2020 Top 5 Trail Running Shoes Review
After taking them for a spin on his local trails, Josh compares and reviews his top 5 trail running shoes for 2020; the max cushioned Brooks Caldera 4 and New Balance Fresh Foam More Trail v1, the high traction Saucony Peregrine 10 ST and On Cloudventure, and the all-terrain Salomon Sense Ride 3 trail running shoe.
Trade in the concrete jungle for the real wild with trail-specific features to navigate changing environments in confidence and comfort. Whether you need a plusher ride that prioritises impact dampening for longer runs or aggressive grip to fly over bone-dry to slushy trails, we’ll help you to unleash your inner trail blazer and find your ideal off-road shoe.
Check out the review with full transcript below.
Hi guys, Josh here from Sportitude and today we’re doing a shoe review on my top 5 trail shoes for this year so far, in the middle part of 2020.
I get to do a lot of sampling for brands whether it be road shoes or trail shoes. Every single year I take shoes out and test them before we get the ability to bring them to you the public.
In no specific order I have a Brooks, New Balance, Saucony, On and a Salomon shoe to show you today. I have split them up into different categories so without further ado let's get stuck in.
Max Cushioned Trail Shoes:
Brooks Caldera 4 and New Balance Fresh Foam More Trail v1
First things first, I’m going to touch on the trail shoes that I've enjoyed running in when I'm looking for a lot more cushioning. It could potentially be a longer trail set that I'm doing or when my body is a bit sore, a bit broken and I want to lean on the extra cushioning support that this trail shoe will offer me.
When I'm looking for that specific shoe I'm gravitating towards none other than the Brooks Caldera 4 and the New Balance Fresh Foam More Trail v1 that just landed. I've been using this shoe for a few weeks now and I’m absolutely loving it.
You can see straight away even to the naked eye they have plenty of foam underneath the foot. I really enjoy running in these when I'm seeking additional cushioning, when I'm going for my longer trail runs and I'm really looking to protect my body, knees and hips. I pull up quite well after a trail set in these. There's so much to like about them in terms of the enjoyment factor underneath the feet.
They're not heavy by any means. There are certainly heavier trail shoes in this category but they're not the lightest as well. I’ll never grab these if I want to feel fast and snappy on the trails but certainly they’re shoes that I feel super confident in running off-road.
There’s a couple of subtle changes regarding this shoe. The New Balance More is a very generous shoe regarding the width. It’s a 2E width and that’s all we have on offer in Australia at the moment.
It fits a bit wider than a 2E. I sometimes gravitate between D and 2E depending on the shoe. In theory this should be OK for me, but I found it to be a little bit wider. I like that because on the market right now the max cushioned neutral base category doesn’t have a lot of good shoes that come in wider widths available to the runners here in Australia. It gives me a great deal of confidence to know that we have some broad options available to the running community out there, so I'm really pumped about that shoe.
I first received my Caldera 4 around about four months ago and straight away when I put this shoe on my foot it had a combination of cushioning and response. It was a super comfortable shoe and I was actually doing all-terrain running. Out my door I’m roughly about 6.5km from a very popular trail right here at home. Running on a bitumen pavement to get to the opening of that trail is absolutely fine in this shoe.
The grip itself has worn pretty well and in terms of the overall structure and support on road it performed nicely on the foot. As I touched on before, it has plenty cushioning but it has a good combination of dampening impact and responsive impact as well.
If I want to pick up the pace of the trails I certainly feel a bit more confident doing it in this shoe then I do in the New Balance More. I’m not saying you can’t run fast in the New Balance More, but I like the way the Caldera 4 feels on my foot for my long trial runs and also those short quick runs when I’m wanting some cushioning as well.
Both are neutral lasted so there's no additional medial post on either of these shoes that’s going to complicate things with my running gait. They have strong and breathable uppers which is good for running on the trail. I am loving these two shoes at the moment.
High Traction Trail Shoes:
Saucony Peregrine 10 ST and On Cloudventure
The next category of trail shoes is essentially a category that I've created out of thin air and it's one that I love for extra grip. We’re taking about the Saucony Peregrine 10 ST and the On Cloudventure.
Straight off the bat you can see underneath it is almost reminiscent to a tractor tire. There is so much lug and traction support for uphill and downhill with both of these shoes. They're not as cushioned as the previous models I just spoke about but certainly have an element of padding to them.
Both brands have executed their midsoles to be relatively low in drop. We’re talking a 6mm drop in the On Cloudventure and a 4mm drop in the Saucony Peregrine.
The grip underneath is where the magic happens. When I'm looking to pick up the pace of the trails it can be a combination of both dry trails with slippery rocks and gravel, and also on slushy days we've been used to in recent weeks where you've got loose mud underneath your foot. These trail shoes certainly grab the ground so well.
When you’re ascending and descending, you're getting great confidence coming down hills so when you put your foot down you know you've got the grab and the purchase with the ground that you're looking for on trails. Not to mention the uppers as well, because essentially you can run a little bit faster in these because they are marginally lighter.
The Saucony Peregrine isn’t the lightest trail shoe on the market. It probably feels like a similar weight to what I showed you previously in the max cushioned category.
When you're running a bit faster and you’re going to put a bit of velocity of movement through your feet it’s important the upper lockdown to the midsole engineering is nice and secure. As you go around the lateral side to the medial side of the Saucony Peregrine it's really stable. It has a great lockdown and good security on top of the foot to keep your foot secure on that platform.
It’s the same thing with the On Cloudventure. Where it has the dark shaded grey that goes into the beige you can see it's manufactured almost like a top deck piece of chocolate. That's the actual welding design which locks in the midsole to the upper. Again, you feel super confident. Your foot stays on top of the platform in conjunction with these great lugs underneath.
One small criticism I did find with the On Cloudventure is I did get a couple of rocks stuck in the outsole, but they didn't stick around for too long - two or three steps and bang they fell out. It was something that I did notice, but not enough for me to not want to run in this shoe. I love what this shoe does for my foot.
Both the On Cloudventure and Saucony Peregrine trail running shoes are super grippy, providing great confidence on dry and wet trails. I love them.
All-Terrain Trail Shoe:
Salomon Sense Ride 3
The next shoe I'm going to talk about is a shoe that is a consistent performer. It's the Salomon Sense Ride 3 and for me it's probably the most runnable all-terrain trail shoe on the market at the moment.
What I mean by that is you have great grip for you trail surface, but again for running from road to the trail it's going to have a nice durable sole as well.
The new Optivibe cushioning system which I think they’ve used for a couple of seasons now in some of their Salomon shoes is improving what the midsole is all about. You've got nice dampening but a really responsive feel underneath the foot as well.
Salomon being a pure trail brand have generally leaned towards a more proprioceptive feel to provide a good connection with the ground. They're now starting to play with shoes with a little bit more cushioning which is nice to know because not every single trail runner out there runs just purely on trails.
Some of us run road to trail to get to our favourite trails. The Salomon Sense Ride 3 is a perfect split for your trail runners that run a little bit on your bitumen pavements as well.
All the shoes that I've covered today are built on a neutral last and that is very common with the trail running shoe market at the moment. There is a handful of shoes that have a little bit of arch support at the medial side. However, when you're talking pure trail shoes often they don't overcomplicate things with arch placement because every single foot strike is going to be different from the previous foot strike when you're on the trails.
That's because the amount of variability that comes into play – sticks, rocks, mud, terrain foot placement, puddles etc. It's why we love trail running - because it's so different every single step.
Therefore, brands don't overcomplicate the midsoles with the amount of arch support they put in them. However, brands can get that arch support feel with some contoured overlays in regards to the upper and the medial side, so when you pull your laces up you get that lockdown. You get some feeling of arch stability but they're not over complicating the midsole engineering on the medial side.
The Salomon Sense Ride 3 has a lace garage so once you get the tension and lockdown with the Quicklace lacing system, you tuck in your laces under the lace garage so it doesn't catch on sticks and twigs when you're running the trails. It prevents the laces from flapping around and annoying you. You tuck the laces under there and say goodbye lace, hello running.
Some models like the Brooks Caldera have a lace loop on top of the tongue to tuck the laces underneath, and the same thing goes with the Saucony Peregrine and the On Cloudventure.
I'll touch on one of the other features about the New Balance More Trail. I did talk about it being max cushioned and very supportive. When we’re talking about your trail shoes that happened to be considerably higher off the ground like this, a lot of runners tend to lose that proprioceptive feel with the ground. It's because you're so far off the ground - it's all about the protection element with this engineering concept.
The upper with yellow string on the medial and lateral side allows you to get more of a customised fit on top as well. I want to throw that feature out there because it's a slightly more of a generous width shoe in comparison to the others on the table. In conjunction with the 2E last and D width on offer for ladies’, you can get a little bit more of a lockdown through the midsection with that new lace engineering up top.
There you have it guys, that is my top 5 trail shoes for the middle part of 2020. Obviously, a couple of different categories are on offer being max cushioned, more grip and all-terrain running. Hopefully it’s given you some information at home that may help you with your next trail shoe selection.
If you haven't subscribed to our Sportitude YouTube channel please do. If you have any questions on trail shoes that we've covered or you've got any of your own comments around the shoes we've talked about today please contact our Sportitude shoe experts.
Until next time, happy running and we'll see on the trails. Take care.
New Balance Fresh Foam More Trail v1
Brooks Caldera 4
Saucony Peregrine 10 ST
Salomon Sense Ride 3
On Cloudventure