I have been a loyal user of Salomon Trail Shoes since I started training and joining in trail running events whether they are local or international ones. After I have used a lot of pairs of their S-LAB Sense Trail Shoes, I bought my first pair of Speedcross 4 in one of the local distributors in the Philippines. ROX Philippines at BGC was my first choice of store if I am looking for reliable trail shoes. This is also where I bought all my Salomon S-LAB Sense Trail Shoes. I was lucky when the store have a 9 1/2 size of the Speedcross 4 as most of their stock for sale don’t have half-sizes. I immediately bought the said shoes and brought them to my Playground for a good run. That was almost 3 years ago.

As compared to the S-LAB Sense models, I found the Speedcross 4 to be more padded on the uppers and tongue which gave more comfort to my feet when running. I am also appreciative that the shoe drop or the difference between the stack height of the forefoot area and the heel portion is 10 mm which gave much comfort to my aching Achilles tendon on my right heel. I could run forever in these shoes without any pain on my Achilles tendon on the uphill and downhill runs. The shoe weights a little heavy with 310 grams on each shoe but the weight is given more to give comfort to my feet. The best feature of these shoes is the aggressive grip of the lugs on its sole. The sole lugs are best fitted to our local trail condition where most of the grounds are soft and muddy. They are also stable when running on rocks and roots that I did not have any experience of sliding from them. The quicklace system of the shoes is also very efficient and fast when wearing or removing them during races and training. Once you tighten the shoes with the quicklace system, you can roll the end of the lace and have it tucked inside the pocket at the end of the shoe tongue. The shoe looks slick without the ends of the shoelace dangling outside the shoes. The uppers are also quick to dry whenever they become wet with my sweat or during small stream or river crossing. The only weakness of this particular Salomon Model is the narrow forefoot. It is ok with my feet because they are narrow, too but in longer ultra trail races in the mountains, there is the tendency for my feet to expand that I need to loosen its “quicklace”. I have solved this problem by buying one size bigger and my shoe size now for this particular model is now Size 10.

In all my races here and abroad in 2018 and 2019, I have been using the Salomon Speedcross 4 and I am happy with its performance. I am still using them in my training runs but I have observed that the outer sole with the shoe lugs are getting torn apart from the shoes. I guess, the glue that binds the outer sole and the rest of the shoe is already brittle and dry. I could still have some glue in them but I have already bought two pairs of the Salomon Speedcross 5 as its replacement in Sizes 10. Actually, I have used the Speedcross 5 in size 10, in my two latest races: TNF Hongkong 50K last December 2019 and Borneo Ultra Trail Marathon last March this year. I will have a separate Shoe Review on this particular model and will have to compare them with the older Speedcross 4.

I have seen lately on the ads in the Social Media that the Salomon Speedcross 4 shoes are still available On Sale in the local market. Since they are now cheaper, if you haven’t tried them, I suggest you get one pair for your training and for your future trail running events. I guarantee that the price is worth its efficiency and durability. Overall, the Salomon Speedcross 4 is far, the most durable trail shoes in my trail running arsenal and I highly recommended them to beginners, average , and competitive trail runners.

I think I will be using my two pairs of Salomon Speedcross 5 for the next 3-4 years!