Due to a wonderful November and beginning of December I have had a great opportunity to log some substantial miles in some Salomon XT Hawk’s. This should be my “off season” but with near perfect weather for the last 6 weeks it has been hard to resists some late fall trail running in some truly amazing shoes.
Some may be unfamiliar with the Hawk because the XT Wing is the shoe by far the more popular shoe but where it may be less known it certainly makes up for it in performance. The Hawk features a lighter version of the Agile Chassis System (ACS lite) thus reducing the weight of the shoe over the Wing, and making the Hawk the lightest trail running shoe Salomon has to offer. The ACS is designed to act like a spring and return the energy loaded into the heel and apply it to the forefoot during toe off. The Contrgrip out-sole provides great traction when necessary in the dirt, but not too aggressive, making the Hawk seem very fast and smooth on hard pack trail, dirt road and even pavement. The overall design of the Hawk lands the shoe somewhere between the styling of the off-road Wing and your standard road shoe. The Hawk keeps the low to the ground ride, this gives better control and feel on the trail. The heel is narrow, especially compared to the bulky heel of the XT Wing. This narrow heel makes the shoe more agile on technical single track and also makes the shoe feel faster on hard pack trails and roads.
The Hawk is part of a growing group of trail shoes that is blurring the line between traditional trail running shoes and road running shoes. The end product for the runner is a faster and lighter weight shoe that moves better.
Adam Hill, Orillia ON
