Howdie! Welcome to the Wild Ginger Films blog, and welcome to the exciting, adventurous world of trail running! It’s fantastic that you want to buy your first trail shoe.

I’m Claire Maxted, founder of Wild Ginger Films and I have tested hundreds of trail and fell shoe after co-founding and editing Trail Running magazine for 7 years.

Here are the 3 most important things to get right when buying your first trail shoe, to avoid injury and slipping & sliding around on adventurous (muddy!) trails.

This film will help you find your perfect pair. Click here to watch.

Click here to watch

If you’re new to trail running (that’s basically any running that isn’t on Tarmac or pavements, trails include paths, bridleways, towpaths and tracks) or know someone who is new to the sport, you’ll know that the first piece of kit to get right is your shoes. Without grippier shoes, you’ll be sliding all over the shop, but before you dive into the shops, there are a few very important things to consider. These are covered in the film above, so give it a watch now.

The shoes featured in this film are the Inov8 Roclite 305 and the Salomon Speedcross 4. Both are fantastic first trail running shoes and have previously won the Best in Test in Trail Running magazine.

If you appreciated this advice, please click here or on the Inov8 Shop Now banner if you are going to buy kit from them. This means I get a very small proportion of the sale. Every little helps! Thank you 🙂

Photo credit: Many thanks to Peak District Fell Running Guide Dave Taylor for letting me use his photos in my films. Find out more about his popular fell and trail running courses and guided runs here.

Transparency: I contacted the brand PRs to request a Inov8 Roclite 305 and Salomon Speedcross 4 for this film as In my opinion they are popular and good first trail shoe choices. Apart from kindly providing product, this film is not funded by any brand or shop. My views are my own.