The Trail Running Shoes That Earned Their Place Across Three Continents

This article details the various features of trail running shoes that I have found to work well, and the handful of features that do not have as much impact as one might expect. Additionally, I will detail the ‘patterns’ that the shoes that lasted through long periods of heavy use followed, and outline the ‘rotation’ strategy that I now use for longer running trips.

A “true every time” piece on what survives on long trail runs and what doesn’t, plus how I rotate shoes for long runs.

The features that mattered

Deeper lugs (4mm and above) are far more important than pretty lugs. A trail running shoe with 2mm lugs for example will struggle on wet, slippery limestone tracks and fail early on very rocky downhill sections. Rock plate protection. If your trail runners don’t have a decent amount of protection from impacts on rocks, then long descents will result in bruising which, after a while, becomes painful. A slight increase in weight is well worth protecting your soles in this way. Toe box width. No one can tolerate a narrow toe box on long running and it produces blisters on all the descents. A wide toe box is by far the single most important feature for long day comfort. Heel cup stability. A heel that is not held firmly in place by the heel cup can cause a lot of problems on technical sections of trail. A snug heel cup is very important, but it is also very important that there are no pressure points. Drainage holes in uppers with mesh panels allow water to seep through during a wet stream crossing and to then to evaporate quickly rather than allowing water to saturate inside of your shoe.

Other features which seemed to receive a lot of press but did not seem to make a huge difference in the way I used my shoes were:

Cushioning – maximum cushioning may feel fantastic for the first day of a long run but the excessive weight can then cause tiredness by the end of day 3. Moderate cushioning has performed far better. carbon plates – these are so much touted in road shoes but on technical trail running they actually hinder foot articulation and thus are pretty useless. Specific outsole brands. As with so much of modern shoe design, big-name rubber compounds get a lot of hype and rarely are the real weakness in a shoe’s performance on the trail. Lightweight shoes under 250g. I found the lightest examples to feel great at first, but then wear out extremely quickly, offering no long term performance advantage on long treks.

The durability patterns

The shoes that lasted longest shared these patterns:

Sturdy stitching, not glued seams. Reinforced toe and heel sections as opposed to print graphics that don’t offer any protection. Replaceable insoles. This is a feature that allows you to swap out the insole (the inside of the shoe) when it starts to wear out. The midsole must hold its shape well even after 600km+ of usage.

They tended to have average lifespans of around 700-900km in good conditions with proper maintenance – that ‘good’ being defined by a reasonable amount of cushioning having held good until that point – prior to total collapse.

The rotation strategy

As I mentioned earlier, a good rotation strategy for long trail running trips is to bring 2 different pairs of shoes, and to alternate between them every day.

Two pairs of shoes. Of slightly different designs. Alternate days. One pair is drying while the other is being worn. Shoes generally wear out at about the same time and so it makes sense to replace them in pairs, rather than one at a time.

What to look for when buying

Before buying:

Try the shoe in person if possible. Trail shoes vary more in fit than road shoes. Be sure to find out the return policy of a brand online that sells trailrunning shoes. Many brands now allow returns on shoes that have been worn a few times outdoors. Read reviews from people whose terrain matches yours, not the general review pool. Avoid buying in sale time especially when the new model has just been released. The first batch of these designs will have the normal issues that are sorted in the second version.

The summary

Trail running shoes are ultra-personalised. The perfect trail shoe for one runner on one sort of terrain is the worst on another. Some features of trail shoes – like those for road running – transfer really well from runner to runner and from terrain to terrain. Other features don’t. The really important features of a trail running shoe – by which I mean those things that make the biggest difference – are all rather dull and that’s what one should be looking to purchase on. One should be looking to purchase on lug depth, on rock plate, on toe box and on heel cup. And, of course, on drainage – particularly from shoes with Gore-Tex membrane in. After that, all that remains is to ensure that one is buying in pairs to swap from one day to another when one of the pairs will be doing its best to dry out between use and the other pair will be being used for running. And on long adventures then it’s really two pairs that one wants to bring. And the best way to enjoy such adventures (as with any activity that involves gear) is to make sure that the gear does its job very well indeed. That way the activity itself – in this case running – becomes the focus and not the necessarily tedious task of finding good enough gear for the activity.

Practical Considerations

Adventure travel is highly rewarding for the prepared and notoriously challenging for the poorly prepared. Most failures result from underestimate of seemingly innocuous aspects of travel, e.g. the mere fact of travel to foreign lands and activities. The savvy traveler, whether adventurer or sightseer, will be prepared to manage the primary aspects of his or her journey in order to reap the greatest reward from travel. Trip(s) with adequate backup gear, adequate slack in a firm itinerary, and reliable communication with a resident or sojourning friend or family member will yield substantially greater value than those with which such basic variables have not been managed.

The Insurance Question

Even if you have travel insurance, that does not mean that all adventure activities are covered. Some examples of activities that are often not covered in standard policies are: trekking at high altitude; scuba diving; renting motorcycles; and participating in other adventure sports. When purchasing a policy, make sure to read the fine print and add on “adventure riders” as needed. Although these options will cost more initially, they will save you a lot of money in the long run if the worst were to happen.

My friend who lives in Kathmandu said that one of the best local operators is often the one that nobody writes about.

The Local Operator Factor

Local guides and local operators are a huge factor when it comes to the adventure travel. The more experienced a local guide or local operator is, the better they will be able handle last minute changes in weather. In the end, the best local guides and local operators have run their routes many times before and will be able to manage any situation that may arise. So, read all of the reviews on travel sites, and supplement them with conversations with previous travelers. This will give you a far better idea of what to expect from a local guide or local operator than reading their ratings will.

The Takeaway

The strongest adventures will have a good foundation of physical preparedness, a strong local guide or tour operator, adequate travel insurance, and enough flexibility within the schedule to be able to deal with unexpected weather or other conditions. This last point is as important as all of the others and it is not uncommon for the most poorly planned trips to be those which have an overly rigid schedule that cannot be adjusted in the face of poor weather.

A Note on This Topic

There are a few simple practices that experienced adventurers keep with them and that make the most of their travels. These include research before a trip that extends even a few hundred words into a page of search results; asking locals real questions and taking their time between sites of interest; and, most important, taking notes during a trip and writing up a retrospect of events after the fact, rather than trying to remember them all after the trip has ended. Though, to the unpracticed eye, these simple practices seem to add little to a traveler’s expertise of a place, in reality, the sum of all of a few trips can be substantial and empowering.