Hybrid shoes appeal to runners and hikers

On Christmas Day, while hiking through Wissahickon Valley Park, I passed group after group of people enjoying the holiday, some with dogs, most in boots that looked heavy and were colored muted browns and grays.

And then there was me, in Hoka One One's Tor Ultra Hi WPs, black shoes with red, orange and yellow streaks running across and on the laces.

Welcome to the new world of hybrid running and trail shoes. It's a trend I noticed at the Running Event, which is designed to show off what's new and cool in running to independent running stores. Hoka One One, adidas and Nike all showcased shoes that had the relative lightness of a trail running shoe but the sturdiness and ankle support of a hiking boot.

Bryan Boyle, gear editor for Runner's World, said he started noticing "uppers on trail shoes creeping upward" in April last year. The first one he saw then was the Adidas Response Trail boot and a high-top on the Riot boost, which had previously been a traditional low-top shoe.

"The first shoe that I saw looking as much for hiking as for trail running was the Lone Peak NeoShell Mid from Altra," he said, also at the Running Event in December (I missed that one). It comes out this summer and is, Boyle says, light for a trail shoe at 11.2 ounces in a men's size nine.

"I can only speculate that the goal is to appeal to hikers and fastpackers in addition to trail runners," he said. He also thinks that recent movies Wild and A Walk in the Woods have sparked an interest in hiking.

These boot shoes have appealed to Boyle, too, while out running on Pennsylvania trails around Emmaus, which is where Runner's World is headquartered. While not as challenging as some trails on higher mountains at altitude, Pennsylvania's trails are notoriously rocky, which can turn an ankle, or cause a fall (as happened to me in a trail-race run in October).

"On those trails you need ankle support, much like basketball shoes," he said.

Hoka One One was started in 2009 by Nicholas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, and Hoka director of marketing Lee Cox said it has "deep roots in the mountains and on trails." Hoka made its first inroads with ultra runners because it had a lot more padding than traditional running shoes. It released my flame-colored shoe in summer of 2015.

It's more designed for hiking than running though, said Cox, since it includes leather and suede as materials. But the midsole and outsole of the shoe are more like my Hoka Challenger ATR trail running shoes - which I've run in since May - than my Merrell hiking boots. Hoka is releasing a shoe in the fall that will be more designed for trail runners that are lighter than the Tor Ultra Hi WP but also waterproof and with a top that comes up to mid-ankle.

I hiked for three and a half hours on Christmas Day, and the boot Hokas held up well. My ankle wanted a bit more freedom, but I'm glad the boot held it in place. I also realized later that I laced them up wrong on the top of the shoe, so operator error could have been a factor there.

I tried a few fast walks and light runs while in the shoes, and they were much easier to move in that my hiking boots. But they were heavy. I'll be curious to see how the new fall options - from Hoka and beyond - stack up when I hit trail running season again.

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