These are great shoes
I guess i forgot about inov-8. They used to sell them at REI, and 13 or 14 years ago I had a pair. They were a great pair of ultra light, zero drop trail runners. When they were finished, I couldn't find inov-8 stuff anywhere and didn't see their stuff for years. I switched between brooks, la sportiva and altras since then. I've had one pair of brooks and a few of la sportiva that I've loved, but they've both either been changed so much or discontinued. I don't know how I convinced myself to buy altra lone peaks more than once, but going from them to these, and a pair of trailfly g 270s, it just makes me feel stupid for having spent the money on the altras. I got these for less than1/3 the price of the last 2 pair of altra lone peaks and they are so so so so much more of a shoe (I know they're different and not zero drop) but the differences aren't just the shoe type, these are just made so much better. I honestly think altras are good for office footwear or just standing around doing nothing- they honestly suck to run in and are terrible even as a trail hiking shoe. They fall apart very fast, too.It's been a long time, probably 9 or 10 years since I've found shoes I like this much. I might buy a few more pairs at this discounted price to keep for the future.I switch back and forth between trail runners and approach shoes, so I know what super sticky rubber is like, and the graphene hits a nice sweet spot for trail runners. If they were gripppier, they'd be softer rubber and would wear out faster. These are surprisingly grippy for how hard they are and how long they seem like they will hold up.I've been recommending them to people as trail hiking shoes too, and am about to buy my mom a pair of inov-8 as well.I would say they're in my top 3 of all time favorite trail running shoes.