Mudtalon Zero

I have the Mudtalon zero and they are a great orienteering shoe if metal studs and cramped toes are not your thing. They also feel bouncy and fun to run in. But the new Trailfly does not fit me at all and the midsole and grip felt a bit meh. For the stuff they're good at I'd rather wear a road shoe. My wife loves them though and did her latest ultra race in them.

Inov8 Mud Talon Zero. Absolute best trail shoe for mud in my opinion. Super light for a trail shoe as well, 255g and has a more natural fit on your feet than most main stream brands.

Try out Inov8 shoes. I have great results on wet rocky terrain. I like Trailfly Speed and Zero. They’re foot shaped wide toebox. They also last 2-3x as long. Second choice would be Altra Timp.

Inov-8's new lineup has wide options for every shoe. The one's I've used have been super durable shoes. I like the zero, but some of their thicker shoes with drop might align with your preferences better. Offensively ugly, but really good shoes. For sizing, always go by the bigger foot. Perfect would be to find a friend with opposite problem and split pairs, but that's pretty unlikely..

I don't know about Nordas myself, but about Inov-8. They quite recently brought back a zero-drop model, and they have wides available. I also get heel slippage with Altra 9+ wides, Trailfly zero has nice and snug heel. Trailfly Zero is basically same width in the toebox area, but shaped differently. Altras rub my big toe, Inov-8 squishes my little toe. For the same shoe size Altra is a bit longer and more voluminous, it could be half-a-size difference.

I have wide feet and went for inov8 mudtalon wide in 1.5 size up. They were still not wide enough so I'd say she can skip them altogether with this shape of feet

I bought a pair if the new mud talons (having had x talon and several pairs of old mudclaw 300s) Worn once and sold them on. Seemed cheap, grio wasn't great and the quality felt far lower. (Upper glued to a block of foam). Seems like they've decided going more main stream is more lucrative🤷‍♂️

They were great, then they took the strategic decision to make rubbish shoes that fell apart. The further they have strayed from their fell roots, the worse they have gotten. The only decent true fell shoes they currently sell are limited edition versions of their old ones - the mud talons are a trail shoe that’s good in mud. Forced in the fells, destroyed in Surrey these days.

Worth noting that G270s are very passive lug-wise for inov-8, have stopped being made, and inov-8 have gone massively downhill in the past few years, including but not limited to using a new factory with massive QC issues and replacing the excellent mudclaw with the mudtalon, which falls apart and much worse on rough terrain. The classic mud shoe of theirs was the mudclaw, which is coming back for sale this winter, however it is being made by their new shitty factory, so it remains to be seen if they will survive a week of running.

okay, one brand no one has mentioned - Inov8. The mudclaw and mudtalon are great, althought rubber on the X-Talon Ultra wasnt great for wet obstacles or rocks in my experience. but if you want the best grip on the planet, buy some VJ Ultra / iRock / MAXx shoes. they are epic.

Already been mentioned, but the Tecton X3 is a great fast shoe. If you want a really low slung fast shoe for the fells then you can’t beat the VJ iRock or the Inov8 MudTalon either. Also, I suspect it’s contentious but I really like the Merrell Longsky Matryx

I run a lot of the trails here in Kent where we have a mix of fields in deep mud, occasional footpaths and horse trails, and stretches of road to get from one to the next. The Inov8 shoes are good, but the midsole is pretty firm on the MudTalon and Trailtalon unless to take the Max options. Unless you want a really responsive shoe with a lot of ground feel then i'd avoid this. This also goes for some of the VJ Shoes (the iRock or XTRM have almost no midsole!). I really like VJ shoes for the traction though - the outsole is the best in the business. The VJ Maxx is a good choice. I like the VJ Ultra 3 although the midsole started to flatten out faster than i'd have liked. Brooks Cascadia i didn't get along with. Midsole was boring, the outsole not great, and the fit rubbed my little toes. I also think the Speedcross 6 is very firm, and a little treacherous on roads - those big lugs are great in the mud, but terrible on wet tarmac At the moment i am finding the Hoka Mafate 5 to be a good shoes with lots of bounce, and the lugs and rubber are giving me really good traction. But it's a heavier shoe thats really designed to half-marathon and upwards distance. Other shoes that I think might work for you: \- Hoka Mafate 5, VJ Ultra 3, Inov8 Trailfly Max \- Salomon Genesis or S/Lab Genesis \- Merrell Agility Peak 5 \- Saucony Peregrine or Xodus Ultra 4 (not the 3!) \- Asics Fujispeed or MetaFuji get good reviews, but i've not run in them yet

I’m using inov8 Trailtalons wide aw25 Admittedly almost none of my running is on tarmac, but the small amount that is feels fine. I found them a bit stiff in the sole for the first 3 outings (9-30k) but they’ve worn in and I get a good degree of flexibility They have 6 mm lugs with a reasonable amount of surface area on each so tarmac and paving isn’t too slippery. Ive also used mudtalons (aw24). They were great for the really sloppy stuff in Feb and March but generally I think I prefer the trailtalons. Mudtalons are not as good on the road and I prefer something that’s a bit more versatile for occasions that warrant it. Good luck. Lots of great advice on this thread

Hi. I cut a couple of mm off the lugs on the heel area to lower the drop, as I'm used to zero drop. Cutting the lugs made the shoes much more stable. They don't roll at all for me now.