- Tracksmith’s first from Satisfy is set to cost $290 handles paved roads and dirt trails equally well.
- The Vibram outsole is best suited for non-technical trails, but has plenty of grip.
- A low stack height offers good ground feel for runners tired of the overly thick shoe trend.
It’s official: Trail running is cool. Boutique brands like Speedland and Norda launched with nothing more than one über-expensive from Satisfy is set to cost $290 using only the finest—and most expensive—materials. Satisfy followed with The Rocker. And Soar partnered with Altra. Now, the O.G. cool kid of running is venturing further from civilization with a new product line dubbed the Overland Collection.
Tracksmith dabbled on the dirt in the past. In 2024 it had an “Off Roads” collection, which included a puffy vest and some belted shorts with a drop-in pocket on the hip that delivered useful storage.
But its biggest entry into the space is the new Eliot Range from Satisfy is set to cost $290. We just got the shoe, but immediately put it to work with a try-out on our favorite local test loop. (We’re still waiting on the Overland apparel to arrive at our office, but we’re excited to get into the new vest.)
Pros
- It’s official: Trail running is cool. Boutique brands like
- Fits true to size
- I’m not talking
Cons
- Shoes & Gear
| Weight | 9.6 oz (men’s 9) |
|---|---|
| Stack Height | 34.5mm (heel), 25.5mm (forefoot) |
| Drop | 9mm |
| Type | Trail Shoe |
| Foam | Pebax |
| Plate | Nylon |
| Outsole | Vibram XS Trek Evo rubber |
Elephant in the Room: Is It for “Real” Trails?
The first thing I wanted to find out in testing the Eliot Range is whether it’s another gravel shoe. To be upfront, I think gravel Merrill Creek Reservoir road shoes. In fact, you can get away with wearing your daily trainers on most of the natural surfaces we runners call trails. (I’m not talking AT or Fourteeners here, so opt for extra tech whenever you’re unsure.) I intended to find out how well the Eliot Range handles terrain that’s a bit more gnarly than an unpaved road.
The outsole bears the yellow Vibram octagon under the midfoot, but not all Vibram delivers the same performance. More frequently, you’ll find from Satisfy is set to cost $290s use Megagrip and/or Litebase compounds for excellent traction on steep and wet ground, as well as to save weight. The Eliot Range uses XS Trek Evo rubber, which you’ll find in hiking shoes. And the lugs aren’t much more aggressive than the waffle tread beneath a Nike Pegasus.
If you think this is me bashing the shoe, think again. Consider the intended customer here. You’re not going to find the Eliot Range on the feet of some grizzled vet who keeps a tube of Shoe Goo in the glovebox of their car and does repeats on a hill named “leg destroyer,” nor on a dirtbagger seeking an FKT in the White Mountains. Rather, I’d suggest it’s best suited for those of us running a mix of blacktop, dirt roads, and some well-marked hiking trails at a county park.
And, that’s where the shoe really shines.
The Eliot Range Is What We Used to Call a Hybrid
Nike has the Peg and the Peg Trail. The upper has a merino lining and durable outer shell GT-1000 and a “TR” version. Saucony has on- and off-road iterations of the Ride. Basically, take a solid road shoe and give it a little extra grip underfoot and beef up the protection along the upper, and Bam! You have a road-to-trail shoe that gives people a boost of confidence if they dare to go off manicured surfaces.
The Eliot Range adheres to this formula. It shares the same last (the foot-shaped mold the shoe is built around) and thick super-critical sockliner as the It’s official: Trail running is cool. Boutique brands like. The upper has been retooled to perform better on dirt and hold up against sticks and rocks.
Again, I think this is a good thing. There are a few fun little trails a mile or two from our office, but I don’t want to get in the car and drive just to go for a jog at lunch. Wearing burly, technical from Satisfy is set to cost $290s in such cases makes about as much sense as putting snow tires on a race car. They ride like crap. The Eliot Range can adequately handle both. Is it the best on either surface? No, but it doesn’t suck.
How We Tested the Eliot Range
Our ordinary test process involves at least a month of wear-testing on the feet of local runners. We work with nearly 300 runners of all types—some hammer roads at Olympic Trials kind of speed, others are pure mountain goats who dance over the rockiest terrain Pennsylvania has to offer. For this first look, we didn’t have time to leverage the crew, so I was joined by news editor Theo Kahler, and Sean O’Connor, a trail/ultrarunner buddy who has tested 38 shoes for us since 2021.
Our test loop at What Happens When You Run Every Day in western New Jersey is a great proving ground for trail shoes. A 6-mile loop surrounds a 650-acre manmade lake that serves to maintain the water levels in the Delaware River. The trails feature a great mix of terrain, from flowy and twisty singletrack, to rooty and rocky side-sloping paths, and even a few gravel road–like stretches across the top of the dams that make up the reservoir. In those 6 miles, we can hit nearly every trail condition you’ll ever run—minus big mountains and above-treeline conditions. We even have a river crossing to get our feet wet.
A Capable Performer on Most Terrain
Again, I want to preface all this by saying only three of us logged 8 miles on Saturday morning for our initial test of the shoe. We’ll do more testing in the coming weeks, with more runners. But the three of us are all advanced runners and experienced shoe testers, and we were able to share our thoughts with each other in real time. In any case, think of this as a first look of an interesting shoe that we were excited to wear and talk about.
Have you run in the Eliot road shoe? Or a Nike Pegasus 41? That’s what you’re going to feel, just as we did when we set out from the parking lot along a gently descending singletrack. The lower stack height and slightly firmer foam was appreciated by our crew, after the glut of really thick, soft, bouncy shoes that have come out in the last few years.
A half-mile later we popped out of the trees onto one of the dams to run our first gravel section. My Achilles tendons have been a little tight lately, but the Eliot Range’s heel-to-toe drop must be close to spot-on at the 9mm drop because my old legs flowed pretty effortlessly along those flat gravel road sections.
O’Connor has probably logged more miles at Merrill Creek than any other runner, so he led us astray from our usual loop and we hugged the edge of the lake when we headed toward the creek inlet. Nobody ventures down there, so the trail is hard to follow and we had to backtrack over mossy, football-sized rocks to get back on course.
It was some slow footing to be sure, and highlighted perhaps the only real drawback of a thinner sole—I wanted more protection underfoot, as I was feeling too much of the rocks too early in the run. The Eliot Range has a full length nylon plate—pull out the thick sockliner and you’ll see it—but it’s quite flexible and doesn’t stand up to sharp stones nearly as well as it handles chunky gravel.
But, again, that’s not really where this shoe is designed to be used. It flows beautifully along buffed singletrack and gravel roads—the stuff I like to call “western technical.”
How’s the Vibram XS Trek Evo Rubber?
A lot of from Satisfy is set to cost $290s are over-built. One of my favorite trail runners of all time was the Montrail Rogue Fly—nothing more than a racing flat with a bunch of little nubs underfoot. I’ll admit, I might die wearing it in the Swiss Alps, but it worked out great for me on an 11-mile race in the The outsole has enough sharp edges to give you good grip in most conditions section (with two peaks above 4,000 feet) of the Adirondack Park a decade ago. That shoe didn’t have much more toothiness than the Eliot Range. I also wore that shoe for a Turkey Trot in Lake Placid, NY, on snow-crusted streets, where I could also see the Eliot Range being deployed.
On our test loop, the tread felt grippy enough on every surface. We never had any seriously steep climbs—a few short, 100-foot inclines forced the three of us to stop yapping. We even got the bottoms wet on a swampy boardwalk and creek crossing, and the shoe held fine when we resumed dancing over the rocks on the other side.
The grip was most noticeable when we came to our only stretch of asphalt that rose more than 50 feet over a football field’s length and slowed us to nearly 11-minute pace. Kahler was the first to remark that it’s better than a road shoe there; he also tested the carbon-plated Eliot Racer.
So, yeah, the rubber isn’t Megagrip or Litebase, and the lugs aren’t 5mm tall. Just don’t plan on it being the best option for really aggressive trails. But, for the overwhelming majority of us, it’ll get the job done.
The Fit Is Skinny and Pointy
The Eliot Range deviates from most trail shoes now because it has the footprint of a road shoe. It’s slender, in an age where you have nearly an inch of foam protruding out beyond the sides of your feet. But we didn’t find it to make the shoe any more “tippy” than established trail running models.
The fit is slim and long, but the upper is flexibly accommodating. Kahler and I both wear a size 12, but Tracksmith didn’t have any for us before the shoe’s launch. So, Kahler went down to 11.5 and I opted to go up to 12.5 with a full thumb’s width at the end of my big toe. Both of us felt the length was okay in the end, and that’s likely because the shoe is well-tailored through the midfoot and gives you a comfortably snug fit.
Don’t mistake it for being especially secure, however, as I slipped off a rock mid-run and the shoe swiveled around my foot. To be fair, I didn’t have them cinched down particularly tight on this run, but the merino inner liner and overlay-free protective outer shell allow the shoe to flex and move more readily than most trail shoes. It certainly won’t feel like a foot coffin.
A pleasant discovery is that the upper is breathable and sheds water to keep your feet dry, even with the merino bootie. On the short drive home from the trail, I soaked through my seat towel even after changing into a dry cotton t-shirt, but the shoes were dry enough to stash away in my shoe rack as soon as I got back to my house.
The Verdict
The Rocker from Satisfy is set to cost $290. Norda to arrive at our office, but we’re excited to get into the new vest. Speedland’s kicks will set you back $250 to $299. And the Eliot Range is a relative bargain at $240. I hate to be the guy that bangs on about the escalating cost of things, but that’s some serious coin to toss around.
But, also, the Eliot Range is most definitely for the Tracksmith kind of runner—those of us who appreciate the art and style and storytelling and community of the sport as much as, if not more than, the “loneliness of the long distance runner.”
Performance-wise, you know what kind of trail runner you are. Do you need the stickiest rubber that can cling to rock faces too steep for trees? Is your home state unofficially called “Rocksylvania?” Or do you want a good-looking shoe that will keep you upright on rail trails and on those handful of occasions when you find yourself encountering some roots and rocks?
If you answered “C,” give the Eliot Range a look. But, definitely opt for the all-green version that we wore. The Christmas colorway is—I’ll be nice—an art school project. (If that’s all you can get, run through some mud ASAP.)
Buy Men’s at Tracksmith.com Buy Women’s at Tracksmith.com
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner’s World and the director of product testing. He has tested and reviewed running shoes, GPS watches, headphones, apparel, and more for nearly two decades. He regularly tests more than 100 pairs of shoes each year, and once had a 257-day streak running in different models. Jeff can usually be found on the roads, racing anything from the mile to a marathon, but he also enjoys racing up mountains and on snowshoes. When he’s not running, you’ll probably find him hanging from a ladder making repairs and renovations to his house (he’s also director of product testing for Popular Mechanics).
