoe with plenty of protection at the toe and... Read More

Altra Paradigm 4 Review — From the start, the Altra Paradigm has been the gateway running shoe for runners not used to Zero Drop, or heel strikers looking for a shoe to help them learn to mid foot strike. So we were very interested to see if the new Paradigm 4 could still play that role. The Altra Paradigm 4 is actually a very different shoe to the previous iterations. Altra have taken the technologies used in some of their other popular shoes to improve what was already very popular.... Read More

Do I Need Waterproof Trail Running Shoes? What Are The Best For Me? — Deciding whether waterproof trail shoes are worth spending your hard-earned money on is one of those subjects that is very controversial, as can be seen from the various articles/reviews across the net. Some websites say you need to have a waterproof trail shoe and some tell you to avoid them. The same is true when you speak to off road runners and walkers themselves. In this article I discuss the pros and cons so you can... Read More

We Test the Altra Lone Peak 4 Mesh — The Lone Peak is Altra’s most popular trail shoe in their range and has a great following, from the more casual runner running road to trail, to walkers hiking long days and all the way up to those running 100 mile Ultra Trail Races! One of the main reasons for this is, as with all Altra shoes, the Lone Peak is foot shaped. This allows the feet to function within the shoe, as the wide rounded toe box has plenty of... Read More

VJ XTRM Fell Shoe Review — I was extremely happy to arrive home to a shoe box parcel 9 days prior to the Pirin Ultra 67km 4000m sky race. The last race in the skyrunning extra category and the first time a World Series race was in the Bulgarian mountains. In the box were a pair of VJ Extrem shoes. I was excited to give these shoes a trial because the VJ Irocks2 have become a favourite of mine for running and racing short races in the UK and were... Read More