Shoe Review: The North Face Ultra Endurance

My introduction to The North Face Ultra Endurance shoes wasn’t the most ideal.  While walking my dogs, the one decided to kick the other’s “stuff” all over the shoes before I had a chance to bend over and pick up the waste.  Fun times.

However, despite this undignified start, I ended up enjoying wearing these shoes.  I wore them for 100s of kilometres (yes, km’s – I’m Canadian after all), in all sorts of weather conditions (once again, I’m Canadian) and they held up well.  They’re very durable, provide great traction and good foot support, and are very well made.

 

 
Here’s some technical info on them, straight from North Face’s site:

• Trail running shoe delivers a stable ride and unparalleled traction
• Upper: Welded TPU and suede midfoot support overlays
• Molded-TPU toe cap for protection
• Gusseted tongue for protection from trail debris
• Sole Unit: 17 mm/9 mm heel/forefoot EVA underfoot
• Ultra Protect™ CRADLE™ heel-stability technology

• Single-density, compression-molded EVA midsole
• Vibram® Megagrip outsole for durable sticky traction in all conditions
• ESS Snake Plate™ forefoot protection
• 8 mm offset
• Collar lining has FlashDry

 

While they don’t rank as my favorite pair of North Face shoes due to some blistering/toe irritation issues, they are not a bad pair by any means and they continue to be part of my shoe rotation to this day.

 

Pros:

– extremely durable
– versatile – great on all different types of surfaces
– provides good cushioning
– good, snug fit
– nice looking shoe
– great, durable, “grippy” soles
– high quality shoe

 

Cons:

– caused a few blisters the few couple of my long runs in them
– blisters/toe irritation continued off/on throughout use of shoes
– a little pricey ($120)

 

Grab a pair here:

 

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