Seconding Xero.
After New Balance abandoned their trail running customers, I ordered Xero walking shoes just to checkout the material and build quality of what was (to me) an unknown brand. They've been great, durable, and still look pretty new despite a lot of use.
When it was time for new trail runners, got those from Xero and they've been great.
14w flat and I love the Mesa Trail II Barefoot
I’ve worn Xero shoes for the past five years, and I love them. I wear the scrambler lows right now and they’re great. Mesa Trail II are excellent as well (and they make great yard work shoes after you wear em down disc
Golfing). I got two-three seasons out of them each
If barefoot trailrunners are an option for you, I have the Xero Terraflex and Mesatrail. The first Terraflex held up about 1500km of hiking and 3000km cycling. Now they look very rugged and the outsole is pretty flat, but they are still in one piece and I still wear them occasionally in the garden or on construction yards.
Xero soles are more slippery, but as long as you are aware of that they are OK. They wear a bit better due to the soles being more slippery so it’s a trade off. I’ve done several months of hiking in their Mesa shoes and never slipped and fell. Don’t know about their sandals though, I wear Shamma Warriors. Shammas grip very well except in heavy mud.
Altra Lone Peaks are significantly thicker than the Vivobarefoot shoes. I have an older pair and tried them for running, but didn't like it at all due to the high stack. I ended up using them as my winter and wet weather shoe.
I would try some shoes by Xero. I trained for and ran a trail ultramarathon last year in the Xero HFS II. It's a good all-around shoe which is decent in easy to moderate trails. I wouldn't wear them for anything too technical or extreme (very sandy, muddy, loose gravel on steeps, etc.). It has about an 11mm stack height, including insole. You could also look at some of the low/mid top hiking options like the Scrambler or Mesa Trail.
Otherwise, there
Top Trail Running Shoes on Reddit
1
Mount to Coast
H1
85% positive of 177 users
Versatile road-to-trail, but struggles on wet, technical downhills.
robot_ankles
