The Monday Shakeout: Do Trail Shoes Really Need To Be Super?
By Matthew Klein
This week we address the increasing addition of carbon fiber plates in trail shoes and the emerging number of "Super" trail shoes. While there has been plenty of research on the efficiency benefits of super shoes designed for road, the research on them in trail running has just begun to emerge.
We are in an interesting age of racing shoes. Road super shoes have developed to incredible levels and we are now seeing the emergence of crazy light super shoes. Comparatively, the trail scene is just starting to adopt and see super options from all companies. There has been research on level surface and hilly running on the road but we did not have any research on carbon plates and super shoe impacts on trail/mountain running performance. Until recently, anyway.
Study Breakdown
A unique study published in 2025 in Footwear Science emerged from Spain attempting to shed light on this subject. Twelve trained mountain runners were put through a series of tests, including two time trials on a 5.19 kilometer mountain course that included long uphill, downhill and mixed terrain. Runners were randomly assigned one of six different brand of advanced footwear technology (AFT - super shoes) and told to purchase a non-AFT control shoe. They used each shoe for the different time trials and had various physiological and biomechanical parameters taken. The results found no differences in physiological factors. Biomechanically, cadence (step frequency) decreased in the AFT shoes but remained consistent in the non-AFT control shoes, while vertical oscillation stayed the same in AFT shoes but decreased in non-AFT shoes. Comfort-wise, runners rated the forefoot flexibility lower in the AFT shoes compared to the non-AFT control shoes especially on the uphill sections.
While road super racing shoes may be beneficial to certain runners, trail super shoes may not be as helpful, at least in their current formats. On road terrain, super shoes have been found to be helpful to faster runners on level, uphill and downhills terrains (Burns & Joubert, 2024; Rodrigo-Carranza et al., 2023; Whiting et al., 2022). Mountain and trail running often require much steeper and more technical ascents and descents, which often bring speeds down. We have evidence that suggests that AFT shoes provide more benefit the faster you go and give far less at slower speeds (Joubert et al., 2023; Rodrigo-Carranza et al., 2023). Additionally, a study published after the one discussed above specifically looked at carbon plates in trail shoes and found that they decreased performance on uphill terrain (Jaboulay & Giandolini, 2025). The addition of decreased forefoot flexibility comfort also suggests that instead of just translating designs directly from the road, some additional factors need to be taken into account for trail and mountain running.
Takeaways
While there may be a place for super racing / AFT shoes on the trail, their current designs may not specific enough for an actual benefit over other shoes. The more technical aspects of trail and mountain running may require designs with more forefoot flexibility and performance enhancement over the variety of speeds required while traversing difficult and unstable terrain. While the current line up of super trail shoes, including the ASICS METAFUJI Trail, Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra, Hoka Tecton X3, New Balance FuelCell Supercomp Trail, Nike Ultrafly Trail, The North Face Summit Vectiv Pro 3 and Puma Deviate Nitro Elite Trail are an interesting and fun bunch, there may have to be some redesigns. My biggest suggestions based on the research and personal experience is to consider improving forefoot flexibility while dropping weight. Whether that can be accomplished remains to be seen.
References
Burns, G. T., & Joubert, D. P. (2024). Running Shoes of the Postmodern Footwear Era: A Narrative Overview of Advanced Footwear Technology. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 19(10), 975-986.
Corbí-Santamaría, P., Gil-Calvo, M., Herrero-Molleda, A., García-López, J., Boullosa, D., & García-Tormo, J. V. (2025). The Impact of Advanced Footwear Technology on the Performance and Running Biomechanics of Mountain Runners. Applied Sciences, 15(2), 531.
Jaboulay, C., & Giandolini, M. (2025). Effect of increased bending stiffness on running economy and joint biomechanics in uphill running and running on unstable terrain: is there any evidence for embedding carbon plate in trail running footwear?. Footwear Science, 1-9.
Joubert, D. P., Dominy, T. A., & Burns, G. T. (2023). Effects of highly cushioned and resilient racing shoes on running economy at slower running speeds. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 18(2), 164-170.
Rodrigo-Carranza, V., González-Mohíno, F., Casado, A., Santos-Concejero, J., Galán-Rioja, M. Á., & González-Ravé, J. M. (2023). Impact of advanced footwear technology on critical speed and performance in elite runners. Footwear Science, 15(1), 9-15.
Whiting, C. S., Hoogkamer, W., & Kram, R. (2022). Metabolic cost of level, uphill, and downhill running in highly cushioned shoes with carbon-fiber plates. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 11(3), 303-308.
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