ALTRAMen's Mont Blanc Trail Running Shoe

After two years, these remain my favorite style of ALTRAs and I'm already on my second pair. The width is perfect for me and I love how they hug your feet without feeling oppressively tight. Typically, with a slighter wider foot, you'll often end up with a little more toe space than necessary, but the Mont Blancs are as perfect a fit as I've found. I'm not a runner but do spend a good deal of time on my feet and the MBs close sizing, light weight, and good cushion always make me feel a step faster.As other users have mentioned, the Vibram soles do tend to be a squeaky on smooth surfaces; but they are also significantly more durable than ALTRA's MaxTrac outsoles, which I practically wore through on my Lone Peaks. I'll gladly deal with a little gym sound to keep my favourite sneaks intact a bit longer. I could also stand a few more (less electric) colorways in this line. But the one absolute annoyance are the bloody round laces, which will come untied about 8x a day unless you double knot — itself a minor difficultly, as they don't have much extra length. The small lace loops also make replacing them with flat or oval laces difficult. As this is my second pair, I fitted them out-of-the-box with a pair of tieless elastic laces and they were an absolutely dynamo addition. Somehow made the shoes even more comfortable than before. Liked them so much, I even put a pair on my old ones.

Seem to be very durable. Great traction. And comfortable.

I like the shoe but the heel is not firm enough for my liking. It’s a little hard to describe but there is padding to try and secure it to the heel of your foot. It just feels weird. Maybe I just need to get used to it. Otherwise I like the shoe. It’s fairly comfortable and good cushion but not squishy. Very grippy outer sole.

Getting back into jogging and general physical health, I was experiencing major ankle and foot discomfort wearing my older "barefoot" running shoes (also Altra). Needless to say I have gotten older and need more cushion. These shoes have been an instant game-changer for me in that regard. My discomfort went away instantly, and I have not had any of the lingering joint pain I was getting before these shoes. These are my third pair of Altra shoes, and I have not been disappointed with any of them!

I use Altras exclusively, I love the fit, comfort and innovation of Altras. The Mont Blanc are the worst in design. The heal cup doesn’t cup the heal. The material doesn’t breathe. So that combination makes for a guarantee of blisters i f your putting any significant distance. Stick with the Lone Peaks.

It takes a little bit of time to figure out the lacing to get the heel lock right but once you do these are great shoes. Did 11 miles a few times in these and my catamount 2s and I prefer these due to the comfort, slight energy return and wider toe box. Very stable on the trails and the foam is great even going over rocks and roots. The lugs might could be a bit longer but if the terrain is that soft and muddy I just switch to my inov8 ultra 300 Gs.

I really like the style comfort of these shoes. They fit as expected. I have been using them for general wear and hiking . They do very well, gripping on rocks and making me feel secure on the trail. There are two issues that have me very disappointed. The biggest issue is that the shoes squeak constantly. It’s not a quiet squeak. It’s very noisy. It’s hard to be out on the trail trying to enjoy nature when your shoes squeak every time you move. I was walking down the hall and everyone turned to look at me because my shoes were so noisy. The other issue, considerably less important is the very thin tongue that makes it hard to put the shoes on. In order to get the tongue in the proper position, I have to untie and loosen the laces and dig out the tongue. I gave them two stars because of the squeaking noise.

I am a big altra fan, and honestly these shoes don't feel very locked in when you run in them. They feel fast but not secure going down hills. For a 180 dollars these shoes are way too expensive. They are like 130 dollar shoes max. Otherwise they are light and feel fast for trial shoes. They don't feel very sturdy though.