I was fortunate enough to get my mitts on a new pair of Salomon S-Lab 4 XT Wings this year through the Running Free Team Lottery, to say I was excited about it would be an understatement.
The S-Lab 4 XT Wings obviously are in the same family as the standard XT Wings line that Salomon makes, but there are a few noticeable differences between the two shoes:
· The S-Lab 4 XT Wings are lighter than the XT Wings line. I haven’t weighed them personally to compare, but research shows them to be in the 300 gram mark which is roughly 50 grams lighter than the standard XT Wings and XT Wings 2’s. If you ever have owned a pair of standard XT Wings, as soon as you put on the S-Lab’s you immediately recognize that they are much more svelte than their predecessors.
· The S-Lab 4 XT has fewer seams in its creation than the XT Wings which as a result will cause less friction down the road.
As with most of the Salomon line, the features on this shoe that makes it triumph over other brands of trail specific running shoes include:
· The Quicklace system and Lace Pocket (Garage), this feature allows for a very quick and evenly fit lacing.
· The Contragrip outsole with a rugged tread pattern (chevron like) that grips in almost all conditions
· A rubber toe cap which helps when stubbing toes against rocks and other obstacles.
So, with all this said did I like running in these shoes? Absolutely. Between May and October I was putting in approximately 20km’s per week on the trails, this may not be a huge number to some people but you have to keep in mind I’m a cyclist too and have to devote a lot time to training on two wheels. One thing I really appreciated was that not once while wearing these shoes over this period of time, even from brand new, did I get a single blister. Some could argue that it wasn’t the shoe, but the lack of mileage put in that saved me the blisters; but for a guy that’s 200+ pounds it really doesn’t take much for me to get blisters and this is the first time blister free. The shoes when you first see them appear extremely vibrant with its red and orange colour combination, for me this took some getting used to – but after time I actually really grew attached to the esthetics of these shoes. If I were to list any sort of improvement Salomon could make, it would be only having a single width of these shoes. Most will know that the Salomon shoe line tends to be a bit narrow to many runners standards, the S-Lab 4 XT aren’t an exception unfortunately. I have wider feet than most and I found they were snug at first especially in the toe box and arch area, but over time they did give a bit allowing for a more comfortable run.
With trail running, you often are faced with terrain that would shred a normal shoe or cause a number of rolled ankles. The design of the S-Lab 4 XT has the sole of the shoe flare out aggressively wide allowing for a much larger surface area between the shoe and the ground. This adds to the shoe’s overall impressive stability.
If you’re a road runner looking to try trail running, or have been trail running for many years but are looking for a new shoe, I’d strongly suggest the Salomon S-Lab 4 XT. Although a bit more costly than other shoes, the benefits largely outweigh the additional cost.
See you on the trails.
