Altra Olympus 4 Trail Running Shoes

Product Information

Additionally, Lone Peak 4.5 looks quite pretty ( this Gray/Orange color of Lone Peak 4.5 is really liked by many - including me). Like the Lone Peak, the Olympus is designed with Altra’s “Original” fit, which happens to be their roomiest. Of course, everybody’s feet are different, so calling this a good thing would be absolutely ridiculous. However, generally, I think that more space is conducive to foot wellbeing over long distances as they swell and spread throughout the day, weeks, and months. If you like the fit of Lone Peak’s, then the Olympus will probably work for you too. Comfort Zero-drop cushion and a wide base offers a lot of inherent stability. I appreciate this because I really do not like the feeling of a posted arch or heel– especially on the trails. This feels natural and– as I said before– very balanced. The upper is engineered mesh with a few strategically placed overlays for reinforcement, with minimal foothold reinforcement. The heel and toebox are where you’ll find most of the reinforcement, with the heel massively built up over last year. Inov8’s massive trail shoe has some sizing issues, but the Graphene infused outsole brings something special to the trail. While its toebox isn’t quite as massively wide as the Olympus, there’s still lots of room for toe splay, and the midsole has a much more dynamic ride than the Olympus.

The shoe also drained well, which is always an important thing to consider when water crossings are part of the equation.

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The gusseted tongue isn’t going anywhere, and is adequately cushioned without going full-fledged plush. However, the big issue with the shoe is adjacent to the tongue - the laces are among the worst ever used in a running shoe. They are much too short to be useful in standard lacing, and they also have very little friction and come untied constantly. While this is great for more technical trails, this may be a bit less desirable for more runnable trails that you may come across.

Coming in at 11.6oz (328g) the Altra Olympus 4.0 is not much heavier than other maximalist shoes like the Hoka Speedgoat 4 (10.8oz/306g). I run in both and can barely feel the difference. The Olympus 4.0 feels light on the foot, and never once did it feel clunky, even though it would fall into the plush or maximal category of shoes. Tongue stays in place and keeps your shoe debris-free

Feeling sentimental toward a shoe sounds like a symptom of some deeper-rooted issue bubbling up to the level of consciousness, but I can’t help having an emotional attachment to Altra’s Olympus line (what an absurd thing to write!). We break up the narratives of our lives into befores and afters, divisions made by watershed events like marriage, childbirth, graduations, etc. For me, thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018 served as one of those great timeshifts, an incalculable event that shed the familiar skin of everything I had experienced before it. Many of the 100-something days it took me to complete the PCT were spent gazing down at my feet casted in a pair of the Olympus 3.5, a silhouette forever impressed into my memory from that fateful summer.

Jeff: Another spot that seems like a mild change, but the reality is much greater. The Olympus 4 has lots of Vibram Megagrip rubber, with metatarsal-shaped lines of lugs from the ball of the foot forward.

With the all-new Olympus 5, Altra faces the paradox any successful footwear maker is eventually faced with: always and forever compelled to produce the “new,” how does a brand update / reinvent a winning model — in this case the Olympus 4 — to a degree that doesn’t completely ruin its design but does enough to warrant its update in the first place? The ideal answer: with tact. The tongue is gusseted with thin bands on either side to keep it planted, and you may notice that the top of the tongue has a small notch in it. Somewhat reminiscent of the Nike Vaporfly, the notch fits perfectly for the tendon or ligament at the top of the foot. Straight away the Olympus 5 feels like it could be the Olympus 4.5, following Altra’s tradition of calling minor updates _.5 instead of a full new number. The outsole and midsole are nearly identical, while the upper is a subtle shift. That said, I really enjoyed the Olympus 4, so a slight refinement is great.

Hoka’s versatile trail shoe can be used for big mile cruising or more technical terrain. Its midsole material is similar to the Olympus 5, with a more robust outsole, and a much more dialed in fit, especially in the toebox. Personally I like the wide toebox of the Olympus, and my style of running tends to favor the less technical terrain, but I can definitely see why the Speedgoat is a trail favorite.

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Durability doesn’t seem to be an issue thus far. There are ten “lugs” in the exposed midsole section (I put in quotes because they don’t really do much besides look the part) and thus far they are wearing down some - but every other part of the shoe seems just fine.