Salomon is pushing with everything they got to make a bigger impact on the road running scene. What type of shoe is the Salomon Aero Glide, and does it have what it takes to be a player in this highly competitive market?
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Salomon Aero Glide - Specs
This is a well-cushioned daily trainer from Salomon, meant for slow to moderate speeds. In essence, it’s meant for 80 to 90% of your daily runs when you don’t push the pace.
The midsole has a great rocker design and 37 to 27mm of Energy Foam (10mm drop), which is the lighter more responsive foam from Salomon.
The shoe stays true to its Aero name with a weight of only 262g or 9.2 ounces in a men’s sample size, which is at the lower end of the spectrum for a daily trainer, especially when you see how much foam this shoe has underneath your feet.
Salomon Aero Glide - Fit
If you look at the upper of the Aero Glide it is very traditional, nothing fancy, but it feels very nice on. The tongue has thin padding and an average length. It isn’t attached on either side, but it doesn’t move at all, so in my opinion, it is not needed. On the outside, the upper knit looks quite compact, but if you look from the inside and out you will see that it is very thin, and it is very breathable.
Around the heel you’ll see some padding, but not as much as you’ll see on those soft daily trainers like the Nimbus or Triumph, where soft plushness is at a higher priority. It is still very comfortable on, and most importantly, it has a great ankle lockdown.
On my first run I had issues with the fit around the midfoot. I got hotspots on the outside of my left foot because the shoe is a bit narrower there. This rubbing disappeared after the second run and hasn’t been an issue since.
There are room in the toe box if you want to run longer runs, so my take is that it should fit people with average feet width quite well, but you should maybe be careful if you have a wide midfoot.
Salomon Aero Glide – Feel
From the first run, the Salomon Aero Glide has been very easy to run in. A large amount of foam can sometimes make highly stacked shoes feel like bricks to run with, and the Salomon Aero Glide easily convinced me that this experience would not be like that.
The responsiveness of the midsole makes the ride slightly firmer than you might expect from such a tall shoe, but it is still plenty soft for longer runs.
Salomon defines this shoe to be a slow to moderate-pace shoe, but after trying it for all types of runs, I think Salomon is a bit modest here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a racing shoe, but I haven’t had any issues doing 1k intervals in this shoe at all, and I think the main reason for this is the rocker design, combined with a 10mm heel drop that just makes this shoe easy to run with at close to any pace.
Salomon Aero Glide - Stability
With 37mm of foam underneath the heel, some people might question the stability of the shoe. It is a neutral running shoe that by no means controls you or feels stiff while running, but it doesn’t feel wobbly either. It has a nice firm heel, and a stable platform and this makes it quite the stable neutral running shoe.
If you are looking for a stable neutral daily trainer that’s on the lighter side, then you’ve found it here. Perfect for daily runs with a nice responsive midsole that can handle most of what you throw at it.
Summary
I really like running in this shoe, which the share amount of kilometers I’ve done so far is proof of. Most of all I like the rocker and the ease of running in a shoe this tall.
The only place where I think they could improve in this shoe is something that is very easy to fix.
In the quest to make the shoe as light as possible the insole has been made light and airy, but that has reduced the comfort on the longer runs over 15 km. A quick change of insole has made all the difference here, and it has made this shoe extremely enjoyable for all runs, from the short to the long.
It’s a truly versatile daily trainer, that doesn’t slow you down at all, and that is setting the scene for what Salomon can do now that they are focusing more and more on road running. Look out, 'cause Salomon is here to stay.
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