It hasn’teven been a month since the release of the Nike Pegasus Trail 3 GTX, and already I’ve taken in a lot more water than I’m willing to put up with.
In my opinion, the evolution of this shoe is slow but continuous, so much so that in little more than a couple of years it has already become a classic Nike product: the Pegasus Trail consolidates its all-rounder positioning in the not-too-technical offroad segment every day. But I must say that the more time passes, the more I allow myself to use it even on very rough terrain.
The GTX version deserves, for once, a full review because this time around Nike did not just add a membrane – in GORE-TEX precisely – waterproof, but slightly rethought the whole shoe.
As soon as you pick it up you immediately notice the gaiter, that little sock you find on the neck of the shoe. It is intended to wrap around the ankle and prevent any water splashes from entering that side, then effectively making the waterproofing of the upper futile. This feature-though present throughout the Pegasus Trail 2 range-is no longer present in the “standard” version of the Pegasus Trail 3 and makes its return exclusively on the GTX model.
The second variation I noticed made me happy right away because it puts a patch (literally) on a small flaw in the previous model. In fact, on the toe we find a coating of plastic material, a detail borrowed from its sisters Wild Horse and Terra Kiger, whose purpose is to protect more effectively an area where we potentially have greater exposure to water: when you see a puddle what do you do, don’t you want to step in it like a child?
Finally, we have an almost invisible but interesting detail: if the Pegasus Trail 2 GTXs were protected by a split GORE-TEX membrane, we now have a single membrane. In addition to contributing to the better waterproofing of the shoe, this detail makes the upper slightly more structured and supportive.
Put it on your feet and enjoy
It is a Pegasus Trail through and through. When you first put it on, the comfort of the React foam is impressive: more than running you’d want to rest your feet on the couch, watch Netflix and eat chips (the rustic, thick, wavy kind).
As soon as you start running in it, you realize how much the midsole protects you from most bumps: it has always been a shoe with a racing spirit, and it continues to perform best on white roads where you feel like you’re wearing a very normal, particularly responsive running shoe. On those trails where you then hit a few miles of asphalt you realize how much difference there is – for better or worse – compared to drier, more technical shoes. I purposely wanted to test it in the city as well, and I can say with absolute confidence that there is no harm in doing some metropolitan outings with it, you won’t ruin it.
The upper, completely revised, then finally supports the foot properly, without blocking its movement in any way: it is definitely the change of course that I most appreciated compared to ver.2 (with which, moreover, I still run).
Okay but what about the GORE-TEX?
I’ve never been a proponent of the waterproof shoe for the trail: it tends to be fine for drizzle and a few puddles, but if the rain becomes incessant then water will still get in and at that point your foot will stay wet until the end. But today’s GORE-TEX membranes are much more breathable than those of 2-3 years ago, and the Pegasus Trail 3 GTX-as well as your foot-benefits quite a bit.
I took a lot of water and stayed dry for a couple of hours, which I think can be enough in 90% of cases. When the water then inevitably gets in (to do a proper test I deliberately entered an ankle-deep creek) I can say that the foot dried out faster than I thought it would. Clearly, the upper will always remain less breathable than a non-waterproof shoe, but great strides have definitely been made in this regard.
In a model that learns from its mistakes and improves one little piece at a time, the sore point remains – unfortunately – always the grip of the sole. For goodness sake, no real hiccups on dry soils, even with major slopes. But as soon as you place your foot on the wet rock you realize that stability is another thing.If I can accept this from the “summer” model, it seems to me to be a strong deficiency in the variant intended for cold and wet outings.
However, on this issue I would like to break a lance in favor of Nike, at least in terms of my growth as a trail runner: knowing the limitations of the shoe I run with much more awareness and try to prevent any risk of slipping. It’s kind of like when you go from an extremely more structured shoe to a lighter, faster model that inevitably gives up points on protection and forces you to learn how to run better if you don’t want to hurt yourself.
Clearly this doesn’t excuse Nike from developing a more grippy compound-I think that’s the only thing it lacks to become my favorite all-around outdoor shoe (actually, it already is, but you should always aim to improve).
You can find them on the official Nike website for €149.99