 And the ever-important question, how will I use the Hoka Evo Speed Goat moving forward? Ladies and gentlemen, here we go. Craziness, everyone. It's past 8 p.m. in Colorado right now, and I am hitting record on the camera for the first time all day. I haven't done this in a long time. It's Labor Day weekend, so I decided to just check out from technology as much as I could today, so I didn't vlog. So we went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game we lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates today, and then I did my three-mile jog afterward, and I was just disconnected all day. It was amazing. So anyway, but I still want to bring you my first impressions finally of the Hoka Evo Speed Goats. And today's three-mile jog, 5k, was almost 10-minute pace. I was really bopping along, but I was going nice and easy, really, really recovering because I'm going to take these shoes back out, back up to the mountains for a big mountain day tomorrow. And yes, we're going to go with Carl for the key name for today's vlog, spelled K-A-R-L-Y, because in case you didn't know, the Speed Goat line up from Hoka, which by the way is a neutral trail running shoe from Hoka, is named after one of the original godfathers in the ultra-running world, Carl Metzler. So he used to hold the FKT, the fastest known time for the Appalachian Trail. He was really a trailblazer at the 100-mile distance. In fact, I think he's still in his 40s, he might even be upper 40s, but he's still regularly, I do believe, still races 100-mile races every summer. So anyway, and he puts on the Speed Goat 50k out at Snowbird, Utah every summer, which by far was one of the hardest races of my entire life. Really difficult course. And so it's called the Speed Goat 50k and named after him Carl. And this shoe is named after him as well, the Hoka Evo Speed Goat. And I'm just going to mention right now, actually that's crazy, I have this magazine. So this is the Western States 100, the most prestigious 100-mile race in the United States, as far as not the most difficult, but the most prestigious, meaning it has a lot of history. It's the oldest 100-mile race in the United States. And so the winner, there he is, Jim Wamsley, who runs for Hoka. He wore the Hoka Evo Speed Goat, Evo EVO. I'm just going to say Evo Speed Goat in his course record run this year at the 2019 Western States 100. And everybody who is there was wondering like, what shoe does he have on his feet? What shoes does he have on his feet? Sure enough, it was this shoe. And let's dive into some specs. And by the way, this is just my first impression after 50 miles, which might happen this week. I'm getting actually closer, pretty close to 50 miles already will happen. So my full review will happen after 50 miles, as you well know. All right. And now let's move into some specs real quick. So we're looking at a four millimeter drop from heel to toe, 32 millimeter stack height in the heel, 28 in the four foot. And that's good. That's a lot of midsole cushion for those long trail races or trail runs. Here's where it gets pretty exciting, though. In my size, we're looking at 8.4 ounces or 240 grams. That is awesome. And in men size nine, which is a very standard weight to put out there for everyone to look at, you're looking at 9.9 ounces or 280 grams. Again, very lightweight trail shoe from Hoka. Did I already mention it's a neutral shoe? Just want to make sure that's put out there. It's a neutral shoe and moving on to that upper. So it's a Kevlar reinforced upper, which basically means it's really, really durable while still remaining lightweight. In fact, the Mafate also has that Kevlar through the upper. I don't know of, I don't know of the exact differences between the uppers. They might be actually the exact same. I'm not exactly sure, but we're talking very, very, I can just feel the build quality as I'm touching the upper here. And okay, I will just say, in addition on the upper, they place this, they're calling it a licorice strip, basically an overlay, a rubber overlay through the toe cap to help protect your toes from rocks, from stumps, from roots. I'm going to come back to that in a minute, though. And one last point on the upper is the tongue of the shoe. So what lays on top of your foot? I've put so many shoes onto my feet in 2019. I know immediately if a shoe company has nailed the tongue or not. For example, I had pretty high hopes for the New Balance Beacon 2. And I'm not sure they nailed the tongue this year in their 2019 iteration. Hoka, you nailed the tongue in this shoe. We're talking folks, it's very comfortable. And I'm going to come back to that in a minute for the positives, but they absolutely nailed, nailed, nailed. And I'm just going to say it, if you can see it there, there's a piece of material. I don't even know what it's made out of, some sort of synthetic material that helps the tongue connect to the rest of the upper material. It's so comfortable. The lockdown is spot on. And yes, I'll just say it right now. I went true to size and it's perfect. No issues with sizing. Maybe my pinky toe is barely touching the outer wall of the inner cavity through the toe box. I don't even notice it. And frankly, I would rather have a snug fit for aggressive trails, especially. So overall, the fit, the length is spot on, true to size for me. And for that midsole, which is the big EVA foam right here, it's injected EVA foam. And I don't know what they did. I don't know. I think they basically, they reduced the density compared to the Maffate. But I'm telling you, the midsole is very, very forgiving, but not in a bad way where you feel like you're bouncing down the trails. It's just the right density, Hoka. I don't know how to describe it. But as you can see, I'm pressing in with my thumbs as you see on the screen right now. And it's just enough forgiveness to let you ride through the trails in a very, very comfortable way. So anyway, I'm really enjoying the midsole so far in the Speed Goat and moving on to the outsole. So you can see the Vibram mega grip, which is they're advertising five millimeter lug depth through this Vibram outsole and that lug depth there. I'm not sure if I'm buying five, I'm measuring closer to three or four, but hey, that's what they're saying, a five millimeter lug depth. But for this outsole, I was running up Longs Peak the other day. And on the really bare rock, I wasn't exactly getting the best grip in the world. Not quite as good as my Solomon shoes, like the, oh, I don't know if I have a pair out here right now. But and just one more point on the outsole, this Vibram outsole, I'm not sure the lug pattern is spot on, especially for technical trails. Okay, I'm going to just say this is definitely a shoe for more the buffed out trails. I'll come back to that in a minute. I was slipping a little bit on the Ascent and the Descent for that matter on Longs Peak. So I just want to put that out there. These lug, the lug depth and the lug pattern is not for big, crazy mountain runs. Alright, and on to a couple positives and a couple drawbacks for the Evo Speed Goat for the positives. I have to go with the comfort all around, all around the upper, the midsole. I've already said it. I don't need to say it again. You nailed it, Hoka. You nailed the comfort. Okay, but the drawbacks, I barely rolled my ankle twice on Longs Peak only because, so I would be very careful, everyone, if you're going out on aggressive trails to really watch your ankles in a shoe, a trail-running shoe that has such a tall stack height. Now, this isn't crazy tall, but it's just tall enough where even though Hoka does have a very wide landing area through the outsole of the shoe, I did almost, now listen, it was very technical, aggressive trails up there, but just keep that in mind. This would not be my go-to shoe for difficult 14er mountains. This is more of a buffed out trail-running shoe. And the other drawback would have to be also two times on the run, on Longs Peak, a couple rocks popped up and basically laying, like kind of popped up and hit the top of my foot. And it didn't hurt that bad, but it definitely didn't feel great. In fact, it happened a couple times in the Soccany Mad River TRs and I noticed a lot more protection in the Soccany Mad River TRs compared to the Speed Goats, but these are frankly a lot heavier. So there's more protection through that upper. So keep that in mind as well. At the end of the day, lesson learned, even though I'm going to use these tomorrow on a 14er mountain, the trail tomorrow is much more tame, meaning it's not nearly as aggressive as Longs Peak. So anyway, just keep that in mind. Rolling ankles has potential on technical trails and then protection through the toe box, especially is just, I'm just not feeling it, even with that toe cap there. And the ever important question, how will I use the Hoka Evo Speed Goat moving forward? Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to be racing 50 mile and 100 mile races for a long time. But if I was, I would use this shoe. Not a 50K. That's 31 miles. A 50K, I would want to go fast, as fast as possible. I'd probably choose a Solomon shoe. But this guy, 50 miles is just long enough where I'd want more protection for my legs, for my feet. And I would want more midsole protection, especially on trails that are not, okay, like I would not do the Hard Rock 100 in this shoe. I would do the Leadbill 100 in this shoe. This is a special shoe, Western States 100, perfect shoe. Or, or if you're doing, if you're training, if you're doing training runs, that are, let's say you're getting ready for a 100 mile race, but you want to protect your legs in, let's say a 22 to 32 mile training run, boom, on trails that are not crazy aggressive, boom. Or like, okay, if you're local in Colorado, the Golden Gate, Dirty 30, 50K, I probably wouldn't choose it, but this could work for you if you were out there training on that course. This, my friends, I mean, I love it. I love it. I don't know what else to say. I love it now. The price tag, $116. It's getting up there. But I'm going to say, now wait till the full review, I need to take it out to 50. I'm going to say right now, I'm in that camp. I really am, especially if you're looking for, if you're just dialed in to a 50 or 100 mile peak race, and you've been training all year for it, I would splurge and maybe go for this shoe. At least that's where I'm at right now at $160. All right, that's all I've got for today's vlog. I know it was a little different just talking about running shoes here in the studio, no outside filming. I don't usually do this, but by the way, tomorrow's going to be another epic mountain vlog because we're going to take these out and I'm going to do a bunch of crazy filming. So it's going to be good. Question of the day, what is your favorite hoka running shoe right now if you're a hoka fan? And that's that. So if you're not a hoka fan, I apologize. I'm kind of, kind of maybe, maybe you could, if you're not a hoka fan, maybe just let us know if you've ever tried hoka and they just didn't work for you. How about that? All right, but if you are a hoka fan, what is your favorite hoka road or trail shoe right now? And if you want to dive more into hoka running shoes, feel free to click on the box on the right. It dives into my first impressions of the hoka mafate or on the left hand side is my playlist for other hoka running shoes. Thank you all for being here. Thanks for watching. I appreciate it being here every single day. See beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.