Gearporn - running shoes again. Merrell trail glove 3

I've been running in Vivobarefoot shoes for several years. My initial feeling was that they wouldn't have enough grip for fell running, but I've done a few fell races in them without problems. For really gnarly ground I tend to use Inov8 roclites (once this pair die I'll get some other Inov8 shoe with less heel), but that mostly tends to be in winter when the ground is wet and sludgy.

Back in April I had to replace my last pair of Neo Trails, and they were no longer available. I ended up changing at that point to Trail Freaks, which opened a whole can of worms I've talked about elsewhere. So far I'm not mad keen on the trail freaks - they feel a bit too floppy and my feet slide around in them when wet. They're also none too durable, so when I trashed a pair I decided to replace them with Merrell Trail Glove 3s - the only other barefoot trail shoe other than 5Fingers or various sandals.

Size what?!

First of all, Merrell sizing is a load of cobblers (accidental pun) if you're in Europe. My size UK12/EU47 feet do not fit in a US12.5, nor would I expect them to - most manufacturers reckon an EU47 to be a US14. Not having had Merrells before, I didn't know this. That cost me a fiver as I had to send them back to Sportsshoes.com for replacements. Sportsshoes.com were as usual extremely helpful. Merrell weren't.

A grumble on twitter elicited 'our UK staff can help you' from Merrell. Merrell's UK staff completely failed to comprehend my problem and sent me their sizing chart, ridiculous UK/US equivalencies and all.

Nice and comfy

Overall, I like the trail glove. It's comfy, it fits well (once you have the right size) and my feet don't slide downhill inside the shoes on descents. But.

This is a trail shoe?!

I've had road running shoes with more grip than these things. I nearly did the splits in wet mud half a km from home the first time out in them. Really, WTF? The soles are, compared to the vivos, fairly clumpy, but the treads are ridiculously shallow. After running up through a field I checked the sole and was pleased to see they weren't clogged. No bloody wonder, when I look closer the tread is barely 2mm deep.

Overall

Overall, I do like the trail gloves. Probably not enough to buy another pair, and if they turn out to be consistently this slippy, they could end up being replacement casual shoes, since my old Neo Trails (worn out for fell use, now used for casual) look as if I've run over them with the lawnmower. The trail gloves are nice and comfortable though. If I did any road running, I'd probably use them for that. The grip really isn't up to trail use though, unless your idea of trail is nice graded footpaths around a reservoir, and you might as well use road shoes for that.

Oh, and Vivobarefoot customer service is light years ahead of Merrell.