Peregrine 6 – Performance

Used for running mainly in the Peak District, we’ve round the Peregrine 6 a really good balance of grip, sensitivity, cushioning and protection. The shoe was comfortable straight out of the box with great heel hold and lots of room up front – more about that in a minute.

Straight out of the door, you notice that for a relatively light, off road-orientated shoe, it feels deceptively cushioned, which we put down to the EVERRUN technology. There’s enough heel-cushion in particular to cope with harder surfaces along with more forgiving terrain.

Also impressive is the level of outsole grip. The shoe coped confidently with everything short of full-on, fell-running terrain. The only only weakness was a tendency to slip on wet rock, but that’s hardly unique to Saucony.

Talking of rock, the EBO rock plate under the forefoot takes the sting out of rubbly surfaces, but without isolating you from the trail.

The one thing that seemed to divide users was the forefoot fit. It’s intentionally generous to allow for splay and swelling on longer runs, but if your feet are on the narrow side, you may find the fit disconcertingly swimmy. Try before buying if you’re not sure.

Last but not least, when the shoe does get wet, it dries pretty quickly in our experience and we’d always choose a non-waterproof shoe for general UK use.

Verdict

Trail running shoes are often about getting the balance between comfort, grip and trail feel right and for us, the Peregrine 6 hits something of a sweet-spot. It has enough cushioning, grip and underfoot protection to cope with most off-road running, but without feeling remotely teetery or unstable.

We found the combination of snug, supportive heel and broad forefoot worked well for us, but some runners will prefer a closer fit up front. Interestingly the iconic Salomon Speedcross has gone the other way, moving to a closer forefoot fit in its latest iteration – review of that shortly.

If the fit works for you, the Peregrine is a cracking all-rounder though and the high-ish price may be offset slightly by the claimed increased life of the EVERUN cushioning.

More Information

See www.saucony.com