 And here we go, first impressions of the Hoka Mofate II, not my full review, that'll happen after 50 miles. And yes, I do believe I'll be taking this trail running shoe, neutral, I should say, neutral trail running shoe from Hoka to 50 miles. And shall we dive in? And by the way, thank you for your patience with this video. I know it's been a little while. Since I said I was gonna test the shoe, but here we go. We're looking at a 33, what? 33 millimeter stack height in the heel, 29 in the forefoot for a four millimeter drop from Hoka with the Mofate II. That is a tall, tall stack height. And for the weight in my size, we're looking at 9.4 ounces or basically 276 grams. And here on your screen is in men's size nine. There's the weight in men's size nine for the Hoka Mofate II. Let's dive into the upper. So it's an external monomesh debris screen is what they're calling it through this tow box to help keep the rocks and dust out. And you should know it does have a tongue on the shoe. So if you prefer actually one second here, it's different than the Soccany Mad River TR, which is one piece of material or fabric through the tongue on this shoe. This shoe from Hoka, the Mofate II has an actual tongue that you could probably adjust a little bit more to rest on the top of your foot. So it's not a complete booty style upper, just so you know it's different than this Soccany Mad River TR. And through the heel counter here in the back of the shoe, it's a TPU reinforced heel counter. So basically pieces of very, very thin pieces of rubber through the heel to help protect again from the debris from rocks tearing the upper. It's actually pretty sturdy, I would say. Like this is a pretty rigid, it's a little rigid as well. I'm noticing right now as I'm pressing with my fingers and I think it's because of this TPU overlays to help protect your heel. You know like sometimes you're descending down a trail and you or no descending down and you catch your heel on a rock. This will help protect the upper from tearing or ripping as you're descending radical trails out there in the wilderness. And now let's move on to this matrix right here through the forefoot. Yes, keyword Kevlar. Do you know how to spell Kevlar? This is insane. So this upper is reinforced with Kevlar plastic. So Kevlar is, when I think of Kevlar, I think of like body armor. Well, now it's in running shoes. So through right here through the midfoot and into the toe box a little bit is this reinforced Kevlar upper again to help with avoiding ripping or tearing of the upper. And I don't know about you. I've had some issues in the past with Hoka Uppers tearing on me right here through where my toes are basically connecting to the rest of my foot. And I would, I'm shocked. First of all, it probably increased the weight a little bit of this trail shoe. But it is, I don't know how they do it but there is Kevlar through this upper. And Kevlar is strong but it's relatively light they say the specific tensile strength of both Kevlar 29 and Kevlar 49 is over eight times greater than that of steel wire. So that's pretty impressive there, Hoka, for putting Kevlar into the upper of the Hoka Mifate II. And yes, again, Kevlar is the key word. And we're not gonna spend too much time on the midsole. I will say there's no rock plate. So it's a meta rocker midsole but there's no rock plate in the Mifate II. But you frankly probably don't need one with a 29 millimeter stack height in the forefoot. I would be pretty shocked if you ever felt a rock poking through this midsole into the bottom of your foot unless you're just bombing down a mountain and you step on a really sharp rock. But oh my, I hope that doesn't happen but there is no rock plate through the midfoot through the forefoot. And for that outsole, it's pretty exciting, pretty crazy what's going on. They have some deep grooves here through the forefoot for a little bit more flexibility through that outsole into the midsole actually and probably to save a little bit of weight as well. I have not had any rocks get stuck in these two grooves here through the outsole but I could foresee some challenges with rocks getting stuck in there. No issues yet but stay tuned after 50 miles to see if that happens. We're looking at five millimeter lug depth. So that's solid. And yes, they are placing this vibram rubber on the outsole in high abrasion areas. I must say it's interesting. Today on the run, I felt like the, I felt like the, the lug depth was pronounced. Like I could, I could actually feel the lugs a little bit under my feet. So I don't know if I liked it or not but I could, they just feel pretty aggressive, frankly. And for the fit of the Hokomafate II, I went true to size and we're good to go there for the length, a little narrow through the midfoot. So keep that in mind. Comfort, as far as comfort. Oh boy, I am a little surprised at how stiff the shoe feels out of the box. Actually, by the end of the run, it was starting to loosen up a little bit. Maybe I was just getting used to it but it even though like Hoka has this crazy stack height, it's just a little rigid. Like I think it's gonna actually take 20, 30 miles to break the shoe in. Usually a lot of shoes these days, you don't need any break in time. I think this one might need that. It just felt a little bit like a stiff ride coming right out of the box. All right, and we're gonna go with one positive and one drawback for the Mafate II. The positive has to be that Kevlar upper. I just, I love the attention to detail, Hoka. I suspect the dirt, now I rarely am able to take shoes past like 200 miles but I think this upper is gonna last 400, 500, 600 miles easily with that Kevlar reinforced upper. So good work there, Hoka. Enhancing the strength of your uppers. And for the drawback, I must say no ground contact feel. I am leaning a little more in the direction of preferring ground contact these days. So today on the run, again, I just wasn't feeling the, I like to feel the ground just a little bit. So I feel like I won with the ground and in this crazy stack height of 33 and 29, there's no ground contact feel. So just keep that in mind if you prefer a little lower ride to the ground. I guess one last drawback, okay. I foresee a little bit, you gotta be careful not rolling your ankles on terrain that is a little crazy with lots of rocks, lots of loose rocks because of that stack height. Just be where you are up off the ground a little bit in this Mafate. So if you're running on trails that are a little more buffed out, that might be the better ticket than really technical trails for the Mafate too. And how will I use the Mafate too? Moving forward, long training runs. I think this is an ultra trail running shoe, absolutely. So if you're racing a 50 mile, racing a hundred mile on trails that need a little bit of good grip with that outsole, I think this is the shoe for you, but not too technical like I already mentioned. And then training runs that are let's say 20 miles plus just for that huge stack height to help save your legs a little bit. And again, I'll keep you posted on how the shoe breaks in over time. It is just feeling a little stiff through that midsole right now, but maybe it'll loosen up as the miles continue to rack up in this guy. And last but not least that price, $170. Oh boy, oh boy, hoca. I don't know, I don't know. I think it's a little high. In fact, I know it's high and I usually don't do this, but I'm gonna go there, $110 for the Soccany Mad River TR, $170 for the Mafate too. Right now the Mad River is frankly winning out for me with respect to ride. And so I'm just, I'm not a buyer at $170. So that's just my gut right now after my first impression. Again, I'll keep testing it and keep you posted on whether that's price point is worth it. Now, okay, I will just say, maybe it is the Kevlar Upper is why they are thinking, okay, we're gonna ask for, we're gonna charge $170 because this upper is gonna last forever. So maybe that's their thought process from hoca. And that question of the day, more ground contact feel or less ground contact feel? Where do you fall on the spectrum? More or less right in the middle? How do you like to feel the ground underneath your feet through the running shoes, through that midsole, through that outsole? Like where do you fall on the spectrum? I'm probably more ground contact feel, probably right in the middle between more ground contact feel and that dead center. So that's the question of the day. Thanks for hitting it up. Kevlar is the keyword. Thanks for watching video number two of the Hoca Mafate 2. See beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.