Great looking shoe and nice to see there are still fast and nimble shoe options with all the fat chunky shoes lately. Nice preview and initial review. 👏👍 My main concern is with the outsole. Always a risk to have cutouts and I find those make the outsole extremely prone to peeling off. Especially running on rocky terrain. Would have preferred solid rubber outsole. Waiting to hear durability reports to come
Sounds like its a lot like the original salomon s lab SG a shoe that I loved! I've been running in the Merrell MTL Long skys over winter and they have really suprised me and are now my go to trail shoes
"So narrow" sounds like fine music to my ears. Unfortunately I'd need substantial cushioning every year more, as aging takes its toll; but the most cushioned shoes are both heavy, which is dislike more than on road shoes, and generally too wide and deep in the forefoot... 😭😭
Hi Loyd Love the channel, I prefer low stack trail shoes for shorter races. If you haven’t already done so it would be great to see you try the original Salomon S Lab Pulsar. Probably my favourite shoe of all time, pure dynamite, but warning, you will need a shoe horn handy to get them on…
A wee bit late to the video but so far I've enjoyed my Skyfires. I have about 56 miles in them, longest run was eight miles and a 5k race. I run on limestone and clay terrains so when it rains it is very slippery. Thus far I haven't had any real slips in them. If there is one it's the rock moving under my shoe. The rock plates aren't the best, I can definitely feel sharp rocks through them. When they say lightweight material they mean it. My socks and feet get wet just walking through grass with dew. Overall I am happy with them. One complaint is the price. Just too expensive for what else you can get on the market these days. I got lucky and got mine when Merrell had a $50 off sale this summer. I also got running gaiters for mine for all the debris that gets into them.
It's a super stripped back trail shoe so you're not going to get a lot of protection from the midsole and the uppers is like paper to keep the weight down. Vibram megagrip is brilliant on the rocks, it's never let me down on anything 👍 Thanks for watching 🙏
Cheers Lloyd. Check out the Merell MTL Long Sky. My go to trail running shoe. A little strioped back like the Sky fire but with slighrly more cushioning.
Loyd, Even as I recover from a torn meniscus and sprained MCL - fell on an icy trail here in the Colorado mountains last February - I love this shoe. You do it justice. To be clear: This or the brilliant Naked T/r will be my choice for the 8,000’ vertical half-marathon that is the 2023 Pikes Peak Ascent.
This is Merrell's flagship Skyrunning shoe. It's made for running fast on super technical mountainous terrain. All their athletes are wearing this shoe in the Skyrunning World Series.
The Arc'teryx norvan sl 3 also just came out on the market. It might be even lighter and lower with an apparent stack height of 19mm to 12mm under the forefoot. Whould be great too see how these would compare to these ones. The Merrells are defintly too small for my wide forefoots😅
Even Merrell is marketing this as a VK shoe I think. Makes sense... flexible, light, grippy, nice snapback. But for that price? Too much for me to warrant purchasing. Maybe if I did several VKs a year, or just went for ascent records up local mountains.
Great video again Loyd and lovely trail....... but my worry is Rocks....Too many gaps between the lugs especially on the rocks (guess Snowdonia is out of the question) ??
Thank you loyd for this review, am exactly like you concerning running shoes, i like a little cushion, i love the Xodus Ultra and the Peregrine, i am now thinking of the Hoka Mafate but i have a skyrace coming up so i was worried that this Skyfire2 would be too minimal for me, its a 33km and i dont want to feel the calf and knee pain during the race, thank you so much! Great to see that you're feeling better though! keep well!
I personally think the SKYFIRE 2 would be a bit stripped back for me for the kind of distance Francois, I'd need a little bit more cushioning 👍 Hope you have a great race and thanks for watching 🙏
Thanks Lloyd, another great video (glad the calf is OK) and another pair of shoes my very wide Hobbit feet will ever get into. Looks good though and great to see some striped down shoes.
Very attractive shoe this. Heel collar seems quite high? I wonder how a 4mm drop version of this would feel on the tech stuff. Gonna miss the 4mm Sense 4 Pro, since Salomon’s stack height is getting so high nowadays.
What would say for a 5k seen these for £79 with code at sportsshoes and tempted for my weekly park runs which at this time of year are 70% mud and farm type tracks, but the speed element has me intrigued
They’d definitely handle that type of distance and terrain well. It is a super stripped back racing shoe and it’s really narrow though. If you’ve got narrow feet and you are going to be running fast then they’re definitely worth £79! 👍
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video. I personally enjoy the Salomon Cross 2, it offers a bit more cushioning and underfoot protection. Hope this helps and thanks for watching 🙏😊
I don't think that's a shoe for me! I was feeling your pain with calf Loyd. I did something to mine about 4wks ago and have been backing off the training, massaging it, rolling it and it still isn't overly happy. It's 4 days out from Classic Quarter and I've done minimal volume and virtually no vertical, what can possibly go wrong? 😂
What the stability and shape on them? I had the first and my heel would turn in something chronic on them, with the heel really narrow. Shame, as they make some great hiking/outdoor shoes
