The Shoes That Won the 2026 UTMB

Six runners reached the podium at the UTMB on Saturday wearing shoes from five brands, and five of those six shoes were on sale to the public before the race started. That is a reversal of last year, when Tom Evans and Ben Dhiman finished one and two in Asics prototypes that would not reach shops for another eleven months.

Between them the six shoes span a wide range: from a 36 mm stack to 41.5 mm, from a full carbon plate to no plate at all, and from $250 to $325. The cheapest shoe on the podium, a Decathlon-owned brand’s first attempt at a trail supershoe, won the women’s race.

The one exception is Emily Schmitz, who took third for the women in an unreleased Hoka. Trail running has no rule requiring a race shoe to be commercially available, unlike World Athletics, which obliges a shoe to go on public sale before a record counts.

So, let’s see which shoes won UTMB this year.

Asics Metafuji Trail 2, Worn by Ben Dhiman

Dhiman won in 18:16:29, the first man to break 19 hours over the course, in the retail version of the shoe he raced a prototype of when he finished second here in 2025. Asics released it globally on Aug. 1, four weeks before the race. The company describes the plate as a trail-specific carbon unit in an X shape, sandwiched between a top layer of FF Leap, which Asics calls its bounciest foam, and a lower layer of FF Blast Plus. Lug depth came down from 4.5 mm on the first Metafuji Trail to 3.5 mm.

• Stack: 41.5 mm heel, 36.5 mm forefoot
• Drop: 5 mm
• Weight: 255 g (9.0 oz), unisex US 9
• Price: $280
• Plate: X-shaped carbon
• Outsole: AsicsGrip, 3.5 mm lugs

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Kiprun Kipsummit Race, Worn by Blandine L’Hirondel

L’Hirondel won the women’s race in 21:54:49 in the cheapest shoe on the podium and the first supershoe Kiprun, Decathlon’s running label, has built. It sells for €199.99 in France and $250 in the United States, where Kiprun only arrived in April. The midsole is a supercritical aliphatic TPU that Kiprun markets as SCF Foam in Europe and Fastech+ in the US, wrapped around a carbon plate that reviewers describe as forked at the forefoot with a rounded cutout at the heel.

L’Hirondel told a Kiprun press camp in May, as reported by u-Trail, that UTMB 2026 would be the first time she had raced a carbon-plated shoe over an ultra distance. She had been losing time in previous races stopping at aid stations to change shoes and socks, but on Saturday, she ran the whole course in one pair.

• Stack: 37.5 mm heel, 31.5 mm forefoot (US listings say 39 mm and 33 mm)
• Drop: 6 mm
• Weight: 255 g (9.0 oz), men’s EU 42; 221 g (7.8 oz), women’s
• Price: $250
• Plate: Carbon
• Outsole: Vibram Megagrip Litebase, 4 mm lugs

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On Cloudultra Pro, Worn by Baptiste Chassagne

Chassagne finished second in 18:47:38 in the oldest shoe on the podium. On released the Cloudultra Pro in June 2025 and has not replaced it; the Cloudultra 3, which arrived that September, sits below it in the range. It is also one of two shoes on the podium with no carbon in it. On’s Speedboard is a forked plate running from the ball of the foot to just short of the heel, and sources disagree about what it is made of, with Road Trail Run calling it glass-reinforced nylon and iRunFar calling it TPU. Neither calls it carbon.

• Stack: 38.5 mm heel, 32.5 mm forefoot
• Drop: 6 mm
• Weight: 267 g (9.4 oz), men’s US 9; 229 g (8.0 oz), women’s US 8
• Price: $260 / €270 / £250
• Plate: Speedboard, non-carbon
• Outsole: Missiongrip, 3 to 3.5 mm lugs

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Norda 055, Worn by Rachel Entrekin

Entrekin was second for the women in 22:15:54 on her UTMB debut, in the most expensive shoe on the podium and the only one with no plate in it at all. Norda, founded near Montreal in 2020 by Willa and Nick Martire, released the 055 on July 9, seven weeks before the race. It is the brand’s all-mountain model rather than its racer, which is the lower and lighter 005. Entrekin set the Cocodona 250 course record in a pre-release pair in May. The midsole is Arnitel, a thermoplastic elastomer, and the upper is a woven bio-based Dyneema.

Norda’s own figures and reviewers’ measurements do not agree here, which is worth knowing before setting this shoe against the others.

• Stack: 36 mm heel, 30 mm forefoot, per norda; testers at Believe in the Run and Road Trail Run measure 38 to 39 mm at the heel
• Drop: 6 mm, per norda; 7 mm measured
• Weight: 286 g (10.1 oz), men’s US 8.5; 260 g (9.8 oz), women’s US 8
• Price: $325 / €310 / £290
• Plate: None
• Outsole: Norda x Vibram Megagrip Elite with Litebase, 5 mm lugs

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Nike ACG Ultrafly Trail, Worn by Caleb Olson

Olson took third in 18:48:24, 46 seconds behind Chassagne after making up more than five minutes on the final descent from La Flegere. His shoe has the lowest stack and the biggest drop on the podium by some distance, 8.5 mm against 5 mm and 6 mm elsewhere. Nike announced it in August 2025 and put it on sale in early 2026, and it is the shoe Olson won the 2025 Western States in, though in prototype form. The FlyPlate is carbon with a split spine, which Nike says makes it less rigid than the plate in the original Ultrafly.

• Stack: 37 mm heel, 28.5 mm forefoot
• Drop: 8.5 mm
• Weight: 287 g (10.1 oz), men’s US 10; 225 g (7.9 oz), women’s US 8
• Price: $260, currently discounted on nike.com
• Plate: Split carbon FlyPlate
• Outsole: Vibram Megagrip on Litebase, 3 mm lugs

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An Unreleased Hoka, Worn by Emily Schmitz

Schmitz finished third for the women in 22:17:28, racing in the 45 to 49 age category and climbing from 147th at Col de Voza to 33rd overall. Her shoe is the only one on the podium with no specifications to publish, because Hoka has not announced it and has said nothing about the race. The company’s current top trail racer, the Tecton X 4, went on sale on Aug. 20, eight days before the start, at $275, with two parallel carbon plates and a dual-layer PEBA midsole. Whether Schmitz’s shoe is related to it is not public.

Hoka has been here before. Vincent Bouillard won the 2024 UTMB in a prototype that iRunFar later identified as a version of the Rocket X Trail, and Ludovic Pommeret took two Hardrock wins on a custom midsole from the same shoe.

Nike, meanwhile, spent race week in Chamonix showing selected media an unreleased trail shoe called the ACG Picklejus that nobody on the podium wore, and told Road Trail Run that ACG athletes would be racing it at UTMB across various distances. Nike has said it will explain the shoe in early 2027.