Merrell Trail Glove Review – Barefoot Shoes

So i have put about 50-60 miles on my Merrell Trail Gloves now and thought i would post a review on the ownership experience so far.

http://www.merrell.com/US/en-US/Product.mvc.aspx/22875M/60904/Mens/Barefoot-Run-Trail-Glove

Sophie and Simon's new barefoot Merrell Trail Gloves

I have read a few reviews and criticisms of the Trail Glove which i feel to be unfair as the review seems to have forgotten that the shoe is a “Trail” (The clue is in the name) shoe and not designed for running on the hard top. For my part i have had nothing but a positive 3 months with my shoes. My 9 year old daughter also has a pair and loves them,

The Trail Glove is a 6.2 oz zero drop minimalist trail shoe. It has a Vibram sole and a 1mm impact plate in the mid sole to take some of the shock absorption away from the foot when hitting stones etc.

The inside is seamless and so designed for you to not wear socks with the shoe. The shoe required no breaking in and has never rubbed or caused any blisters of any kind. It also has a Aegis® antimicrobial solution footbed that claims to resist odor. Which i think works pretty well as they still smell pretty good and nothing like my soccer boots that i wear socks in. So a big thumbs up there. It also helps that the shoes are machine washable.

So far my shoes have shown very little wear and i would expect many hundreds of miles in the shoes. The soles being quality Virbram’s you would expect this and the uppers are the usual high quality you expect from Merrell.

The fit is great for my feet. My feet are narrow  at the arch and then wide at the mid foot and toes. The trail gloves have been criticized for being too narrow at the arch. I feel this to be somewhat an unfair criticism  as you need a trail shoe to be tight and glove like as you don’t want the the shoe to move independently underfoot when running on slopes or difficult surfaces etc. Something you don’t need from a standard running shoe. The toe box is very wide giving plenty of room for your toes to splay out and feel the ground as you are running. The rubber bumper around the toes providing you with that extra protection when hitting the rough stuff.

All in all i give the shoes a solid 8 out of 10. These are great minimalist trail shoes. High quality, offering you strong foot protection and still allowing plenty of feeling. The only downsides are potentially if the narrow fit around your arch is going to be a problem and they are slightly more expensive than the Virbram equivalents at $110

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