Product Review: YakTrax

Hello!

After my attempted long run that ended in a head injury last week, I decided that I needed to do something. So I headed to my local running store to pick up some YakTrax. I had heard about them, but had never tried them. For those who don't know, YakTrax are cleats made of rubber and metal coils that you stretch over the bottom of your shoes. They give you extra traction on snow and ice.

My opinion of these is mixed, although my expectations were probably a bit too high. They do work great on packed snow and "crunchy" ice, which is basically what they are made for. Unfortunately, they do not work well on the very, very slick ice that caused my fall. In reality, it was probably unreasonable for me to expect this. I have used them on a few walks and a few runs so far. On dry pavement portions of the route, they don't cause any problem. It just sounds like you are walking/running on gravel. During the walks, I didn't notice any foot pains or difference in how my feet felt at all. During the runs, several miles in my feet seemed to get a bit sore/tired. It was nothing too significant though, so when the conditions warrant, I won't hesitate to use them. I would probably avoid using them during long runs because the foot pain would probably get much worse. I also thought that wearing them caused me to heel strike a bit more than usual (I'm typically more of a mid-foot striker).

Another cool thing is that the YakTrax are made of ~70% (I don't have the package anymore and I can't remember the exact number) recycled materials. I love to see this because what's the use recycling if no one is using the recycled material?

Bottom line: A good product, but don't expect miracles.

Happy Running!

Jen