Altra King MT 1.5

Long on comfort and short on durability, same as the 1.0. I can't afford shoes that don't hold up for more than a few hundred kilometers.

A few months ago I reviewed the MT King 1.0. Much of what I wrote about that shoe applies to v. 1.5 -- they are very comfortable but wear out way too fast to be worth the price. When I sent some of the photos from that review to Altra, they sent me a new pair of the 1.5s for $10, the cost of shipping. I took the opportunity to go down a size for a closer fit, and the new ones are noticeably less sloppy in the forefoot. I avoided using them on the rough, rocky trails around Tucson, but in recent weeks have opted for them on some runs and hikes on the far more forgiving trails around Crested Butte, CO.

I use a GPS watch and Strava to log every running and hiking km I put on all my running shoes. Although Altra has reinforced one of the critical wear zones in the original model, I'm now seeing the first holes appearing in the upper fabric after just 205.3 km (roughly 125 miles). As happens with many shoes (but not all), the toe caps started peeling after the first few runs, and now the right one is particularly bad. Here's what they look like now (the arrows point to holes):

There's not much more to say here. These would be my dream shoes if I could get a normal amount of use out of them, but I just can't afford shoes that start falling apart after 200 km of intended use.