The FUGA EX PRO G adds a built-in gaiter to the Kailas FUGA race shoe and, despite that extra layer, comes in six grams lighter than the model it’s based on.
- Sock-style gaiter built into the upper: keeps gravel, dirt and debris out without a single stop.
- 9.5 oz / 269 g (EU 42, US M8.5), 5 mm drop, 4 and 6 mm lugs: six grams less than the EX PRO, which has no gaiter.
- X-shaped carbon plate, supercritical TPU foam and a Vibram outsole: the EX PRO platform carries over untouched.
- On sale August 29 through the official site. The press release doesn’t list a price.
The pebble gets in at mile twenty. It rides over the edge of the upper as you cross a scree field, works its way down into your sock and settles under the head of the third metatarsal. From there you have two options: run another twelve miles with a nail under your foot, or stop, sit down, unlace, tip the shoe out and start again, ninety seconds gone and the mental sequence broken.
It’s the problem Kailas FUGA built the FUGA EX PRO G around, announced on August 18 and on sale from the 29th on the official site. The final letter, the G, stands for gaiter: a sock-style collar built into the upper that closes the ankle opening and keeps gravel, dirt and debris out while you run.
The rest is the FUGA EX PRO, the race shoe that has been on the podium more than 200 times since its 2025 launch, and the one we took uphill at Passo Pordoi, in the Dolomites. Same intended use: races between 30 and 100 km (roughly 19 to 62 miles) on mixed terrain.
Nina Sun, Brand Director at Kailas FUGA, traces the project back to the brand’s elite athletes, who asked for a shoe that addressed the frustration of stones and dirt getting inside while running fast.
Nine and a Half Ounces, Gaiter Included
The number worth a second look is the weight: 269 g, 9.5 oz, for a US men’s 8.5. The EX PRO, which has no gaiter, is listed at 275 g, 9.7 oz. Adding a layer of fabric around the ankle and coming out six grams lighter is the kind of detail that tells you more than any launch presentation.
Six grams don’t exist standing still. You feel them on the thousandth step of a climb, when you’ve already lifted them a thousand times and your hip flexor starts sending the first signals.
The rest of the geometry comes from its sibling: 5 mm drop, with 35 mm of midsole under the heel and 30 under the forefoot, and lugs 4 mm deep along the inner band, 6 mm along the outer one.
What Sits Under the Foot
The plate is carbon fiber, molded in a single piece in the shape of an X: it widens toward the forefoot and toward the heel and leaves the center open. The geometry has a functional reason. A full plate stiffens everything, and in the mountains that stiffness becomes a problem the moment the ground stops being predictable. The X adds forward drive and leaves the foot room to twist, to negotiate with a rock sitting at the wrong angle.
Around the plate there’s supercritical TPU foam — thermoplastic polyurethane expanded with pressurized gas — running the full length of the shoe. It’s the material that returns part of the impact energy instead of absorbing it, and over long distances it’s the component that counts for most: research over the past few years shifts the contribution of fast shoes from the plate to the midsole.
Underneath, the outsole is Kailas FUGA’s own Power Grip, carrying three Vibram technologies: MEGAGRIP for wet traction, LITEBASE to hold down the weight of the compound, TRACTION LUG for the lug pattern. The map is split into three functional zones, with different geometries for push-off, braking and lateral hold.
The braking zone is the one you notice when the gradient flips and the descent stops being the easy part. On the wet limestone at Pordoi, in the EX PRO, the foot never slid: the compound is the same, and that’s the most solid thing the G brings with it.
Double Lacing and Black Toenails
The closure system is called AWS 3.0, short for Adjust Whole Sole. Two separate lacing blocks tighten independently, one over the forefoot and one over the instep, and their job is to stop the foot from sliding forward on descents. That slide is where black toenails come from: the tips of your toes hit the front of the upper on every footfall, for hours, until a hematoma forms under the nail. Up front, a reinforced toe cap absorbs the hits from rocks and roots.
The upper is XDiMESH, the mesh the manufacturer uses for ventilation and moisture management. The gaiter, though, adds a layer around the ankle, and that’s the point where the verdict will come from racing: how much that layer costs on a hot day. Several team athletes have already put the shoe on their 2026 calendars, UTMB and TORX included.
The press release doesn’t list a price. For reference, the EX PRO sits at €250 on the manufacturer’s site, and that’s the bracket.
When a Built-In Gaiter Pays Off
A gaiter works where the debris is fine and mobile: scree, sand, dusty late-summer trails, dry snow. There the material pours in from above continuously, and the difference between stopping three times and never stopping is measurable in minutes. In deep mud the gain shrinks, because the problem becomes drainage and traction, and a gaiter does little for either.
Then there’s the other side of integration. A gaiter stitched to the upper doesn’t come off: separate gaiters go on when you need them, this one you carry through the section where you’d have preferred a free ankle. For a shoe rated from 30 to 100 km on mixed terrain it’s a reasonable trade-off, as long as you know a trade-off is what it is.
The Specs
- weight: 9.5 oz / 269 g (EU 42, US M8.5)
- drop: 5 mm (30 mm forefoot, 35 mm heel)
- lug depth: 4 and 6 mm
- plate: one-piece X-shaped carbon fiber
- midsole: full-length supercritical TPU foam
- outsole: Kailas FUGA Power Grip with Vibram MEGAGRIP, LITEBASE and TRACTION LUG
- upper: XDiMESH with built-in gaiter
- recommended distance: 30–100 km (19–62 miles)
- availability: August 29 on the official site
Race shoes almost always get bought for what they add: propulsion, energy return, grams off the scale. This one starts from something it takes away, and what it takes away is small and not especially photogenic. Anyone who has spent part of a race sitting on the side of the trail emptying out a shoe knows what that’s worth.