Raidlight’s top of the range shoe, designed for ultramarathon distances.
Worn/tested by: Roger Burlinson
Duration: Worn three times – this is a ‘first look’ review
Worn on: Scottish trails and New Forest tracks
Price: £124 (list price)
Review by Roger Burlinson
If you’ve followed Sport Walk for a while, you’ll know that we’re big fans of Raidlight’s vests and clothing but we’ve never dabbled in their shoes, that is until now.
As is so often the case now, I saw an advert on my social feed for their summer sale and this coincided with a need to replace a pair everyday shoes I use for training, so I thought I’d see what they had available. As you can imaging it wasn’t the whole range that was discounted but the Ultra 4 shoe was on sale and at a very good price – £65 plus £8 shipping bringing them in at under £75!
This price wouldn’t automatically get my attention but because the Ultra 4 shoes are one of Raidlight’s top shoes, designed specifically for demanding ultra trail conditions and normally retailing at £124, they quickly caught my eye and I jumped straight in and placed the order.
Raidlight don’t have an extensive range of shoes, just three core models in fact at the time of writing, but their whole range of shoes, clothing and backpacks has been forged from some of the toughest races out there, such as the Marathon des Sables or the Grand Raid de la Reunion. In fact, it could be said that Raidlight is synonymous with the Marathon des Sables, such is the influence of their gear, like the Raid Legend pack or their desert gaiters.
So this wasn’t a leap of faith and my expectation of excellence was well founded. But still, whenever you try a new shoe brand that you’ve not used before there is an element of uncertainty. Is their sizing true, are they a broad or narrow fit, what’s the lacing like. All these things, which you probably take for granted with your existing tried and tested brand are something you need to get beyond before you can head out on the trail and put them to the test.
I’ve previously bought cheap trail shoes from Decathlon that I use as general shoes to wear so I’m always trail ready if the opportunity arises and these have performed really well for their allotted task. The reason for mentioning this is because Decathlon is, of course, a French brand and their shoes seem to work for narrow feet, as do La Sportiva, who are Italian. So my suspicion was that Raidlight’s shoe would be comparable in terms of the fit to Decathlon’s, that it would be reasonably narrow as well.
It’s really quite interesting how you begin to figure out cultural or, perhaps, geographical trends in products when you buy two or more different brands from the same nation. My Raidlight shoes had a similar foot profile to my Decathlon shoes, suggesting that French trail shoe brands work for those with narrow feet (which I have).
But the similarities extended beyond that because both Decathlon and Raidlight shoes had a really useful feature, in fact, come to think of it, so does Salomon, another French brand. They all have what I rather clumsily call a ‘lace garage’ on the tongue, so you can tuck your tied laces under a mesh flap, so you don’t catch the loop of one of your laces on a stick or root when you’re out and end up face planting into the dust (which I also have done).
The similarity in fit and design features reassured me when the shoes arrived. I took the rather un-scientific attitude of “my Decathlon shoes work, so these should too”, which with hindsight was nothing more than blind faith. But, while I wouldn’t say the shoes look or feel anywhere near the same, that assumption did actually play out in my favour.
First of all, the size I’d ordered, which again was a bit of a punt, was just right – I went for a 44.5 from the length measurement on their website, whereas I normally have 45.5 with La Sportiva (which are renowned for coming up small). Then, putting them on for the first time, I was reassured again because they were definitely fine for a narrow foot. Lastly, that little design detail of the ‘lace garage’ left me in no doubt – the French know how to make good, well featured trail shoes, for people with slim feet.
Anyway, enough about this (seemingly) minority trait of slender kickers! Raidlight’s Ultra 4 shoes work for slim footed Sport Walkers, what next? Well, let’s look at the overall design and styling.
Design detail
The Ultra 4 is a pretty normal looking trail shoe, there no super radical design elements like you get with some Sportiva models. What does stand out though is the pretty chunky midsole, which isn’t really a big surprise given the inexorable shift nowadays towards ‘super shoes’, in look at least, if not always in performance.
Overall they look clean, slick and pretty chunky but the stand out feature on the model I bought is the colour. The body of the shoes is a grey black mix but the piping and midsole is as shouty as it comes with a predominantly red colour scheme blending to pale blue on the rear of the midsole. The body of the shoe is quite understated but there’s enough going on overall that they catch your eye.
The shoe’s upper was quite interesting. Raidlight call it Mesh Matryx Micro and it combines Kevlar and polyester threads giving a smooth, robust looking material. The info on the label said that this material gives a degree of water repellence although it’s not a waterproof shoe. This feels like quite a good compromise, although the shoes do feel warmer than a non-lined shoe, so that’s a factor to bear in mind.
The other thing I found with this specific fabric on the upper was that it was quite, for want of a better word, rigid, so when you lace up the shoes you can get to a point where you find the upper resisting your efforts to lace the shoes tighter. I’ve had this on other shoes in the past, when they add reinforcements to make them more robust but it can be problematic because your ability to lace up your shoes tightly, so they don’t move around on your foot when you walk or run is really important.
Fortunately, I found that while I was feeling resistance when I tightened the laces, I was able to draw them tight enough to hold my foot firmly and the more I wear them the more ‘compliant’ they become. If I were to suggest a change in this department, I would say that a more pliable material would enable users to get a better lacing tightness. I don’t want to flag this as a negative though because the innovative cloth has its merits and if your shoes are going to be more resistant to abrasion and give a little more protection from the wet than normal shoes, then that’s no bad thing. Also, the resistance of the fabric hasn’t hampered me so far, so it’s just a minor thought.
The first time I used these shoes was in Scotland on some pretty rocky woodland singletrack. The rocks and undulating track would prove to be the perfect test ground to see how the shoes felt when faced with disruptive terrain. While on that first walk, although I didn’t tighten the laces as much as I could, the shoes still felt very trustworthy. They held the foot well and although there was a little movement from my lacing error, they never once felt unsupportive or at risk of slipping.
The midsole did a great job of cushioning the trail and the walking action felt assured and positive. Despite the shoes having the same heel to toe drop of 6mm to my other shoes, the heel strike did feel more solid and firm, so I wasn’t sure whether the shape of the heel was a factor or whether it was just that they felt different to my normal shoes.
On my second walk back home in the New Forest, I started to find my feet (pardon the pun) with them and fell back into my more natural walking action. When I landed my foot closer to my body, which is what I always advise anyway, the shoes felt much more positive and pushing through with a strong Leg Drive felt like normal again.
As I said before, it’s always the case with a new shoe brand, that you need to get to know each other a little before you can really get down to work. So it was with these shoes. My first walk in Scotland was a voyage of discovery but, perhaps, the choice of trail didn’t help me figure out how these shoes like to move. I was also, perhaps, not walking with my usual action because I was focusing on how the shoes felt on really arduous trails. But when I just walked normally back on my home trails, which were less gnarly, I found the sweet spot and realised that these shoes respond really well to a good short stride and strong leg drive.
After a while I was travelling at my normal flatland pace of around 7:45/km, which is always a good sign so soon with new shoes. It indicates that they’re going to be a good fit for building pace and with the weight of these shoes coming in at 255g, which is lighter than La Sportiva’s flagship Prodigo Max (295g), the potential for these shoes to be a really great Sport Walking partner is strong indeed!
I’ve since taken them on a 20km jaunt through my favourite home trails and they only keep improving. They really are becoming quite racy and speed comes really naturally.
The other thing I really liked about the Ultra 4s is that they have a good degree of stiffness in the midsole and not too much flex in the walking action. This really helps generally to propel you along at speed but it also protects your toes from soreness on longer walks. I really liked the firm feeling under foot with these shoes and they felt hugely capable.
The outsole isn’t anything particularly revolutionary but the grip is good on both rock and earth. The grip on my normal La Sportiva shoes is exceptional but I found these to be pretty much just as good on the first few walks. More remains to be done to test them out in all scenarios but so far, the outsole seems to perform very well.
At this stage, there’s not an awful lot more to say really, I only have three walks under my belt and one of those was pretty easy – a means of breaking them in and seeing how they perform – so I’m looking forward to taking them out on some more structured training walks over longer distances to see how they stand up but my feeling at this point is that they should continue to do really well.
I’d normally expect to notice any potential negatives in a shoe on the first serious walk and the absence of any issues at this point is really encouraging but, to be thorough, I’ll update this review after a few months, when they’ve been tested more.
Raidlight are known for offering great value but with real performance potential, so if your feet fit, the ‘Ultra’ range is really worth a look!