Trail

The North Face Summit VECTIV Pro 3

The North Face's ultra-distance trail racer — a stacked twin carbon-plate system over high-rebound foam.

The Summit VECTIV Pro 3 is The North Face's trail race shoe: a full-length carbon propulsion plate with a second carbon stability plate stacked above it, over high-rebound TPU foam on a 37 mm platform. The first does the job a road plate does; the second stops a stack that tall rolling on ground that is never flat.

It suits you if you race long on trails you can actually run, and you want road-race propulsion without giving up grip or stability underfoot. It is built for those races and the training into them.

It is not a training shoe. A twin plate system wears out on the schedule race shoes do, and it is priced like one. It is not for slow, technical, hands-on ground either — the height that saves your legs late in a runnable race works against you the moment the terrain wants precision.