Is the Kiprun Kipsummit Race Ready to Live Up to Its Name?

Introduction to the Kiprun Kipsummit Race

RENEE: Remember when people thought carbon-plated road shoes were only for fast runners? Or maybe people still think that’s the case.

Either way, I’m a fan of carbon-plated shoes for all runners and paces. While I don’t like running daily miles with a plated shoe, in the rare instance I race on the road, I’m wearing a carbon-plated shoe. And if I need extra confidence for a speed workout, I’m breaking out my Vaporflys (not on trails though, silly).

Carbon-plated shoes on trails… I’m not so sure. As a mediocre runner, I need to consider more factors in a trail shoe than in a road shoe. Incline grade, rocks, roots, mud, falling, falling again, getting up after failing… all issues I don’t think about in a road shoe.

Kiprun didn’t mess around with its first plated trail shoe. The Kiprun Kipsummit Race will be a surprise shoe for some runners. Some. Not all. I won’t keep it a secret: this shoe didn’t work for me. The law of averages dictates that if you’re reading this, you’re faster than I am, so you might love this shoe. Let’s find out.

CADE: If Dick’s Sporting Goods released an in-house line of running shoes, I wouldn’t be scouring the corners of the interwebs looking for a way to get an early pair. But call it Magasin de Sport de Richárd and ooh-la-la, I’m intrigued.

Enchenté, Kipsummit. Kiprun (and the new Kipsummit line) comes from the French sporting retailer Decathlon, which, in my experience, has a similar reputation to Dick’s or Academy here stateside. To astute fans of the European cycling scene, however, Decathlon’s push into the elite performance space may come as less of a surprise. AG2R, a long-time world-tour team, picked up Decathlon as a title sponsor a couple of years back and swapped from the iconic legacy Swiss bike brand, BMC, to Decathlon’s own Van Rysel bikes. Imagine an NCAA cross country team going from the Swoosh to Sketchers (pre-HyperBurst foam). The preseason butt of every joke, AG2R ended up winning more races and scoring the most points they had in years.

All that to say, the Kiprun Kipsummit Race isn’t just a retail behemoth’s attempt to corral up some of the profit share in the booming trail super shoe market — it’s here to win races.

About Cade: Cade Michael is a road and trail runner who lives the endurance-junkie’s life in Boulder, CO. His day job is with Backbone Media, while his side hustle is crushing souls on the trails — in the kindest way possible, of course. No, he is not an eligible bachelor, but he is ready to take the next steps as an elite trail runner, and is here to guest-review the Kipsummit Race.

What we like about the Kiprun Kipsummit Race

RENEE: The Kipsummit Race puts the capital “R” in Race. The shoe features a 100% ATPU Fastech+ midsole (supercritical foam), a carbon plate, and a Vibram Megagrip Litebase outsole with 4 mm lugs — all attributes of a top-notch trail racer.

Underfoot, those fancy attributes create what runners expect from a distance racing shoe: light, cushioned, and responsive. In the same size, my Kipsummit Race is the same weight as my On Cloudultra Pro, and in the women’s versions, both shoes are about the same stack height.

A note about stack: On the spec sheet from Kiprun, they list the women’s version of the shoe (which I have) as having 1 mm less stack height than the men’s version. The website lists the stack for both versions at 37.5/31.5 mm. Either way, the cushion under the heel and midsole definitely feels high, while the forefoot feels much more connected to the ground than I’d expect for the stack.

On single-track, I was surprised by the shoe’s stability given its midfoot rocker and aggressive plate. The platform is wide and stable, and the angled, tight forefoot allows control on narrow singletrack when landing on the forefoot. I felt like the midfoot rocker and carbon plate are more apparent on moderate terrain, which is sort of the point. Kiprun’s trail racer is controllable enough on single-track trails and ready to rip on runnable terrain.

The upper has a booty-like fit, with a race-ready collar, and the heel tab definitely has a purpose. You need a bit of effort to get the shoe on, so consider that your warm-up. Take a gel beforehand. The collar keeps debris out, and it’s low-sitting enough to prevent any irritation on my ankles.

CADE: I’m a simple guy. All I’ve been asking for the past couple of years is a protective but light, bouncy but stable, comfy but aggressive trail super shoe. Frankly, I think Kiprun got pretty close here. After seeing the specs Renee mentioned above from The Running Event last fall, I knew the Kipsummit Race had the ingredients for a great one, but the right ingredients don’t always make perfect recipes.

Like every French delicacy, let’s start with the bread and butter: the midsole. That ATPU is layered up like the laminations of a fresh croissant and feels just as light. ATPU has emerged over the past couple of years as my go-to midsole compound. While both peba and TPU are exceptionally light and bouncy, I think the latter has great qualities for the trails.

To me, Peba’s bounce feels something like a diving board, where you’re acutely aware of the sinking feeling before the amplified rebound. TPU, on the other hand, is more akin to a racquetball, with an immediate, firm bounce. That immediacy seems to add an element of predictability over rocks and roots and straddles the line between super and secure better. I would say that rings true in the Kipsummit Race’s application as well. It’s not a particularly soft shoe, despite the stack height, but it is protective and propulsive.

There are two parts to every ride: the foam and the geometry. In this Kipsummit Race, I think the geometry might be even more of a champion. Terrex and Hoka beat Kiprun to the punch with TPU super trail shoes in the Agravic Speed Ultra and Rocket X Trail, but for me, the geometries between the three are what delineate who’s who. The Speed Ultra has the notoriously dramatic rocker and hourglass-shaped platform, and the Rocket X is wide with a more subtle forefoot rocker – check out the reviews on those to get into the nitty gritty if you’re unfamiliar.

The geometric flavor of choice for the Kipsummit Race is boat. It boasts a very wide base with a long, smooth rocker from the heel bevel through the toe bumper. That rocker is crucial on steeper slopes for any trail shoe with a plate, as it alleviates some of the load a rigid stiffener, like a carbon fiber shank, places on the calves and soleus. Climbing and descending some of the pitchier things here in Boulder has been much less abrupt than other offerings because of it.

The width of the base is also crucial for superfoamed, plated trail shoes, providing stability on technical terrain. This shoe might not be the exotic nimble sports car that the Nnormal Kjerag is, but more like one of those Mercedes 18-wheelers that is good on both the Autobahn and Alpine passes. Upholding the brand identity of a true Frenchman/Frenchwoman, The Kipsummit Race is undoubtedly the best technical shoe in its category.

The outsole is Vibram. Need I say more?

What we don’t like about the Kiprun Kipsummit Race

RENEE: Unfortunately, none of the great qualities of the Kipsummit Race worked for me. Why? I like flex underfoot. On inclines, the shoe does not allow for a natural midfoot flex and it’s a torsionally rigid shoe (not a lot of flexibility from side to side). I like to have control when I land on uneven terrain, especially on the incline and decline, and I simply don’t get that with the Race. Even on gravel roads, getting only 100-120 feet of gain per mile, my feet and calves became sore because of the rigid underfoot feel. I can’t imagine ascending in these shoes for miles at a time.

Booty style uppers are hit or miss for me. I much prefer a traditional tongue and lacing system to loosen and tighten in places I need to. The shoe is hard to get on, and the toebox is angled and shallow. If you like rounded toeboxes, you might be disappointed. The toebox is also shallow, even for my low-volume feet. The heel cup looks narrow, but it’s rather long and pointy. I could not get my heel locked back (a typical issue for me with booty uppers). If you like rounded heel cups, probably another issue.

Usually, my pace is faster than my perceived effort in a carbon-plated shoe. Not the case here. The ride was too rigid for me on anything but flat, smooth terrain, and the upper fit made the shoe feel clunky.

CADE: My dislikes of the Kipsummit Race are far and few between, but there were a couple of characteristics that left room for improvement in future models, if nothing else.

The most bothersome of these for me was the upper. I generally dislike one-piece, booty-style uppers because they have to give or crease somewhere, and that somewhere tends to be puckering around the heel collar. The Kipsummit Race’s collar is a sort of semi-gaiter design that is functional in theory, but in practice, the stiff, plasticky material that gives it some of the welcome structure on technical terrain doesn’t hug quite as snugly as something like the softer, more elastic fabrics on the Brooks Cascadia Elite or La Sportiva Prodigio Pro.

The upper also runs a little bit hot. What may be a positive for foothold in hairier technical situations is a negative for foot temps in warmer ones. It has certainly been an unusually warm winter here in Colorado, but even in still lower-than-summer-racing temperatures, the membrane across the forefoot has left my feet rather damp and clammy after runs.

Not to kick a horse while it’s down, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the fit (if I keep ragging on an upper while admiring what’s under the foot, is it kicking an inverse centaur?). It’s long. And shallow. Not debilitatingly so, but long and shallow nonetheless. The toe box hangs low like Jibb’s chain, so if you’re someone who likes some vertical space, it’s something to think about. As for length, my typical US M11 feels a touch roomy, but for racing anything long, I prefer that to the alternative. If you like a snugger, more precise fit, I’d consider dropping down a half size.

Final thoughts on the Kiprun Kipsummit Race

RENEE: I had 42 miles in this shoe before calling it quits, and that’s far fewer miles than I like to get before writing a review, especially for an ultra-distance shoe. The booty upper, though fairly low volume, started to bunch because I was pulling the laces tight over my midfoot. And the rigid underfoot ride was causing discomfort in the feet and calves, even on the mildest of inclines.

I’m a Mediocre runner, capital M. Runners who don’t mind the shoe’s torsional (side-to-side) rigidity will enjoy the plate/midsole combo more than I do. For anyone looking for a super trail shoe with more flex and forgiveness, I suggest the On Cloudultra Pro. For plated shoes during shorter distances, I suggest the Puma Deviate Nitro Trail or one of my faves, The North Face Vectiv Sky 2.

In the ultra realm, the most obvious comparisons to the Kipsummit Race will be the Adidas Agravic Speed Ultra 2, the Hoka Rocket X Trail or Tecton X 3, the Brooks Cascadia Elite, and maybe the Nike Ultrafly 2. I suggest reading up on those reviews before dropping $250.

CADE: Despite how I led off this review, the Kipsummit race isn’t perfect. Then again, what masterpiece is? The materials on the upper could use a little relaxation, and the sizing might have gotten a little lost in translation. But as someone who has both astonishingly vulnerable ankles yet has debated wearing road super shoes in trail races, this is a pretty dang good compromise.

I’ve put about 150 miles in my pair, and I think the midsole, outsole, and even that pesky upper will hold up over multiple ultras and training sessions. It may not be the bargain that Kiprun is known for over in Euroland, but I think at $250 it is competitively and fairly priced vis-á-vis the current market.

If anything here set off alarm bells in your head or you want to stick with a more familiar legacy brand, the Brooks Cascadia Elite, Hoka Rocket X Trail, and Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra are the most similar in terms of feel. But if you’re interested in some experimentation and willing to take a slightly expensive risk for something you might well love, go for the escargot… or the Kiprun Kipsummit Race.

You can pick up the Kiprun Kipsummit Race for $250 from Running Warehouse (featuring free shipping and 90-day returns) by using the buttons below.