My Triathlon Journey

These are my first pair of Scott shoes from a brand more well known for bikes, yet have been manufacturing shoes since 2006.

The Scott Kinabalu were a fresh pair to replace my well used Hoka Speedgoat 4 pair, I’ve had for a while. The Hoka Speedgoat’s served me well and provided good cushioning and were an overall good shoe but sometimes it wasn’t quite enough grip underneath, especially when it got a bit muddier, and not the most breathable on hotter days as well, plus were now falling apart after some time. I also wanted a shoe with some more cushioning than the deep lug Inov8 Mudclaw I have for fell, off-road and xc.

First Impressions

The shoe has decent length lugs underneath and a fair block of cushioning with a pretty nice colour coordination. It has a mesh-type layer and is quite narrow which better suits my feet, however trying them on in the shop I could feel the shoes a bit narrow at the inside mid-point of my foot, which is a bit different to the Hoka’s but it wasn’t noticeable on my first run with them yesterday.

Sizing

They do come up smaller UK size, I guess because they’re based European, so an EU 44 equates to a UK 9 in this case. The Hoka Carbon X 3’s I have are UK 10 so a size down in the Scott’s is probably best if ordering online or unable to try on first.

Thoughts after first run

I did a fairly flat run in them yesterday, with some hills and more than 95% off-road, and the shoes feel comfortable on my feet and didn’t feel or notice any rubbing or anything. It wasn’t particularly muddy on the run but with the muddier patches they coped fine with decent grip underneath. The shoes equally weren’t too big on the grip side and didn’t have a lack of cushioning, which helped on the slightly harder ground. I’ll talk about the grip layout but here’s some other specs about the shoe if you want to know, to save you having to look elsewhere:

• Heel to forefoot drop: 8.00mm
• Approx weight: 270g
• Scott’s Features: Hybrid traction/Kinetic Foam/eRIDE Midsole
• Scott Kinabalu Range of use (on their website): Race, Trail, Ultra

The grip is spread in a way which leaves the lower centre of the shoe without any lugs but covers the shoe well with chevron-shaped lugs which Scott say provide ‘multi-directional traction to support high-speed cornering’. Despite the lack of grip in the area which may be to cater for runners running on rocky terrain like in the mountains around where Scott are based in Switzerland, the grip overall isn’t lacking.

The shoes don’t feel heavy to run in and are 34g lighter than the Hoka Speedgoat 4 and 20g lighter than the newer Hoka Speedgoat 5. Even though they are comfortable they do feel secure at the same time. I’d say the shoes aren’t as plush as the Hokas but it’s not that hard if running over muddy and softer ground, as compared to road or pavement.

The mesh looks and feels breathable as well, with a range of holes in the mesh layer to support ventilation in the shoe.

Overall:

I’ve only run once in Scott’s Kinabalu Ultra RC’s and Scott also have a range of other variations and different designs, catering for various distances, speeds and terrains but they felt quick and good on my last run and dealt well in terms of grip. Despite the shoes having ‘ultra’ in the name and being designed for longer distances, it seemed fine over the shorter distance too. I’ll see how they do in the long-term and might give an updated or longer-term use review in the future but for now I really like them; they don’t feel slow, are a good fit for my feet and provide control over the trails especially as it heads into autumn and winter months.