ROCLITE G 315 GTX V2 Review

inov-8 make some big claims about their new version of the ROCLITE G 315 GTX V2, a shoe designed for hiking, trail running and multi-sport adventures. They write of a lightweight, versatile and waterproof shoe designed to take you anywhere, with a secure fit and improved upper durability, a shoe made for endless adventure.     

My pair arrived mid-November, the wettest, muddiest and - sometimes - the most challenging time of year. Fresh out of the box they were certainly a good-looking pair of shoes made in grey with a smart red trim. I was keen to give them a good workout, and in their first four weeks they covered a bit over 150km of (mainly!) offroad trail running through the woods and fields around home and in the Brecon Beacons (on a particularly vile weekend!), and about 60km of hiking over a variety of terrains, including icy mountains, boggy moorland and muddy fields.

The first thing I noticed about the shoes as soon as I put them on was their comfort. They offered a snug and supportive fit (even though I’d deliberately got a pair of Size 10.5, half a size over my usual!). For mountain runs I wore them with thick winter socks, and they were still just fine - supportive but not too tight. I am not usually a fan of GORE-TEX shoes, but the waterproofing was excellent, keeping my socks dry on shorter runs around home.

When splashing through puddles and streams on longer runs though, and out in heavy rain, water inevitably made it into the shoes where it tended to pool. I am sure that wearing a decent pair of gaiters would eliminate that problem (and they are on my Christmas list right now!). The built-in flexible rock plate gave good protection from pointy stones underfoot and I found my feet were significantly less battered than they have been at the end of some of my longer rocky runs.

The POWERFLOW MAX foam of the midsole added to the feeling of comfort and protection, while still being able to sense the ground beneath my feet. And while I don’t really run fast enough these days to appreciate the energy return and bounce these shoes are supposed to offer, I certainly found them to give a very comfortable ride right from the start.

Another thing I quickly found with the shoes was the excellent grip coming from the Graphene enhanced lugs - I tried them on a wide variety of surfaces, from wet grass and rock to steep mud and frozen ground. At all times they gave great grip, while folk around were struggling to stay on their feet. Descending steep wet grass was a doddle, they were positive on wet and icy rock too, and I was able to descend steep paths without having to worry too much about where my feet were going. Running on a winter night-time round of the Bath trig points, I found the lugs did tend to get clogged up with sticky Cotswold mud, turning the shoes into Teddy-boy platform soles, but there aren’t many shoes that don’t pick up that kind of mud! Once back on grass and gravel the mud shed pretty quickly, so it wasn’t an issue for too long!

I have always enjoyed the comfort and grip of inov-8 ROCLITES, though I have found for me that the shoes have not been particularly durable, with tears in the uppers often making shoes unusable in just a couple of months (I do have a broad forefoot, and frequently find the uppers wear out above my little toes on both feet).

This new version of the shoe has the same comfort and excellent grip as previous versions. After four weeks (and 200 odd km) running and hiking on mixed terrain in these shoes there is (inevitably!) some scuffing of the uppers, but no sign of any major trauma. The soles remain good as new, and I am hopeful that with these shoes inov-8 might have solved the ROCLITE durability problems! One issue I would like to see further addressed would be to have more information on the recyclability of the shoes and the materials they contain.

With a price tag of £155 these shoes aren’t cheap. However I have found them to be both grippy and comfortable, and they will definitely be my shoe of choice for longer winter off-road races. Do these shoes meet up with inov-8’s hype? Yes, for me, they do; they are certainly high on my list to join me on my next big trekking adventure! I know this is entirely subjective, but I really do kind of like these shoes!

Tim Laney

Tim is a long-time mountaineer, and some-time fell- and ultra-runner, with recent completions of the OMM, Spine, Dragon’s Back, and the winter Dan Booth round behind him. He runs regularly with Bath Bats and is old enough to know better.