The Vasque Transistor FS trail shoe is different from other trail running shoes, as it can also be worn on the street.
The Vasque Transistor FS is a trail running shoe that molds itself to your feet, keeps your center of gravity low, and it likes to run on dirty, rocky, and uneven trail surfaces. And it’s a shoe that feels just as comfortable when you lope along the trail, run at full sprint, then walk a while. We found it comfortable even when we wanted to quickly cover ground on those occasional outbursts of joy when you simply dash to that far cluster of pines 75 yards away.
The Vasque offers plenty of foot support and shock absorbing cushion. They lace up quick and firm, and there’s no fancy lacing system. The show has simple holes in the right places where the lace runs through. Once they are on, we occasionally snugged up the laces but the Transistor still feels like a part of the foot. It’s a platform that immediately takes to running hard on any trail.
But the most noticeable difference between this particular shoe and other trail running shoes, is that the Transistor likes running on the street too. This shoe, to anthropomorphize it, doesn’t care whether you run on a horse trail, bike path, or dodge cross-town traffic on city streets. It simply likes to run and we liked that.
Our test pair where a Silver/Formula One color combination that looked fine, but weren’t too flashy. Like any running shoe, these can take on the dirt, dust, and sand of the road and trails. Whatever color they are out of the box, they all get filthy dirty and you can’t prevent that if you’re going to run in them a lot. Ours are dirty and ready to go all the time. That’s a good thing.
The Vasque Transistors are relatively light at about 10.8 oz, and offer good traction and comfort with the Vasque Synapse outsole. There is no less than five significant Vasque technologies that work to make up the Transistor. They are the Immerse 360 last, Footsync, Flux Foam Strobel, Waveform S/C Midsole and Rocknrolla Plate. You can research the technologies that build the Transistor at www.vasque.com. What we can tell you however, is that the Vasque Transistor Men’s, and Women’s version worked very well for our testers.
Available Colors: Silver/Formula One; Dark Shadow/Deep Water; Super Lemon/Peat. Retail price: $100