I ran in these shoes about 90 km and over 5,000 meters of elevation gain before writing this review. How many? Few? Not as many in absolute terms, but certainly more than is needed for a test of a shoe I roughly already know. It’s just that as soon as I saw it, I realized I didn’t know her anymore, so I wanted to understand her properly before I told the story.
After the Nike Pegasus Trail 2 of 2020 and the next version 3 of 2021 could be expected that this model – which had become iconic in a very short time – would undergo only minor changes and marginal improvements: bit by bit in my opinion Nike had conquered the segment door-to-trail with a very comfortable shoe that I did not disdain wearing even on more challenging terrain (as long as it was dry).
But this fourth iteration shuffles the cards, taking a few steps backward in its own way. Just look at it, and what you see is not (anymore) a trail running shoe but a road shoe with a trail heart-Nike itself claims to be inspired by the Pegasus 39, so a kind of return to the origins of the project, as it did in 2019 with the Pegasus 36 Trail. The shapes and lines are the first clue to this, the upper is very soft and the side support almost absent, even the flywire lacing system winks at the road range and again it is déjà-vu. Finally, the sole confirms this: although it has a 4 mm cleat, the design is almost identical to that of its cousin Pegasus 39, much more suitable for asphalt than for trails. Or rather, perfect for pushing on heavily traveled trails and dirt roads, but abandon any aggressive traction and grip ambitions on climbs and descents. I wish I could say that at least the grip of the compound has improved, but I’m afraid I can’t.
The midsole retains the React foam but my feeling is that it is denser and more compact than its predecessors, again preferring its use in pushing on easy, non-technical offroad terrain where the Peg 4 has always been highly valued.
The GORE-TEX version, which is already on sale, certainly has a more aggressive look: thanks to the small gaiter on the ankle and bolder colors (in addition, of course, to the waterproof and reflective inserts) it stands out overbearingly on the shelves unlike its younger sister. Aesthetically definitely a cut above. In addition-just because of the GORE-TEX membrane-the upper gains slightly in stability, which doesn’t hurt at all. But beware, we are still talking about the same shoe.
In short, what we have before us is more of a Pegasus 39 Trail than a Pegasus Trail 4: a shoe that goes back to doing exclusively what it was originally designed to do-that is, door-to-trail-but definitely more door than trail.
As to why this choice was made, one can speculate a few things; I simply believe that with the introduction of the new Nike ZoomX Zegama Trail (and the imminent release of the Nike ZoomX Ultrafly Trail), the catalog was beginning to get very crowded and the offerings overlapped far too much. I’m going to go even more out on a limb: I’ll bet you a double mozzarella daisy that we will soon see the Wild Horse disappear as well, a model that has always struggled to find its place and whose presence is now scarcely justifiable after the Zegama’s release on the market. Or in any case Nike will be forced to reposition this model as well, as it did a few years ago, finding a new why for it.