Customer Reviews Altra Escalante 2

I have ran a total of 6 miles in these shoes. I will say the upper is fantastic. I love how it holds my foot in place. Now what I dislike, the midsole is way too firm. It has no cushioning, no energy return and after about 3 miles your legs feel fatigued. What needs to be done with the 2.5 is, put this new upper on the 1.0 Ego midsole and you will have a shoe that is worth running in. I don't know why the Altra shoes seem to have gone down in quality. I'm thinking about seriously switching to another brand off these don't improve.

Firstly I'm not a hardcore fan as I recently bought my first pair of escalante 1.5 as wanted try out the brand. I circulate 3 different shoes on my weekly runs. But escalante 1.5 - totally loved the shoe, it was absolutely phenomenal. Bought escalante 2 last week and I can confirm earlier reports. The shoe is MUCH harder and stiffer than its predecessor. My forefoot strike is not nearly as much encouraged as in the previous version either, I dont know why. I also don't find this shoe as fast as 1.5. On the positive side, I do like the outsole even though I didn't have much problems with it earlier. But it's dies have more support and structure and looks amazing. All in all, the shoe is still a big downgrade and now I need to find to stock up 1.5s as I will most likely not purchase a second pair of escalante 2s

So I went through 3 pairs of the Escalante 1.0's, it was a perfect shoe, and then they made it better and I went through 6 pairs of the Escalante 1.5's. They were light, bouncy, had great ground feel, really hugged your heel, the shoe felt like it fit perfectly without having to "over lace" it. It was my workhorse training shoe over the last 2 years of consistent marathon training. I was so excited for the new 2.0's to take another leap in perfection. Unfortunately I'm left with a lot of questions... it now weighs more, it may only be .70oz more, but in "hand feel" the 2.0 feels much heavier than the 1.5, the new mesh fabric is also thicker and after a run felt less breathable and on my feet they felt heavier (*I weighed my size 12.5 at 10.3 oz for 1.5 and 11.0oz for 2.0). The heel cup lost the cushion that hugged your heel, its now trimmed down considerably and forces me to have to "tie down" my laces in order to stay in the shoe on runs (*I do have narrow heels for a big guy). Another questionable item, might just be me, but the feel of the shoe is more balanced, but in a bad way. I felt like in the 1.0s & 1.5s your forefoot wanted to hit the ground first and flick back, the 2.0s feel more rigid along the foot and makes your foot feel like its hitting the ground all at once, not wanting to lean towards a forefoot strike. Weird. Other than those points it's a fine shoe, they addressed the "sharp turn" slide that used to happen. I'll still wear them because for me it's the best option for a lightweight, bouncier, close to ground feeling that gives you zero drop and foot shaped toe box. I Iike the overall "look" of the 2.0, its a sexy shoe, but it just fell short of surpassed the high bar set by the 1.5s.

Loved the 1.0 and 1.5. They were flexible, soft, bouncy. The 2.0s are stiff, hard, dull. I feel like one of my favorite shoes died.

Hate to pile on here but like the other reviewers I found this shoe to be too narrow. It's tight in both the toe box and midfoot. Simply not enough volume in the shoe. I do have wide feet so perhaps Altra is making wide shoes for narrow/average feet. If so, just start making wide widths Altra. As it stands now, the Altra brand does not work for me. Another issue is the sole was too stiff. My foot bends so why does the shoe not bend ?

If I had discovered this shoe without having had the Escalante 1 it would have been a 3 to 3.5 rating. I understand the need to tweak shoe models each year to drive shoe sales and keep things fresh, but taking your most popular shoe of all time and changing essential things about it seems like an odd choice - make it heavier, stiffer, and narrower, I bet people will love that!!! I guess I will try the Escalante Racer to try and get a closer feel to what made the original Escalante such a revelation.

The new Escalantes are 1/5 of one-pound heavier per pair than the previous model. This means you're adding 1/10 lb to the end of your leg, just where you really don't want any additional weight. Due to the extra shoe weight racing a marathon distance swinging an extra 1/10 lb per foot would not make much sense when there are many other shoe options. I'd recommend that Altra lighten the shoe back to its original weight. I like the toe box, but that is not enough to offset the weight issue.

Please Altra: bring back the features of the 1.5 or 1.0 Escalante. This has been my favorite shoe for years and have been a fan of Altra forever. This last shoe, the Escalante 2.0, is simply dreadful. It is tight around the toes, doesn't breath as well and is just not as comfortable. I have purchased as many of the older models but I am worried that this may be the end of the line for me with the Escalante unless Altra brings back the old design features.

Shoe gained a lot of weight compared to the 1.0s and the 1.5s. I've gotten over 1000 miles on individual pairs of the 1.5s, I loved them. But these are just not it. They feel like bricks on my feet and don't feel as responsive. If I wanted a clunker on my feet, I'd buy the Torins. You don't cell lightweight trainers that have durable outsoles anymore, and that saddens me. This is too heavy, the Racer is too light, and the Solstice/Kayenta/Viho aren't durable enough. Heck, the Viho is also too heavy. Bring back the 1.0s or the 1.5s, I only have 2 more pairs in reserve and if the 2.5s are as bad as this then there won't be a single shoe on the market that works.

I run 2500-3000 miles per year in Escalantes and Escalante Racers. The majority of miles are in the base Escalantes. I purchased at least 25 pairs of Escalante 1 or 1.5s. I couldn't make it through more than a few runs in the 2.0. Feels like I'm running in an old pair of 14 oz. ASICS Kayanos. Very stiff, uncomfortable, and doesn't breath well. Altra did something similar with The One and then killed it off. I don't know why they keep making new iterations of great shoes into these stiff monstrosities. There are plenty of stiff, uncomfortable, shoes on the market already. Keep it simple and just put the Racer upper on the 1.5 last. There are so many color offerings of the Escalante which is really unnecessary. If you want to continue this experiment of offering a Dutch wooden clog as a running shoe, please consider cutting the number of colors and using that extra inventory to make a new style for your experiment. For now, I'm scouring the depths of the internet to find old pairs of 1s or 1.5s and even unretiring old pairs where the upper is blown out - I had been saving them to recycle. Really hoping the 2.5 is improved or I'll probably have to find another brand.

The Good: I've previously been running in two pairs of the Escalante 1.5. I was excited to receive my new pair of Escalante 2.0 because the upper end of shoe had been re-designed. The toe box is no longer floppy. The rear of the upper section has nice firm material. Initial impressions are fantastic. The Bad: Altra, dear Altra... what did you do to the sole of the 2.0? The 1.5's were lightweight with a "bouncy" cushion. It was fantastic. I've never run in anything like this before and it made me a big fanboy of Altra and the Escalante. However, the 2.0's are completely different. Very, very stiff. The new sole has no soul. I did read many other negative comments on the 2.0 but was hopeful the reviewers were exaggerating. Not the case. Will the 2.5 be going back to the previous sole?

The original instinct was awesome. Roomy and had a perfect soul that was cushiony and even had a little spring or bounce. I'd looked for that shoe over and over again until i was introduced to the escalante. I have 4 identical pairs of the escalantes. I bought a new pair of the escalante 2 or 2.5 or whatever the current model is and the support is fine but the soul feels like it's made of concrete. Zero spring or bounce. when the past version was heavenly. I ran a marathon in my old escalates. Those were silent. The new ones sound like clogs. Why do you produce perfect shoes and then change them to the point of being unrecognizable? I ran 10K this morning on trail and pavement and later iced my knees. My other shoes are thrashed and I can't go to Road Runner and try on 5 pairs to find something better so I'm sort of stuck until Uncle Gavin takes us out of timeout.

I've been running on Escalantes for about 3 years now. I recently ran out of my last pair of 1.5's (I usually buy 2-3 pairs at a time) and have about 130ish miles on my 2.0's. I'm glad I read reviews and only bought one pair! I'll start with the good, that's the sole. Usually in the first 150 miles or so I can start to see some scuffing but not on these yet. It is springy and responsive, unfortunately the rest of the shoe sucks. The sole is the only reason this shoe gets two stars. Starting from the back the heel is terrible. It digs into my achilles worse than anything I've ever worn. The angle on the heel cup is such that it is tight up top but loose on the heel itself. The only way to fix that is to tighten the laces up on the top side of the tongue which then causes extra pressure over the arch of the foot and that restricts blood flow. That's the next HUGE issue, the upper knit is really tight and has no flex at all in it. My previous Escalante's were all comfortable in the mid and forefoot area's right out of the box. On this version it feels like they've tighted/narrrowed the toe box which restricts the foots ability to splay out on impact, this causes your foot to go numb after about a mile or so of running. You can loosen the laces to let the foot expand, sure, however, that releases the upper knit itself from being in contact with the foot and then causes your foot to have too much freedom to move. That, couple with the horrendous heel, leads to nothing but blisters. I tried to run in this shoe to break it in but after the miles I've put in it hasn't happened and the shoe is doing nothing but hurting me. It sucks but I'll be looking elsewhere until Altra get's this fixed. Hopefully the 2.5 (Or whatever they decide for the next version) will be much more improved and released sooner than later!

I've had several pairs of Escalantes, loved them. Put tons of miles on them and literally wore them until they fell apart. I didn't care how quickly that happened. I say that bc I think Altra was trying to address the durability issues with this new iteration... But I really think this was a swing and a miss. The upper is rigid, the outsole is much harder, and they're giving me bruises on the arches of my feet, which never happened before. I've also gotten several hot spots and full on blisters in places where that hasn't happened. I still love Altra but if this is the direction they're taking Escalantes, I'll be looking for an alternative.

I don't understand what concept the Escalante name represents anymore. The original Escalante (and 1.5) was a shoe with a knit upper, lightish-medium weight, medium stack height, and a soft ride. This shoe has a similar upper and stack height but is heavy and hard. I put more than 350 miles in the 2.0s. They do soften a little with wear, but not much. They also last longer than the earlier versions, but the miles I got were less enjoyable.

A COMPLETELY different shoe than 1.5. MUCH harder than 1.5, less comfortable, and less forgiving. Kind of disappointed.

I am a loyal Altra fan and have gone through many pairs of sneakers in many different styles......However this new version of the Escalante was a downgrade in almost every way. As many previous reviewers mentioned the MIDSOLE has been changed radically. It is no longer as flexible and bouncy which results in a slower speed and harder impact. I like the look of the new uppers but it is a bit hotter and narrower which goes against the feel of the Escalante. I hoped that some running would loosen up the 2.0's but after 50 painful miles I returned the 2.0s and got myself the 1.5s and some Escalante Racers. Overall I would not recommend this version to anyone that liked the original 1.0 or 1.5 as I would categorize this as a completely different shoe. I will wait and hope that they return to what made the 1.0 and 1.5 so good. Until then I'm going to run through my stockpile of 1.5s)

The Escalante 1.5 was one of my favorite shoes ever. It was light, flexible, felt bouncy and great to run in. I logged thousands of miles in these shoes, including races up to 50 miles in length. They were exactly what a zero-drop shoe should be. And, they fixed the very few niggles that the original Escalante had, like the sloppy cornering. The Escalante 2.0 is an absolutely baffling step backwards. I've tried so so hard to warm up to them, hoping they would break in and become a great shoe. But they just have not. They feel like you took the 1.5's and strapped a board to them. All of the flexibility and get up and go that the 1.5's had is just gone. They feel heavy, slow, and uncomfortable. I feel slow in them, and my feet hurt after I run in them. My favorite shoes are gone. And I just can't imagine why! The changes go against everything I thought Altra was all about.

The upper is less comfortable and self adjusting than version 1.5. The midsole is much stiffer and less comfortable than version 1 & 1.5. This is a downgrade after the update. I will be skipping the version 2.5 update as well. Hopefully version 3.0 is better

Why? Why would you make a constrictive shoe and add some goofy type of stability to a shoe that isn't supposed to be either of those things? I've just worn through my last pair of stockpiled 1.5's and am clueless as to what to wear now. You've ruined a great shoe. I've tried twice to put miles in with the 2's and they're a no go. Look at these reviews! Get back to your roots. You've made changes to your trail shoes also that have wrecked the very trademark products that made you!

Seems like shoe manufacturers come up with a great shoe and then start sabotaging it with new revisions and "upgrades". It happened to the Hoka Clifton to the point they had to release the original version as version 1 to appease their loyal customers. I'm afraid the same fate has fallen on the Escalante. Sole seems stiff and less bouncy, upper is no where near the original and now has way too much material for "support". And what's up with the shoes tongue? I wear a size 13 and the tongue length is too short and scalloped in the middle to the point it sometimes slips below the laces when I'm running. I'm wondering if they are making one size on the tongues and then using that for the larger sized shoes. Anyway, I'm not really saying anything that has not already been said in previous posts. Sure hope the decision makers at Altra read these reviews and take them seriously, and not just provide a place for customers to vent. Thanks for listening - Loyal Altra runner with dozens of Escalante purchases to my credit both on the website and at running shoe stores.

I'm a big fan of Escalante 1.5. Had lot of expatiations with 2.0 but a total disappointment. Mid foot feels tight, narrow toe box and overall the I felt it lost what it used to stand for. I bought another pair of 1.5, hoping that 2.5 will be a better one.

I have tried to like this "upgrade" but I can't. I've been running in the Escalante for two years. I've owned a bunch of the 1.0 and 1.5s logged close to 3,500 and ran 24 marathons in them. The liked the original Escalante from the first time I tried it on in the local running store. I LOVED it after my first real run. My first try on of the 2.0.. felt stiff. Hoped they would loosen up so I started working them into my training rotation to break them in. Noticed right away they didn't have the same flex, responsiveness and "bounce" that the 1.0 and 1.5 had. The felt flat, dead and heavy. After my last marathon (just this past weekend) in my 1.5's I figured I would dive back into the 2.0. After a few more runs I decided that they just won't work for me. My feet felt better after 26.2 miles in my 1.5 (that probably have about 250 miles and 3 marathons on them) then they did after only my last 3 miles in the 2.0. I just can't understand why Altra changes the base of the shoe. I understand people complained about the heel (was never a problem for me in either the 1.0 or 1.5) so I understand that "improvement" but but why change the base of the shoe??? You changes something that wasn't a problem and what everyone loved about the shoe. I hope that Altra goes back to the base from the 1.5. I'd be willing to give that a try, in the meantime I'll get what I can out of my last pairs of the 1.5 and see if I can find a few more and either wait out the next model to see if they fix this or look for a new shoe.. ugh!

I usually wear 10.5 in altra but these run bigger than normal. I tried them anyway and my foot just slides around in the toe box. The stretchy knit material the shoe is made of doesn't help. After a few miles my toes would be pointing straight but the toe of my shoe would be point inward. The toe of the shoe already points in a bit but after a few miles it just got ridiculous. I will post s picture as an example. I loved the weight and the cushion. My feet felt good on the road. I'll chalk it up to the wrong size but I think the material could be better.

I've been wearing the Escalante for marathon training and during the marathon without a problem. Though I have narrow feet I do have bunions. The Escalante's have been perfect so far. So it made sense to try the 2.0. Unfortunately, the new upper is a little rough on the inside. I ran in them once and got a blister on the inside of my foot. It was barely touching the fabric. I returned the shoe and will continue to run in the 1.5 as long as they're available. I hope that the next version has a softer upper on the inside.