Off road with SCOTT (Kinabalus)

Product review: Run247 columnist Kirsty Reade tests out the SCOTT T2 Kinabalus

Here at Run247 we do love a good off road shoe. As somebody who tends to do longer races off road I am always searching for the perfect shoe that combines grippiness and enough cushioning. So far the best shoe I’ve found for this has been the Brooks Cascadia, but as soon as I saw the SCOTT Kinabalu I knew it had potential.

SCOTT have been steadily building a great reputation in running shoes and clothing and they’ve had some great successes with their sponsored athletes to back it up. The winner of the 2013 Leadville 100 was (Brit) Ian Sharman, wearing SCOTT T2 Kinabalus (HERE)! And the women’s winner of the 2013 Sierra Zinal was Elisa Desco wearing, you guessed it, Kinabalus (HERE)! Two pretty good endorsements.

Photo: Men's & women's SCOTT T2 Kinabalu

My first impression of the Kinabalus was that they are pretty blinging. The women’s version is a mix of emerald green and lime green, with a big SCOTT logo down the side. They’re actually pretty cool in a retro way. My second impression on taking them out of the box was that they are really light. They have really good protection all round and a decent amount of cushioning so they look like they shouldn’t be as light as they are. The thing that I loved about them the most was the toe room. This is a constant quest for me. I definitely do not have freakily long toes but no trainers seem to have a big enough toe box for me. But the Kinabalu finally ticked this box (though freakily toed runners may be a niche market).

I tried them out first on some dry trails and really liked them straight away. Decent cushioning even when the ground was really hard. But the true test of a trail shoe comes with a decent bit of mud and fortunately the weather broke and provided me with this opportunity. The soles don’t look very aggressive (they look more like a road to trail shoe like the Salomon Mission or The North Face’s Hyper-Track Guide) but they were actually really grippy. They were good going downhill on wet grass and gave me plenty of purchase in the mud. The ultimate test was a run I did in the Lake District after some heavy rain. This is usually where my Cascadia don’t perform so well but the Kinabalus were great on the wet rocks and more technical trails. The protection around the toes was much appreciated when running across more rocky ground.

They’re a really comfortable shoe which I feel would be really suitable for high mileage off road. They feel really light on and are a great fit for me, though they may be a little narrow for people with wide feet. All in all I feel that they’re a very good all round trail shoe and I’d recommend them for anybody wanting a shoe for a mix of terrains.

I’d never tried SCOTT trainers before but now I’m definitely tempted to try our more of their range, which you can see here:  www.scott-sports.com