SNEWS Reviews: Yaktrax Run

We thought April might be too late to publish our review of the Yaktrax Run winter traction add-ons for running shoes.

But then we remembered: We live in Colorado.

This spring season recalls the ups and downs of a jilted woman in a horror movie — one day she’s all sweet and warm, and the next she’s blowing snow all over the place, killing our plants and leaving our sidewalks a slippery mess.

We were ready for her cold, horrid moods, though, thanks to the Yaktrax Run, which are designed to give runners the opportunity to train with the same stability in the winter that they have in dry conditions.

The first test run of this product was back in December 2012 on a snow-packed trail in the San Luis Valley, the home turf of our male tester, who previously had never worn any sort of traction product.

Both testers put on the Yaktrax Run and had a fairly easy 7-mile run.

“I’ve never been able to run this [terrain] so easily,” our male tester said as he confidently rambled down a small hill. Prior, he said, he’d have been nervous about slipping and falling on such sections.

The Yaktrax Runs differ from the Yaktrax of old. Rather than having crisscrossing steel coils on both the heel and the forefoot, the Runs have coils only in the back. The forefoot section now has six removable steel carbide spikes embedded into high-strength rubber.

They can be worn in temperatures down to -41 degrees Fahrenheit, which was great for our dedicated male tester, who gets out there no matter what the weather, frozen beard and all.

They’ve come in handy this icy winter and spring. We thought we were going to be able to stash them under the bed in our winter running gear basket for a few months, but something told us to keep them on the coat rack where we have easy access to them. Two spring blizzards later and we’re glad we kept them within reach.

What we like most about them is the noninvasiveness of the carbide steel spikes. We are forefoot/midfoot strikers — both of us — and they didn’t alter our running form at all.

Prior to the Yaktrax Run, our female tester used regular Yaktrax and found the steel coils in the front where we strike uncomfortable.

Commendations: This product is highly versatile when it comes to fitting on all types of running shoes, from trail runners to road shoes. We wore these on a total of six different running shoes, three per tester, and they fit on all of them.

The product came in two anatomically designed pieces for the right and left foot. We appreciated this, as it made for a more secure fit coupled with the performance strap.

Complaints: The sole complaint we have about this product is that they were hard to get onto the wider stability shoes we run in, i.e. it was a little painful for our hands to stretch the rubber over the wide outsole. But once on, our shoes were snug as a bug in a rug.

SNEWS® Rating: 5 hands clapping (1 to 5 hands clapping possible, with 5 clapping hands representing functional and design perfection.)

MSRP: $40