The North Face Offtrail Ultra Review: Secure and Stable on the Trail

Some shoes out there in the market announce themselves the moment you slide your foot in.

The Offtrail Ultra does that, plus more – it hugs. Literally. The SCREEGUARD gaiter (or what I like to call an ankle collar) wraps in so snugly that my first reaction was less ‘nice shoe’ and more ‘why does this feel like my foot is being gently, lovingly restrained?’.

Across my testing, the Offtrail Ultra turned in a performance that was quietly, almost stubbornly competent.

That built-in gaiter deserves its moment, because it’s the thing I keep coming back to. It’s connected directly to the tongue, so there’s no separate piece shifting, bunching or sliding as you move, and feels like the extension of a sock. It took a run or two to stop noticing it (in a good way), but once I did, I didn’t get a single moment of heel slip or collar rub the entire time, nor did I get any debris filtering in. For a part of the shoe most of us never think about, it’s doing a remarkable amount of quiet, unglamorous work.

It’s also a design choice I’m noticing more and more across the industry, and raises a fair question: Is this just a passing trend, or are shoe makers onto something better than the traditional separate tongue and separately purchased gaiters? Based on how secure and fuss-free the Offtrail Ultra felt underfoot, I’m leaning towards the latter – it solves a problem that a lot of us didn’t realise we’d learned to live with.

Then there are the laces, which I have opinions about. I’m a bungee-lace loyalist through and through, and the Offtrail Ultra’s traditional laces had me audibly sighing before I’d even got the shoe on my foot. But The North Face has included a strip of material you thread the finished bow through, which locks everything in place and stops them working themselves loose mid-run. It’s a small, clever fix and once ready to go, I moved on to focus on the shoe itself.

Underfoot, the shoe is a stable, planted ride. On fire trail and compact earth, it moved confidently and efficiently, and on the more technical sections, it held its ground without a hint of wobble or hesitation. There’s a reassuring, grounded feel to every stride that made me trust the shoe more with each run, rather than less.

Taking a look at grip, the lugged outsole handled gravel and compact earth without a single slip or skid – reassuring for anyone, like me, who tends to find more loose rock on a trail than they’d like to admit. The lugs are generous enough to bite into looser surfaces without feeling overly aggressive or clunky on the firmer stretches, which is exactly the kind of balance you want from a shoe that’s being asked to do a bit of everything.

Weight-wise, this shoe punches well above its price point for what it’s doing. It’s not the lightest trail shoe I’ve tested, I’ll give you that, but it doesn’t feel like you’re dragging anything extra along for the ride either; there’s a solidity to it that reads as ‘well thought out’ rather than heavy.

The upper strikes a similarly thoughtful balance, with a lightweight mesh doing most of the work through the toe box and a tougher, more protective layer built in around the heel and lower collar. To be honest, I didn’t notice any overheating, and the shoe dried out quickly after getting splashed crossing a couple of puddled sections of trail (if you know me, you’ll know I love to step once in the water, at least!).

The North Face Offtrail Ultra is also, if we’re talking aesthetics for a moment, a good-looking shoe. The colourway I tested had enough personality to not disappear into ‘generic trail shoe’ territory, which matters more than we probably admit when we’re choosing what to lace up in week after week (if you’re loud, you’ll want loud shoes – it’s fun!).

Taken as a whole, this is a shoe that rewards runners who move across a bit of everything – fire trail one day, looser and more technical terrain the next – without asking you to compromise security or confidence underfoot in either direction.

Women’s colours:
Papaya-Canal Blue
Men’s colours
Papaya-Canal Blue
Great for:
Mixed terrain runners who want stability and security
Not so great for:
Wet, muddy, boggy trails
Ideal foot type:
Standard width, midfoot strikers
Test terrain:
Pea gravel, fire trail, gravel tracks, compact earth
Stack height:
29mm heel / 23mm forefoot
Drop:
6mm
Lugs:
5mm
Weight:
272g
RRP:
$300.00 AUD / $330.00 NZD
Website:
thenorthface.com.au / thenorthface.co.nz

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