Trail Gear Review – La Sportiva Fireblade Trail Shoe
I smell winds of change as Montrail was gobbled up buy the large corp. Columbia Sportsware. Columbia has decided to discontinue the Montrail Ultrarunning Team which I have been on since the year 2000.
So what do you do? Go try the La Sportiva Fireblade , this is a very well made shoe. The Italian shoe company has the same thought process as the other Italian companies I have used like Scarpa ski Boots and of course Ferrari’s. The Fireblade is a sleek fast trail shoe with no ex-tra bulky material, the shoe fits real snug around the heel and arch area with plenty of room for a big toe box. The stiff heel really helps with pronation control and rolling your ankle. I was really concerned about the skinny heel cup but it really works well on preventing the ankle roll problem. I have been used to floaty boaty shoes that were bulky and loose fitting, now I have shoes that fit like it should, if you like the roads and dirt I highly recommend this Fireblade as it runs real well on all terrain!
Purchase: La Sportivas Fireblade right now for (MSRP: $71.96)
December 20th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I have run in Vitesse almost since they came out and tried La Sportiva recently too. I have to disagree about the Fireblade having a roomy toebox. The rest of the shoe feels good but the toebox is not roomy. I had to get the Sonic instead. Seems to be pretty much the same shoe but roomier toebox and possibly less pronation conrol.
Tom Hayes
Bozeman, Montana
RD for Devil’s Backbone and Old Gabe
February 11th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I used a 10.5 instead of a size 10, maybe that is why the toe box felt big? Buzz mentioned they run small? Thanks Tom, c-ya on the trails!