I love me some Newtons. I owe a lot of who I am as a runner now to getting into Newtons and dialing in my forefoot/midfoot strike. Now that I’ve been running a lot of trails and partaking in trail Ultramarathons, I was stoked to hear that Newton had been working on a new trail shoe called the BoCo AT (Boulder Colorado All Terrain?).

Now that I’ve put some miles in the shoe, I’m pretty confident in what I’m about to say: The BoCo AT is not my favorite trail shoe. By far. While there are some good things going on (ie durability, grip, forefoot stretch panels, etc) I have some serious issues with how the BoCo AT feels as a Newton shoe and as a trail shoe.

My major issue was the lack of “Newton Pop” that I get from the lugs in many other Newtons (Distance and Gravity). I really wanted to find out why this shoe didn’t work for me so I decided to sacrifice the shoe I got engaged in and cut it in half. What I found inside was interesting. While the insides seemed fairly traditional by Newton standards, the air pockets were filled with EVA, the lugs were incorporated into the thick outsole rubber layer, and there was very little in the way of comfort from the Action/Reaction technology.

I know many of you have loved these shoes, so in the comments of the video, let me know what you like about these shoes. Perhaps I’m missing the boat on these, but I just can’t get into them when there are so many other awesome trail shoes out there that you can get for less money and get more satisfaction out of their ride.

LIKED:

  • Durable
  • Forefoot (splay)
  • Rugged outsole
  • All weather
  • Midsole Eva (like energy)
  • 3mm drop
  • Medial/lateral mini-lugs

DISLIKED:

  • No Newton lug pop
  • Cumbersome upper
  • All weather materials
  • Too much outsole
  • Forefoot on descents
  • Little ground feel
  • Condition specific

QUALITY: 3/5
COMFORT: 3/5
PRICE: 3/5
LOOKS: 4/5

TOTAL: 13/20

 

These shoes were provided by Newton for review. All opinions are my own.

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