NNormal Cadi Review

We expected the Cadi to have great grip, and the Vibram Megagrip proved up to its name once again. Over a combination of East Coast and West Coast terrain, we didn't experience any slipping. We feel secure and confident in the shoe. 

Linda tested it a few times over her regular trail run route that has a combination of terrains, with plenty of roots, some trickier rocky parts, and some hilly runnable dirt. Key to performance, she felt secure in the shoe and with her footing. She got in at least one run after it rained and she had no slippage on wet rocks or leaves. 

Ava agrees that it has great grip, but felt that she wouldn't really enjoy this shoe on super technical trails, just because the stack height is a little tall for her preference for a trail shoe. But, for the purpose of long trail days on your feet, this Cadi feels great underfoot.

The bottom line? This is a comfortable trail shoe.

Right out of the box, the foam feels a little firmer in hand than expected, but once you have it on your feet and you're moving, it feels really good. While wouldn’t necessarily describe it as plush, there’s a good amount of cushioning underfoot, and we feel confident that this will provide ample protection for longer trail jaunts.

If we had to critique the midsole, it might feel like it lacks a "springy" element that can help inject some energy back into a max-cushion trail shoe.

Lastly, the upper disappears once it's on, which we enjoyed. For all of us, that's usually the highest compliment for an upper: that you don't notice it and can forget you have it on. Plus, we like that there's a little extra cushioning in the tongue.

This is the area where we'd most like to see some fine-tuning to match our individual preferences. There were some negatives and some positives, but overall the fit ended up working fine.

On initial try-on, the shoe feels slightly short, but this did not translate into any toe-crowding issues once in motion, especially when wearing thinner socks. We didn’t experience any hotspots, and there’s a nice amount of room in the toe box.

We found the midfoot to fit on the narrow side. Linda was able to absolve this by loosening up the lower laces to give herself a bit more room. Ava struggled a bit more to find her ideal fit—without a proper lockdown, she became acutely aware of an uncomfortable geometry under her arches. Thankfully, after cinching down with the runner’s loop (lacing into the extra eyelet at the top near the ankle), she was able to get a dialed-in fit, and this problem disappeared. 

If given options, we might test the fit of a half-size up. But, since we ran fine in our normal sizes, this is ultimately a matter of finding the lacing security that works for you.