Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe

Review by Erin Trail

The Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe is a shoe that commands attention, but they also take a bit of work to get the most out of them.

Specs

• Cushioning: Maximal
• Drop Value: 6 MM
• Foot Protection: High
• Foot Support: Neutral
• Lug Depth: 4 MM
• Weight per unit: 10 OZ
• Unisex sizing
• quickLACE™
• Midsole construction: optiFOAM: Lightweight & cushioned EVA foam for a performance usage and optiFOAM+: A super foam composition delivering a super dynamic experience. Made from a PEBA and EVA mix
• Outsole: All Terrain contaGRIP® and Relieve Sphere

Detailed Review

First off, let’s just start by saying that the color of the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe is probably not for everyone. I personally like shoes that nearly glow in the dark and/or can be seen from orbit. Sure, the colorway is obnoxiously bright.  But I love it.

But color is rarely indicative of performance.

Testing Conditions

• Several looped trail runs on a mix of hardpacked dirt, sand, sandstone, and loose babyhead rocks.
• One weightlifting session that wasn’t planned but was also hugely informative
• I am required to wear a special insole with a metatarsal pad instead of the supplied foam insole.

I’ve gone back and forth on my opinion of the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe for weeks now.  Enough back and forth that it’s delayed my review because I wanted to get in more testing.

Fit

The Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes are unisex, but oddly, seem to run narrow, especially in the toe box and across the ball of the foot. I have pretty narrow feet and these shoes were almost too narrow for me. This was a little surprising to me because I have a pair of Salomon Aero Glides that are very generous in the front of the foot.

It’s also hard to dial in the fit of the shoe, front to back, because of the quickLACE™ system. I found that this system is good in theory but not great in practice.  The laces of the quickLACE™ system have zero stretch to them; they’re thin and somewhat slippery like a cable. I usually need more room in the front of the foot (to accommodate my insoles) and a tighter fit towards the back of the laces (because I have narrow heels).  I found that I can set the looseness across the shoe to how I prefer it, but over the course of the run, the laces eventually re-distribute somewhat evenly across the shoe. If the laces were more like traditional laces, I imagine they’d stay how you set them and wouldn’t shift around as you run.  As a triathlete, I super appreciate the quickLACE™ system, but I ended up not loving the design of this particular set up.  If I continue to use these shoes, I will probably switch to elastic laces that give me a more modular fit without needing to tie them.

In my research, I have seen comments that the tongue of the shoe bunches up at the toe box. This also happened to me, usually when putting on the shoe.  I was able to pull the tongue back into place and it would generally stay put.

Performance

My first few runs in the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes were interesting. These shoes are BOUNCY.  This, combined with the not super wide midsole and outsole, can make the shoes feel a bit wobbly.

Based on my years of running, I had a hypothesis for these shoes that required some work to test out.  I’ve been struggling with Achilles issues for most of August, and needed to take a few weeks away from running.  When I came back, I noticed that my foot and ankle strength had diminished.  This wasn’t super evident while running, but it was DEFINITELY evident in yoga. I had started running in the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe after my small break, when my ankles were pretty noodly.

Then one day, due to some bad planning on my end, I wore the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe to lift weights.  My leg day consists of heavy deadlifts with some plyometric and single leg work.  And wow, was it a challenge to balance while wearing these shoes.  I could actually feel the midsole foam reacting to the weight and reflecting my small movements back up through my foot. They felt like mini trampolines and it made for a challenging, and somewhat frustrating, gym session.

However, that gym session planted an idea in my head: what if the wobbliness I experienced early on was due to weak ankles, making it so my legs couldn’t control the more lively midsole?  As part of my Achilles rehab, I started adding in a lot of foot and ankle mobility and strength work. And as that strength work progressed, my enjoyment of the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes on the trail increased. I still have a ways to go in my food rehab, but I definitely think that the stronger your feet and ankles are, the better and more controlled your runs in the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoe will feel.  As a bonus: strong ankles and feet will generally serve you well in many areas, not just in running.

Once I got my foot strength hypothesis out of the way, I could really let the Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes do their thing on the trail. My last run in them was definitely the most fun. I really love the amount of cushion in these shoes and felt that they were responsive and a good blend of being agile while feeling mostly stable.

The outsoles, while appearing a bit sparse, offer plenty of traction on rock or harder surfaces with a bit of grit on them.  I also had good traction on the looser, sandy portions of my local running loop.

Closing Thoughts

The Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes are a super responsive trail shoe that, at times, can feel like you have trampolines on your feet.  These fit narrow, especially in the toe box, and I’m not a huge fan of the quickLACE™ system.  Once I sorted out my ankle strength issue, I was able to really let the shoes loose: I was able to control the shoes on a wide variety of surfaces and textures, rather than letting the shoes bounce me along the trail.  If you are someone who feels wobbly in these shoes, definitely start working on foot strength and balance.

The Salomon S/Lab Ultra Glide 1.5 Running Shoes come in one colorway, Fiery Red, and are available in unisex sizing ranging from Men’s 4.5 to Men’s 14.

Erin Trail

Trail Boss of Stoke

Erin Trail on her mountain bike at the World Tri Cross Triathlon World Championship race

Erin Trail on her running at the World Tri Cross Triathlon World Championship race