By Ryan Scott
Hi-Tec sells a significant number of shoes in the South African running market, and although their hiking and walking shoes are tops, we’ve never been overly impressed with their running models. But just as Puma have upped the game in their running shoe range, so have Hi-Tec.
Hi-Tec’s latest introduction is their trail running shoe, the V-Lite Infinity. The lofty goal of the shoe was ‘to build the ultimate lightweight shoe for sports performance’. With the likes of the Salomon XT Wings SLAB series and some other well-established shoes, this was a pretty ambitious goal, but a good motivation for creating a great product.
Built with comfort, grip and lightness in mind, the Infinity with its V-Lite technology, has produced a shoe that is versatile and suited to many different trail conditions. We found the width to be on the narrow side and the overall wrap of the foot snug, due largely to the lack of panels on either side and the seamless one-piece mesh, which does not seem to be at the expense of support. This is something we have seen in the Nike road shoes, but not yet in trail. The toe-off is very noticeable (something lacking in many trail shoes) and lends itself to some fast running through those winding singletrack sections where fine-tuned manoeuvrability is of great value.
The external Ion Mask hydrophobic technology is a layer which does well to keep the shoe drier and therefore lighter too, while the Vibram outsole provides the required traction.
R1 099, Cape Union Mart
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