The Nike Pegasus Trail 3 have been out for a few months now and have firmly established their all-around positioning in the not-too-technical offroad segment: here you will find a small account of this shoe’s evolution.
However, let’s talk here about its GORE-TEX version, which was distributed just these days. I usually never talk about it, simply because it is not worth it: in the vast majority of cases the GTX version of a shoe does nothing more than add a membrane – in GORE-TEX precisely – more or less waterproof, leaving the model unchanged.
As soon as I had the Nike Pegasus Trail 3 GTXs in my hands, however, I realized that even with the naked eye I was noticing differences that, though small, were obvious to me and symptomatic of a more structured thought that “I make them identical but waterproof.”
The first noticeable detail, not present in the classic version, is the gaiter(sock, for friends) you find on the neck of the shoe. Its function is clearly to wrap around the ankle and prevent any water splashes from entering that way, which often happens and would make the waterproofing of the upper useless.
The second detail is perhaps less obvious but fills in a small flaw in the previous model. Indeed, on the tip we find a coating of plastic material, a detail borrowed from its sisters Wild Horse and Terra Kiger, whose purpose is to more effectively protect an area where we potentially have greater exposure to water (typically when entering a puddle).
The good news is that it is not raining these days up here in the pleasant Po Valley, the bad news is that as a result you have to wait a few more days for a full and detailed review. I in doubt am wearing them while waiting for a rinse.
You can find them, of course, on the official Nike website at a price of €149.99