Inov-8 X-Talon First Impressions

Inov-8 X-Talon Review

Yes, so I finally bought a pair of these shoes out of absolute frustration with the Mizunos. The Shoe Goo was OK but was peeling after a few runs and created blister bringing bumps in the shoe. I got the X-Talons for a number of reasons: Firstly, the full length rand from toe to heel to toe. Hopefully this suede like material in combination with the very thick mesh will hold up at least a year (should be about 800 miles for this particular shoe). Also, the minimalistic approach: the shoe has a 6mm drop and weighs only 212g (hence the name). While this is not as flat or light as you can go, you will be lucky to find a randed shoe with zero drop.

The shoe also hits a lot of sweet spots for me: I like shoes with mild responsiveness (somewhere between the Adidas Adios 2 and the Mizuno Evo Ferus) and this shoe is so far doing exactly that: the shoe gets stiffer as you travel backwards from toe to heel and has a nice spring; not deadening like the Evo Ferus but not overly stiff like the Adios 2. The cushioning is also in that nice area where it is not pillowy and not rock hard: it is nicely balanced.

The grip is also beyond any other shoe I have used. I was so confident in its grip that today I went for a Strava CR down Watlington in Oxfordshire (and up too) and despite being a slippy day, I set CR up and down. I was able to hurtle down the around 20% slope to get 1:28 over 450m which is pretty fast. The X-Talon outsole grabs dirt, gravel, rocks, slush and grass like an absolute boss. I'm glad I got the shoe fitted in store so I could get a close to foot feel which gives me absolute confidence which bombing down hills or up slippy mud.

So, I have really high hopes for this shoe and think I might use it for some of my more gravelly school cross country races over my spikes! Anyway, I will be recording the milage for this shoe and will get back to you when it breaks (my bet is 600 miles?).

My Dream Running Shoe!

Introduction

Recently I got into a discussion with my dad about running shoes (mainly centred around durability concerns). Inevitably big companies have profit as a priority over durability. Although I think the companies do actually care, I don't think they pay attention to durability as much as they should. So my dad asked me how would I make a running shoe; I have had some time to ponder this and here is my answer:

Firstly, different configurations are good for different situations (race/train) and terrains (grass, track, trail, road). This shoe will be one I would be happy to use for all my training (50% trail, 30% road, 20% grass) and all my non xc racing (mainly road racing when you exclude xc).

So what do I want? I want close to zero-drop, lightness, durability, speed and less importantly, good looking.

Manufacturer

I have often asked myself whom I would like to be sponsored by if I were to become a big shot. I think that given my great impressions of the XCS4 and Adios 2, I would chose Adidas. The only problem is that they don't really deal in trail running, but hey, this is conjecture anyways. I would like Adidas to make my shoe because of their spot-on use of materials, attention to detail and polished look. I will not restrict myself to Adidas materials though.

Outsole

Here, I am tempted by the flat Continental Rubber on the bottom of Adidas' marathon shoes and the sticky rubber compound on the Inov-8 255's sole that has received so much praise.

The Adidas sole has the advantage of durability on the road and less luggy discomfort whereas the Inov-8 has the ability to really stick to fell material. I think that the Adidas' superiority on roads makes it a better choice as I prefer race performance to training performance. The Continental rubber is the most durable outsole material I have ever run in so it should easily protect a minimal midsole!

Midsole

This category again involves Adidas- the boost material's stat as the best energy returner on the market earns it a place on the shortlist. The Adiprene + from the now outdated Adios 2 has also impressed my with its responsiveness so this will have a shout. The u4ic midsole (and outsole) on the Mizuno Universe 5 is very light but is very weak and probably a bit squishy if you make it thicker.

I think that the Boost's lightweight, durable, energy efficient characteristics make it the right choice however we will need to get rid of that heel drop. Let's go all out and make it completely zero-drop and hope I would be able to adapt to it in time for a marathon.

To make it light, we'll go with a 10mm flat stack height and to give it that very Adidas snap, we'll put in that bit of yellow plastic they can a torsion system. In order to make this shoe a little more versatile and suitable for longer distances, I would include a set of insoles so you can swap and change the stack height to suit the distance. I'm thinking (in mm, heel-toe) 4-1, 4-4, 7-1, 7-4, 7-7, 10-1, 10-4, 10-7, 10-10.

Upper

So far we've basically made an Adidas shoe but here in the upper, I don't think Adidas have enough durability (if only they made randed shoes). It should be obvious by now that I want want want more randing on shoes. How much? I think the Inov-8 x-talon 212 does it nicely leaving no possible points for breaking to occur. I might reinforce it a little just to make sure:

I would also keep the pull on strap at the back of the heel and the lace eyelets which transmit the tension down to the sole so that the laces do not pull on the weak upper. I would however replace the thick material of the top of this shoe with the extremely light upper from the Mizuno Universe 5 since I have never had a failure in this area and it would allow the shoe to breath and be light!

 I would use a very minimal tongue- Like the one used on the Universe 5 but I would take away that silly plastic 5 at the top which just gets in the way.

I would then give it to Adidas to paint perhaps asking for red or orange- I love their designs!

Summary and weight

Given what I have specified, I would expect this shoe to have a weight around 100g and it should be rather durable, fast and good looking!

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Shoe Goo- A very good investment!

It's been a while since my last post- I have been rather busy with Cambridge interview preparation and November tests. I am now on my winter break so hopefully can add more posts in the coming
weeks.

On to the meat of this post: As many of you will be aware from my previous blog posts, I have a history of popping all my shoes (trail or not) at the sides of the upper seriously curtailing the life of the shoes. This means I often throw away shoes with nowhere near enough outsole wear! I have previously cited randing as a possible solution to this which seems popular on a number of Inov-8 shoes (trailroc 255, roclite 243, x-talon 212) and Salomon (S-Lab Sense 3) shown below.

However, as much as I'd like to buy all these shoes right now, I only bought my Mizuno Evo Ferus shoes in August so I am reluctant to shell out upwards of £50 for these. In the Evo Ferus post, I described how the upper had popped earlier than expected and how I had tried to use superglue and stitching to heal the sides. This arrangement only lasts a few runs and I think the superglue becomes brittle after a few days and is not water resistant.

I decided to buy a tube of 'Shoe Goo' to fix this problem. It cost under £10 with delivery and I immediately attempted to fix my Mizuno Wave Universe 5s (yes they are really suffering now) and Evo Ferus shoes. Since that, I have done a race 10k road race in the Universe 5s and a number of shortish runs and general exercise in the Ferus. The Goo remains fairly flexible indefinitely so does not crack in the fashion of the super glue. The only problem I have found is that if you use it on the soles (as I did with my Universe 5s), it does rub off in the fashion of a blister. As an upper healer, it certainly does a sterling job- I certainly think that it will extend my shoes' lives by around 100% or more. Even for a randed shoe, a splurge of Shoe Goo could help to toughen up that vulnerable area.

Watch this guy's video on how to apply it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zzd3pJwkoQ

I look forward to getting some more miles out of my Evo Ferus shoes: If you ignore the poor durability, it is a zero drop, under 210g shoe. My only remaining dislikes are the fit (still a thumb too long) and the flexibility of the sole (some people will like this and to be fair I should probably be grateful for its foot strengthening effect).

In the meantime, I hope more shoe manufacturers use rands on their shoes so I can buy a finished product.

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