Todayis one of those days when I really want more space. Not so much for me, not even for my cats-I would like more space for running shoes. It’s a serious problem you know? I recently set up a second shoe rack specifically for sports: it fits eight pairs of shoes and-almost needless to say-is already full at the moment. So if I wanted to buy a new shoe I would have to:
- purchase a larger shoe rack
- buying a bigger house
- getting rid of an old pair of shoes
Since we all agree that point three is not even worth considering, any advice is welcome. But let’s go back a couple of days.
As of Thursday morning, the new complete Nike Trail SP21 line is available: the Pegasus Trail 2 was already on the market, now we finally have the Wildhorse 7 and Terra Kiger 7. Completing the collection-in addition to the T-shirt and tank top-are a pair of new shorts (with a handy loop pocket), a new very urban-style windstopper, and a cap to which I honestly preferred the previous model, but you can’t have everything.
Despite the fact that the official Nike Trail Running Instagram account has been inexplicably inactive since October 2019, I must say that Nike accompanied the launch with a very engaging campaign that focuses on simplicity:
“How do you become a trail runner? 1. Find a path 2. Run.”
In addition, the campaign features among its protagonists some of our top athletes such as that madman Francesco Puppi and the very fast Najla Aqdeir.
Of the Pegasus Trail 2 I have already discussed in depth here, undeniably a very successful shoe (also from a sales perspective: if aperitifs still existed we would see them on the feet of many sipping the wrong spritz negroni) for mixed terrain, of which they continue to release new colorways regularly.
The Wildhorse had been completely revised last year in version 6, and now-despite a few minor tweaks in the details-we can say that it remains (rightly) almost unchanged in its new guise as a trail running tank, protected and suitable for long rocky trails. You don’t see it around much, and I think it’s an underrated shoe: although it has many emblazoned competitors in its segment, it has a comfortable fit that few other models can boast.
But we come now to Earth Kiger 7. Meanwhile, there’s no point in hiding the fact that the Terra Kiger is one of my favorite trail running shoes: for aesthetics, design (no, they’re not the same thing), fit and feel on the run. It is a very light, aggressive and sensitive shoe, with which I, however, also do not disdain routes over 40km. At a first glance, version 7 doesn’t look that different from its predecessors: some small details have been revised (reinforced toe, tongue design, lace on the heel) but structurally it is still the same shoe no? Here, not really.
The bulk of the work has been done where it is least obvious: I am referring to the sole and midsole. While the outsole has been heavily rethought in the midsole to be more enveloping and less rigid, we see that the transition to React foam is almost entirely complete: in fact, over the past two years Nike has expanded its use in almost all of its models (in different quantities and concentrations, of course), including trail running models, while keeping ZoomX foam almost exclusively on the forefoot.
Now all I have to do is look for a bigger house.