Welcome to another trail renaissance gear review because Scott without gear you're just naked on the trail. What do you have for us today? Which isn't all a bad thing. Depends if you're chasing or getting chased. It can be a little liberating. Today we're going to review the Montreil Fluid Flex 2. As you know, Don, I love Montreil. You do? I probably owned a dozen pair of mountain massacres. They were a go-to shoe a few years ago and I just love them. Just solid. And I'm glad that they continue to make them, because they're just a really good shoe. The Montreux Fluid Flex II is, in a nutshell, a more of a minimalist version of the masochist. It's very, very lightweight. It only weighs in at like 8.3 ounces. So it's really lightweight, four millimeter drop. So it's very flat, very low drop and it's affordable. It comes in at 90 bucks retail. So let me ask you a couple questions about the shoe. Breathability, your drainage as far as going through what? It's very lightweight the upper is very very lightweight. The shoe in a hole is very lightweight. It's not a shoe that's gonna stand up to a lot of abuse, I don't think. Okay. And how about a plate, a rock plate? Does not have a rock plate in it. In fact, the sole of the shoe is also very soft. That's one thing that I put down as a negative, is that cushion has a lot of cushion in it. Not thick cushion like a polka, but the EVA material is pretty squishy. And for me, it seemed like it was taking a lot of, it was kind of an energy suck. You know, it had a lot of rebound, a lot of... Okay. We have our place on that trail along the railroad tracks. You know, we have all that big rock. And we just, that's always the point when we talk about the protection of a shoe. Right. Yeah. This one, if I was to imagine in my mind what the sole of the shoe is doing as we're running across these big golf ball size rocks, Yeah. It envelops them. It does not protect you at all. It wraps around it instead of a word. In fact, it's probably not a shoe that you want to go run very long distances in. It's just a little bit too minimal for that. Okay. In my opinion. Yep. Well, I mean, that's why we're giving the review. You know, and here's another point that I will give if you are familiar with the mountain massacres, this does run in according to my field. Runs about a half-size larger than the mountain massacres. Okay. So you may want to, if you like them tight, you may want to downsize about a half size.

It's good to know that.

It's good to know.

Tell me this, we've joked often because of the, you know where I'm going with this, right? No, I have no idea where you're going. You know, okay. Why don't you raise your hand when you figured out where I'm going, okay? All right. I'll go Bing or something, okay?

So you've run in the mountain maskist for, you know,

thousand miles plus.

And there's something that we always kind of joke about. And that is the shoelaces. Did they change that with this? No, they didn't. You know, these have the same kind of... And it's not like the mountain massacres shoelaces come untied any more than the others. Yeah. Did you just use that as an excuse to get you to slow down? I will tell you that some of the very good things about the shoe, very big toe box, lots of room in the toe box. That's nice. And one thing for me specifically, because I guess I have narrow heels, it has two pads on the side of the heel that kind of lock your heel into place.

So there's not a lot of up and down movement.

That's good. That was really cool. I don't know whether I've ever had a shoe that had those pads in there. Good. So overall, you know, does it go to shoe? Do you like it? Would you repurchase it? Where are you at with this shoe? You know, I like it because it's just a change of pace if you want to get out there and feel light.

Yeah.

And you want to do some turnover.

This is a great shoe for that.

But it's for a, you know... of pace if you want to get out there and feel light. Yeah. And you want to do some turnover.

This is a great shoe for that. But as for a, you know, I'm going to go run a 50 mile trail race with some technical roots and rocks. Probably not the one you want to bring out. OK, so just kind of re-priced. And the price is great. 90 bucks. Yep. So we're going to kind of recap. narrow enough in the heel with those pads to give you support to not move up and down.

But the toe box is nice and wide so that you have some room up front. It sizes a little bit larger, a little larger, half size. Breathe well. No rock played up front. So you get a real feel for the ground. And I should say by namesake, it's called the Fluid Flex. Yeah, this a very flexible shoe. You can double it over. You can take the toe and put it on the heel. Eat very easily. So it sounds like Montreil has a winner here. For someone looking for a shoe with some flexibility and to get out there on some more groomed trails and get out there and tear it up. Yep. All right. Thanks for the review, Scott.

Thank you.

Go to montrail.com.

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