Xodus Ultra

I loved this shoe until they put the rock guard in the toe, now it rubs the shit out my big right toe. Wife has these and loves them. I ran the soles off v1 and v2.

Yes I'd say it's for comfort, the high stack stuff is oriented to long runs, hikes, and ultras. The brand's sponsored athletes likely have a say too, meaning that the shoe may be oriented to particular types of trails or races. I like high stack on occasion but still prefer the shoe to be on the lighter side when possible. I liked the Saucony Xodus Ultra 1 and 2 but the 3 got a bit bloated to me.

I had one pair of the XU1 and 2 pairs of the XU2. Durability in XU1 was acceptable, got around 300 miles overall, much of it in the mountains above treeline. Traction was fine but not stellar. Durability of the XU2 was worse, I lost several outsole lugs and the upper began fraying/tearing by 170 miles, lasted out to 250 or so before I had to retire them. No idea on the XU3 and after.

I have >200 miles in my Nnormal Tomir 2s, spanning short steep runs to 20 mile runs with >5,000 feet of climbing at altitude. Previously ran in Saucony Xodus Ultra, Endorphin Edge, and Endorphin (g)rift. Traction and durability on the Tomir 2 are great. They are on the firm side, even with the mileage I put on them so far, and lean on fast feeling given my previous shoes. I would want more underfoot cushioning for anything beyond a marathon or 50K. To me, these are medium generalist leaning shoes, great for racking up miles and training. Fit was a touch too narrow at first, I have wide feet. Took around 50 miles for the insole to pack down and the upper to stretch and flex a bit. Fits comfortably snug now. For the long stuff I am using the Mount to Coast T1. Comfortable fit for my toes, good underfoot cushioning, yet light and fast enough that I don't feel like I'm working too hard when running uphill or picking up the pace. I have ~80 miles on them so far, really just a few long runs, they're great. Durability looks good but need to take them out to at least 200 to say more. If these still look good after 300 miles I would switch completely to them and not get another pair of the Tomir 2s.

You don't need to spend heaps on everything. I run ultras and do a lot of miles, and some of my stuff is super cheap. Shorts. For literally years (and hundreds of runs) is used 3 pairs of shorts in rotation that I bought for $15AUD a pair.. including about a dozen ultra events.. Current shorts are $35AUD on Amazon.. Shoes ... get last seasons models on sale. .... my favourite shoes of all time were the first version of the Saucony Xodus Ultra. I paid about $200 for the first pair ... and I ended up getting a couple more pairs over a few years ... last pair I got was $54 in run out sale. Some things are worth paying for ... but there are ways to reduce cost

Hello. As a lot of people say, a good road shoe will be good on the hard packed trails as well. But if you want a bit more traction and security, go with something that has a good foam and a smaller lugs. Options I’ve run in and like include: - Hoka Mafate Speed 4 / Tecton X - Salomon Genesis / Ultra Glide - La Sportiva Prodigio Pro - Merrell Agility Peak 5 - Brooks Catamount 4 - Saucony Xodus Ultra 1 / 2 (avoid the 3) For reference I am 85kg and usually run 30km / week.

As many people have said here, the SG6 is too firm and has lost some of its “fun”. The Merrell Agility Peak 5 is a good option. The Saucony Xodus Ultra 1 / 2 are great. Miss version 3. Version 4 is supposed to be a return to form. Salomon Genesis is a good shoe I’ve run 200km in but runs narrow. I am loving the Mafate 5 but it’s a marmite shoe for this community I’ve noticed. La Sportiva Prodigeo Pro has a lot of fans but the midsole is less stable, more bouncy and it’s not cheap. The North Face Vectiv Series are decent now - there’s a lot to choose from. Final option if you want great outsole grip is the VJ Ultra 3. Fab lockdown too.

Hello. I come from the same issue. I had major issues with Plantar Fasciitis after running in the Speedcross and S/Lab Speed for many years. My first shoe was the Hoka Speedgoat Evo. That was an epic shoe, but sold out everywhere so quickly I only ever ran in one pair. Since then I’ve tried many similar shoes, looking for great grip, soft and bouncy ride, but good stability as I over-pronate, plus I recently developed osteoarthritisin my big toes. So, I really rate the following: - Hoka Mafate Speed 4. Good all rounder - Salomon S/lab genesis. A little narrow and unstable but speedy and shed mud quickly - La Sportiva Prodigeo Pro - great foam and good grip, lightweight. - Saucony Xodus Ultra - 1 and 3 are pretty good, ignore the 2. - Hoka Tecton X 3 - my go-to race shoe for hard packed trails and gravel I like the Speedgoat, Catamount, Fuji Lite, Ultra Glide too but they all have compromises that the shoes above don’t have in the same way.

Hoka is my go-to for this sort of thing. Mafate 5 is super plush, bouncy and fun. Tecton X3 is great for gravel and works well in the technical stuff too. Anything else you look at will be heavy or narrow. I like Salomon a lot, but the S/Lab Genesis is a little too narrow for more than 25km, and the Ultra Glide doesn’t seem to have the real bounce conpared to the Hokas. Saucony Xodus Ultra is great over the distance, but I felt it was a little clunky and heavy - for some reason the Mafate felt more agile. Speaking of which - Merrell Agility Peak 5 would be a good choice. I hate to say it but I really dont rate many of the Asics trail shoes. Fuji Lite is fine for a daily but not for a race day shoe.

I mean, use the shoe you’re most comfortable in. Everyone has a different preference. Also, terrain can vary massively. So a trail marathon like Wales will be different to the Serpent Trail or Spine. But if I was you I’d experiment with some shoes with a bit more cushion, a bit wider in the toe box, and a slightly different lug pattern that can handle more varied terrain. I like the Hoka Mafate 5 or Speedgoat 7. La Sportiva Prodigio Pro is also great. If you want to stay in the Salomon camp try the S/Lab Genesis or Ultra Glide. Saucony Xodus Ultra is a good choice - far better than the Peregrine for this sort of distance.

Edit: Thanks to u/nausarus who apparently listened better than I did at the demo and picked up that they're apparently actually called the Agravic SL. I also found an [active listing on Backcountry ](https://www.backcountry.com/adidas-terrex-terrex-agravic-sl-trail-running-shoe-mens)with that name with specs. You can apparently even buy them right now? Pricing is $159 in case it disappears. I got a chance to demo the new EVO SL Trail this morning and I thought I'd give some initial impressions since I imagine some folks are curious about fit, feel, etc. in advance of the launch (The rep quoted June 1st). I only ended up running about three miles in these, which normally wouldn't consider enough to make a post on, but I felt like I had enough varied enough trail conditions to render some judgement. **Fit** My impression was that these run a bit large. I normally wear M11.5 in almost everything including the original Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed (not Ultra). I started out with an M11.5, but I felt like they were too big and went down to an M11 and those felt perfect. For what it's worth, I own a pair of Boston 12's in M11.5 and they're too long as well, so maybe these fit closer to those. I unfortunately have only briefly tried on the original Evo SL's so I cannot compare fit to those. Width seemed fine and much better than the M11 Speed Ultra 2's I tried on right after. (FWIW, I don't think I have wide feet since I fit in M11.5 Puma shoes without width issues, but the Ultra 2's gave me width and stability issues). **Upper** I have a real dislike for Adidas's minimal uppers on my Agravic Speed's and Boston 12's. Both feel too hard to get on and then too tough to get lockdown on once you actually do get them on. I'm happy to report that the EVO SL Trail upper is *way* better. It feels like a normal trainer upper in all the best ways. Given my limited time in the shoe I can't promise there aren't issues that might arise after longer runs or how durability might fare, but my initial impressions were very good. Even pushing the downhills the shoe stayed put and that's with minimal time spent dialing in the lace tightness. Laces were the lightweight, but not troublesome at all. Much better than the Boston 12 laces which I hated and replaced and arguably better than my Agravic Speed 1's. **Midsole** I will be the first to admit I was beyond skeptical when the EVO SL Trail leaked late in 2025. I honestly spent a few minutes trying to debunk the video as a hoax since it seemed weird that only one random Instagram account had video of a shoe that was apparently in a booth at TRE. It's no secret that the EVO SL was a huge success and Adidas seemed like they were willing to release every possible variant they could to exploit that. Since everyone who ran in the SLs complained about their stability and existing Terrex shoes like the Agravic Speed Ultra also had stability issues, I was very concerned about how the SL Trail would be. Thankfully it appears Adidas actually did a full redesign of the shape of the mid-sole and from what I could tell there were no stability issues. My route took me over chunky gravel, up a steep technical climb, down a slightly technical (rooty, muddy) descent and on short portions of flat dirt and pavement. The midsole handled everything really well. The bounce definitely made the descent more challenging then most of the trail shoes I have, but I never felt out of control. Hiking up a steep climb also felt completely fine. Absolutely no issues with stability. The bounce of the mid-sole was fantastic on the runable sections of trail. I've never run in a trail shoe that felt like this. My closest comparison is probably the Nike Zegama 2 (which I just did 24mi in a on Sunday), but even that's way more subdued. The rocker is also really evident here. I did a long stride on flat, compact dirt near the end of my run and was able to get below 5:00/mi pace which is similar to what I'd get on roads in decent trainers with similar effort. **Outsole** The outsole is a full-coverage Continental outsole similar to many other Terrex shoes. In my experience this is roughly as good as Vibram and I'd have no issues taking it on all but the most technical of trails (where the mid-sole would probably be more of a disqualifier). Lug depth appeared to be 3-4mm, but I don't see official specs yet. **Conclusion** As mentioned already, I took these on a 3mi loop with a group. For those local to Seattle, the loop left from High Point Trailhead, ascended the powerline road (chunky gravel), climbed Cable Line for about 350ft, and then descended the TMT trail to West Tiger trail before returning to the lot. This is a really perfect loop for shoe testing as you get a bit of everything the PNW has to offer other than maybe the loose rocks of something like the West Tiger Trail. The shoe handled it all really well. I was especially impressed at how in control I felt descending the narrow, rooty, switchback-filled trail. Although I think it can obviously handle reasonably technical trails, I think this shoe will really shine on trails that are extremely runnable, but need a little more grip and stability than a road shoe could offer. One nice thing about the big chunk of bouncy foam is that it made the lugs almost imperceptible on pavement. I usually find trail shoes uncomfortable on pavement, but didn't see an issue in my short stints on pavement. I wouldn't call these a true road-to-trail shoe because of the larger lugs, but I think they could work well in that context. All in all, I loved these shoes. After three miles I would've been willing to trade any trail shoe in my collection for them (and probably any road shoe). I went for a short run in the Agravic Speed Ultra 2's right afterward and liked the EVO SL trail much, much better (I probably needed a M11.5 in the Ultra 2's though). I'll be curious to hear thoughts from people once they start getting miles on them, but if I didn't already have so many trail shoes and wasn't such a stickler for waiting for sale prices I'd probably pick up a pair on release day.

I don't think I've seen pricing, but I'm assuming it will be sub-$200 and likely more like $170. Yes, this competes with their Terrex line-up and based on my limited experience as the owner of Agravic Speed and trying on the Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 it bests them. That said, Adidas seems smart enough to not worry too much about competing with themselves. The Evo SL at $150 is better than many of their more expensive road shoes and yet they're still making a ton of money with them. Other than the Agravic Speed Ultra's (and arguably only the first version), Adidas has really struggled to make much of an impact in the trail space IMO. I have two pairs of the original Agravic Speed's, but only because I got both for less than $50. I suspect these will fare better (as much as I'd love to buy them for $90 in 6mos) and maybe even bring in some buyers who wouldn't generally be as comfortable with trail shoes but are familiar with the EVO SL line.

I'm US M11.5 in both the Xodus Ultra 1 and Triumph 20 (That flair is so old and yet somehow still have pairs of both those in active rotation). I also have pairs of the Xodus Ultra 1's in M11 that fit me, but I don't love them for longer runs and need to be careful about sock thickness. Other trail shoes I run in where I feel the M11.5 is comparable to the Agravic SL in M11 would be Zegama 2 and Agility Peak 5.