Customer Reviews Altra Escalante Racer

I have had 6 or 7 pairs of Altras, two of which were Escalante Rev2. They have all been super cushiony and fit my wide feet. The Escalante Racer is nothing like the Escalante. The Racer is very stiff under foot with almost no cushioning. The formerly roomy forefoot Altra was famous for has narrowed up considerably. Just wearing them around the house was uncomfortable. I have seen a lot of reviews bemoaning the demise of Altra as a shoe company, and I am beginning to see why.

I was a Kayenta fan and when confronted with it's EOL was recommended this. I'm sure it's a great shoe – it gets great reviews – but it's just not for me. I feel that it was forcing me to run in an unnatural way and experienced a lot of foot vibration (an early indicator of future injury, I believe) which is weird since the Kayenta seems like such a more minimalist shoes. I have previously owned a pair of Escalantes and had the same issues. I happened to find two pair of Kayentas in my size at a couple 3rd party vendors now at a fire-sale half price (shout out to https://www.holabirdsports.com – my experience was 1st class, btw). Fortunately I bought the Escalante Racers at Zappos which lets you return within 30 days even though they show evidence of use – will definitely be considering Zappos in future shoe purchases. No worries. All worked out for the best. The Kayenta is dead – long live the Kayenta.

For a few years I have been converted to only running in Altra shoes. I was so excited for these Escalante Racers when I got them. I love the design, they look really sharp, not quite as clunky looking as my other Altras. Unfortunately there were two major issues that made me ultimately return the shoe. I went on two runs with these (about 12 miles total) and the upper of the left shoe creased by my toes and by the end of the runs rubbed the top of my toe to the point that my toenail was black and blue. I tried to adjust the lacing, etc. but couldn't fix it. The other issue I had was that after about 2 miles the left shoe developed a squeak with EVERY step. If I had loved the shoe, I would have figured out how to fix it or live with it, but together that became a deal-breaker. The last thing that I noticed was that in the short amount of time I've worn the shoes, the tongue would slide to the outside of the shoe, and the lace lock on the tongue started to break down the material on the shoe (see attached picture). So sad! I really wanted to love these!