Brooks Puregrit 8 “They look, ummm, pretty,” I thought to myself when first unboxing the latest PureGrit from Brooks. I was – to be honesty – slightly disappointed. My general gut feel with trail running shoes is that I want a gnarly veneer. Rough. Ready for the ‘pure grit’ that the Brooks nameplate evoked. Nothing too, well, pretty! It turns out – as often is the way with me and first impressions – I was wrong. Perhaps I’m just too…
Warwick Capper. Or was it Dermott Brereton? Who was the first AFL footballer to dare wear sparkling white boots out on to the (then) mud-pocked footy oval, eighty thousand fans screaming what the f*ck is he wearing?* But then look at the hair, feel the lair, it’s all there, right down to wearing exactly the wrong-colour shoes in exactly the right kind of environment. You can sense the promo peeps from Sards Wondersoap were about to have an apoplectic orgasm…
Does Ironman or, indeed, The Flash (the besuited superheroes) wear trail shoes? I don’t know, but if they do, these are it. Look at them – they scream ‘look at me’ for their sheer red radness. So confident are The North Face adventure architects that – in the men’s at least – they are only offered in three colours. Red, red and red. Women only get two: blue and grey. I almost expect them Transformer-like to unfurl into small killer…
New to the scene Down Under and even to trails, it’s perhaps surprising that On Running – a Swiss company more well known for road and tri footwear – has cranked out a decent first up offering for the dirty mob. Surprising that is until you realise the chieftains at On are actually trail runners… Review: Chris Ord **This review appears in Edition #31 of Trail Run Mag, available as single edition purchase here or subscribe today, here.** Velcro. The modern…
Did I just kick a skunk? Or eat licorice allsorts and throw up on my feet? Or did someone just inject heroin between my toes? Without wanting to glamourise drugs of addiction, it must be the latter because 1. I love animals (so I would never kick one, plus there are no skunks in Australia to kick); 2. I hate licorice allsorts (especially the black and white ones that would have resulted in such a vomitus display); and 3. my…
TRM Assoc. Editor, Tegyn Angel reviews Salomon’s Advanced Skin3 12-set. It was around 2013/14, Ultra168 had just reviewed the Salomon XT Advanced Skin S-Lab 12 Set Hydration Pack, still possibly the longest product name in trail running history. I’d pre-ordered the first Suunto Ambit, and now this piece of incredible goodness was about to do away with my CamelBak M.U.L.E. for good. A pack shaped like a vest! Of course, body hugging, bounce-free, gear-carrying glory, and just in time for The…
Caldera Crushers: Minimalism is dead? We’re unsure – maybe it’s still on life support waiting for its own next big breath of fresh air (although read If These Shoes Could Talk, final page of ED#22 Trail Run Mag printed edition, and you might argue otherwise). Regardless, the big boys in trail shoe land are certainly putting the max factor back on the table following the tidal wave of fat-bottoms that Hoka had gumption to float into the market with. And – especially…
There are two things of import above all else when looking at trail run guides: maps and beer. The first is, perhaps, because I have a fetish for maps. No, I don’t dress up in them in the wee hours in the attic, but I do have a storeroom full of maps of all scales that I, for pure indulgent pleasure, pour over, dreaming of placing myself on their sweet contours. I have maps from all over the world with…
Grant Guise is bit of a gear expert – as an elite trail runner, he has professionally banged gear along trails and up mountains for years – he knows his stuff. And he was intrigued enough by murmurs of Patagonia beefing up its trail running presence Down Under. Here he gives the lowdown on the Patagonia Houdini jacket along with a brief four-one-one on just what the hell is the point of a wind shell anyway… (RUN IMAGES: Brook van…
