I, among others, am VERY excited to see minimalist shoes with big lugs. The majority of minimalist trail shoes out there are for just that: hard-packed trails. Those shoes tend to not work so well when off-trail on loose soil, talus/scree, mud, etc.

Even on the trails… In the western US/Rockies, a lot of the trails I have seen are hard, compacted rock/dirt that is often dry. Smaller lugs are fine in those conditions. Out here in the east, the trails are often soil/dirt that can often be soft, not to mention the fact they also are often damp or wet. Bigger lugs are a huge benefit in those conditions.

But it sounds really technical, doesn’t it :)

If there is one thing you can always count on from running shoe makers, it’s that they never let scientific reality get in the way of marketing.

I’d like someone (Merrell ?) to make a shoe with the Trail Glove / Sonic Glove fit on the Inov8 Baregrip sole.  I really like the Baregrip sole, but the shoe is way to narrow, pointy and straight in the toebox.  Trail Glove fits great, but traction is nothing special and not good in mud.

No idea yet. Hoping to have a better idea in a month or so.

Photo of the Breatho Trail? http://www.facebook.com/photo….

I think that shoe has already been designed, but not yet released: The Breatho Trail from VIVOBAREFOOT (see the video). This should be out in spring 2012.

Also, from what I hear, I think we can expect something from Inov-8 built on their anatomical last but with a more aggressive sole. I have no idea when though…

Another problem with excessively large lugs is they create pressure points were, if the sole was flat there would not be any.

I watched the GoLite video and didn’t find his discussion of “coefficient of friction” inappropriate or misleading.  All shoes will utilise stiction (static friction threashod) and friction (when the shoes is moving relative to the ground), different treads and sole compounds will provide different levels of stiction and friction according to the type of ground/mousture.  

A coefficient of friction is simply a non dimensional cooefficient, and is a reasonable to measure relative grip qualities of different soles. 

I don’t quite see what your objection would be.  Sure it would have been better for him to go into stiction and friction, and the role of different terrains, and how soft ground affects the results.

Personally I don’t have an objects to lots of small lugs rather a smaller number of large lugs for most terrain I run on.  If on this terarin GoLite have found small lugs works best then great.  However, I’d not take their word for it.. I’d want to take them out on a trail.  I’d also expect on really muddy ground that small lugs just won’t cut down through the surface deep enough to give good grip, so I suspect that won’t cut it for here in the UK when fell racing.