Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro Review: Firm, Fast, Far

Introduction to the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro

REESE: Gravel running feels like it’s in the same spot as gravel cycling in 2016. Basically, we’re just at the beginning. Before we know it, Lifetime will descend upon small towns across the Midwest and create a Gravel Road Running Grand Prix race series that will require racers, who have applied and been selected for the elite category, to travel the country and race five out of six Lifetime-owned events. Maybe not, but if I had a Fanduel account, I’d go all in on this bet.

As I said at the beginning, we aren’t there yet, so maybe I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself. The signs are there. Gravel road running races are slowly being incorporated into the gravel cycling event weekend. Gravel shoes are being released at a high clip. Enter the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro, coined a gravel shoe. Since Craft calls Western States a gravel race, this shoe isn’t just meant for your fly-over state or county roads.

To that end, the term “gravel” has multiple meanings. In cycling and running, it sits in this weird, large purgatory between trail and paved surfaces. That could mean a two-lane gravel road maintained by the city, or it could mean a barely maintained forest service road that is only passable in a vehicle with independent suspension. Or simply just a totally nontechnical trail, those sweet, sweet, buttery flowy trails.

Drawing some parallels from cycling, looking back at many of the routes I’ve ridden on my gravel bike, I realize I would have had way more fun on a hardtail mountain bike. It’s doable on a gravel bike; I got through it, maybe with some torn-up hands, destroyed cycling shoes, and my brain shaken just a bit too much, but I finished the thing. However, a mountain bike would have been better suited for at least 50% of the route. That is to say, gear choice for gravel and gravel-adjacent routes, whether cycling or running, is all about where you are willing to suffer.

Because the label ‘gravel’ can mean a lot of things and everyone has their own definition, I tend to think of the category as a sliding scale, with road running on one end and technical trails on the other. The closer a shoe sits to one side, the less suited it is for the opposite. And often, trying to be the best at all the terrains just makes for an overall bad experience.

As someone who has worked at Specialized and Niner Bikes, I can say with some authority that anyone who has ever ridden a full-suspension gravel bike knows this (FWIW, just buy a hardtail). Do you want to be fast and on technical sections and slow on the road? Or fast on the road and scared on the techy bits?

This is all to say that my experience with gravel cycling does impact my views of gravel shoes. I’m always thinking, “What terrain or where is this shoe going to be the best and the worst?”

SAM: Reese is absolutely right here, in several ways. Everything else in the world might be falling apart in the year of our lord 2025, but gravel shoes are finally coming together. We’ve had some bangers this year that do a surprisingly solid job on roads and trails, like the Craft Xplor 2, the Salomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL, and Mount to Coast H1. These shoes are all designed for comfort over long miles on basically any surface. They might struggle a bit when things get technical, but any one of them can work as that one pair of shoes that you can grab for basically any run and not be disappointed.

This is great because the “gravel” shoe fad is showing no signs of slowing down. Every brand is flipping out one or more gravel (or hybrid, or road-to-trail, or whatever we’re calling it at the moment) options, and we’re seeing some real progress in the category. I’m honestly thrilled. It was barely three years ago that a road-to-trail shoe was basically guaranteed to be the lesser of both worlds: a bit heavy and clunky on roads, and wobbly or gripless (or both) on trails.

Despite the progress in the gravel category, Reese is also correct in pointing out that we, as shoe reviewers, are still often stuck in mental habits of categorizing each gravel shoe by the terrain it will probably serve best. We aren’t used to shoes that can do everything. They must be classified. The Xplor 2, for instance, shines on easy to moderate trails. The Aero Glide GRVL is a fantastic cruiser on flat crushed gravel paths.

So, when we get a shoe like the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro, a shoe specifically designed for easy gravel paths, we still test it on technical trails and roads to get that picture, so we can best land on the categorization plane. Sometimes, with a shoe like the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro, we struggle a little with that landing.

We already reviewed the Craft Nordlite Ultra 2.0. This shoe has the same structure and midsole shape as the original, but features a reworked engineered mesh upper with enhanced support and protection, along with Craft’s shiny new Cr Foam Pro in the midsole composition. This is a PEBA blend we saw earlier this year on the Nordlite Tempo, and it was a real winner for me there. Under the midsole is a gravel-specific outsole made in conjunction with Vittoria.

What we like about the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro

REESE: I am surprised by this shoe. I honestly thought I wouldn’t really enjoy it. I’ve struggled with Craft shoes in the past, so expectations for this one were low. I’ll get into the reasons why my expectations were low in the next section, though.

Let’s go bottom up on this one. Normally, the Vitorria outsole is heavy and stiff as hell, but on this shoe, it works. The outsole tread is inspired by the Vitorria Barso mountain bike tire. Craft states that the pattern is designed to be ideal on a variety of terrains, from roads to light trails. Remember what I said in the intro? Ahh. Yes. This is an interesting description considering the muse is a mountain bike tire, for the outsole of a gravel shoe. Back to the positives. We’ll get to this later. The forefoot is entirely covered in tread, but the midfoot is left open, exposing the Cr Pro Foam.

The heel has just enough coverage for heel strikes, stability, and downhill traction. I tested this shoe out on actual gravel roads and on mild technical trails. It actually had a great deal of traction on the descents. I couldn’t find a measurement for the lug size, but visually, it seems that the heel lugs have more heft to them, while the lugs on the toe and center line of the shoe are smaller. The trails are pretty loose right now in Fort Collins, and I never felt like I was slipping or sliding around. Again, I wasn’t on super techy trails. But that’s not where this shoe is supposed to shine anyway.

I’m skipping the foam and saving that for below, but I do need to note that on the road, the exposed foam with the small indent, similar to something like the Brooks Sky Vault, was actually noticeable and a welcome surprise. I didn’t notice that on gravel, but on the road, it felt responsive and a little cushy.

While the midsole isn’t my favorite, the slight rocker makes the foam less harsh. I feel like Craft gave the Nordlite Ultra Pro a nice, sweet spot rocker. During my runs, I felt that it was just enough to provide a nice, natural stride, especially on the flat, but not so aggressive that I was unstable on slightly technical trails.

SAM: I’m going to follow Reese’s “from the bottom up” template here, so I’ll start by laying out that I really like this rubber and lug configuration for all surfaces. These Vittoria/Craft outsole combinations keep producing solid, built-to-purpose tread solutions, and it’s only getting better with each new release.

This one feels smooth on roads and grips really well on dry trails. I took this frolicking down some moderately technical trails and was pleasantly surprised to have zero grip issues at any point, even in soft sandy sections. The coverage from the outsole provides some structure to the midsole, but it remains soft and adaptable enough to service on uneven footing.

When I was reviewing the Craft Nordlite Tempo, I kept wishing for a trail shoe that employed a similar midsole with a super aggressive outsole, and the Nordlite Ultra Pro is close to fulfilling that wish (the Pure Trail Pro took a stab at this, but didn’t succeed in a few other areas). The Cr Foam Pro in this shoe is a similar supercritical/PEBA blend, and at 40.5 mm in the heel and 34.5 mm in the forefoot, we get to play around with quite a lot of this stuff. It’s soft underfoot, but feels firm and peppy when running, especially on trails. It’s also pretty stable despite the stack height, which certainly helps when what you’re running on gets a little uneven.

Make no mistake, this midsole gives a solid impression of firmness on all surfaces. I totally get why Reese was turned off. Personally, I’m really into a firmer midsole, and I already had experience taking the Nordlite Tempo over 18 miles with no issues, so I felt confident this wouldn’t pound my feet to death. I’d feel confident taking this midsole much farther, and the slight rocker cut into the geometry is sure to enhance the smoothness of that run.

I was a touch worried when I first put on this shoe that we’d have another baggy upper situation from Craft, but with some proper tightening, I was able to achieve some solid lockdown that served just fine on winding, flowy trails with a few technical sections. It’s plenty breathable, and I like the support around the heel.

What we don’t like about the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro

REESE: I cannot for the life of me understand the properties of the Cr Foam Pro. The only way it makes sense is if it’s made from some non-Newtonian mixture of ingredients like Oobleck. When squeezed, it is soft and cushy, but on the run, under load/high impact, it’s giving solid. Maybe it’s just cornstarch and water?

I’ve run in three other Craft shoes: the Pure Trail X, the Pure Trail Pro, and the Xplor Hybrid. The first two have some iteration of the Cr Foam, and the Xplor Hybrid used a Px Foam. The Px foam was far superior to the Cr foam in terms of feel, which seems to be reserved for their more trail-specific shoes. I was hoping for some hybrid of the foams or something a little closer to the Px, which felt a little less stiff, but alas. The Cr foam is pretty rigid.

In my first run, I even threw a pair of other shoes into my car in case my feet hurt and I needed to swap. I never did, but I ran 13 miles in them on the first go. However, I would have assumed that after that initial run, which I would call a break in the run, the foam would soften up. No dice. It just lacks that nice pop and responsiveness that I would want to see in most shoes, but especially a “gravel shoe.”

As I mentioned in the intro, gravel has a broad meaning. The delta between trail and road is wide, and creating a shoe that can be good at every terrain in that zone is a tough ask. It felt like this shoe is more suited for trails than gravel. The toe protection area is pretty generous, perhaps to a fault. It did cause some annoyance on downhills. My toes, not debris, slammed into the front of the stiff toe box, causing some discomfort.

Another thing I noticed was the heat. The shoe felt like it was less breathable than advertised. My feet felt warm and sweaty during runs.

SAM: Even though, unlike Reese, I’m generally a fan of Craft’s Cr Foam Pro, I think it shines slightly better with the stack and durometer found in the Nordlite Tempo — it feels quicker, snappier, and sports a bit more pop. That lack of softness — let’s call it firm responsiveness — on the run feels warranted.

In the Nordlite Ultra Pro, it feels thick and soft when walking, but the rebound while running feels firm, creating an odd mental dichotomy. Is this a soft shoe for big miles or a firm shoe for fast efforts? It’s trying to be both, and I think it works, but I needed to make a mental adjustment.

I can’t figure out the toebox on this shoe. It’s plenty wide, but runs just a hair short, and it cuts in strangely on the medial side of the shoe. I had a hard time keeping my big toes out of the toe guard, and while this didn’t cause real issues, it did lead to some irritation on longer efforts.

I hate being picky about laces, but the ones that came with this shoe are too thin. They’re a pain to tie and untie, and when you double-knot them, you inevitably end up picking at the knots for 10 minutes after your run.

Final thoughts on the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro

REESE: Is it a gravel shoe? A trail shoe? Who can say for sure? It seems like Craft took elements from trail and gravel shoes and threw them on this shoe to try to make this a great all-around shoe. But it leaves me scratching my head just a bit. With an upper built for technical trails but an outsole made for gravel roads, it just feels a bit confused. Why not make the upper closer to a road shoe upper? Why the huge toe protection area?

It might sound like I’m not a fan of this shoe, but really, I think it’s just struggling with a bit of an identity crisis. I actually enjoyed running in it, even if the foam isn’t my top pick. On the spectrum from road to super technical trail, it lands squarely in the middle, maybe a bit closer to the trail end of the spectrum, making it an okay road shoe and an okay trail shoe. That middle-of-the-(gravel)-road positioning means your route choice really matters with this one.

I have no idea how Mary Denholm managed to crush the Kodiak 100k in this shoe (well, she’s a phenomenal athlete, so there’s that for starters). My feet would have been absolutely thrashed. I’m not sure I personally would want to run over 30k in them. I just never felt like the foam mellowed out. But clearly, this shoe can go the distance for some folks.

It really comes down to this: what even is a gravel road or a gravel shoe, for that matter? And how’s that any different from a hybrid shoe? I’m just here asking the hard-hitting questions. Maybe we need to be even more hyper-specific with our shoe categories. Maybe it’s time we rethink the categories altogether. Mid-Mountain, perhaps? Or maybe we borrow the ski resort color-coding system — just spitballing here. But in all seriousness, defining things (or at least understanding someone else’s definition) matters, a reminder that communication is really about what the other person hears.

SAM: Here’s to us naming this review “Reese is right.” The Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro is a shoe that reminds me a little more of the road-to-trail shoes of three years ago than I would like. It doesn’t really fit into the categories that we try to shove all the shoes we review into. I’m not totally sure where it fits best. It’s a little better on roads and trails than your typical gravel shoe, but the foam has an underfoot feel that requires a bit of trust and some mental adjustment. You have to approach it like it’s that person you had a crush on freshman year of high school, before you even had really figured out what it means to “like, like” somebody.

Fortunately for me, I really like my midsole foams complicated like an early high school dating relationship. Like Reese, I really enjoy running in the Nordlite Ultra Pro. I think it has some shimmery multi-surface appeal, along with a unique underfoot experience that’s best suited for runners who appreciate a midsole on the firmer side, but one that won’t cause your feet to ache after 20 miles.

You can pick up the Craft Nordlite Ultra Pro for $190 from Craft Sportswear by using the buttons below.