Do Carbon Plates Belong in Trail-Running Shoes? Here's What the Experts Say

A decade ago, running shoes were still pretty basic. With thin slabs of cushioning, heavily padded uppers, modest drop soles, they weren’t that distinct from classic gym shoes. Then, in 2018, a study led by head of the UMass Integrative Locomotion Lab Wouter Hoogkamer, showed that the right shoe design could reduce the energy cost of running on roads by four percent. This was the birth of the modern-day “super shoe.”

“From that moment on, all major running brands began developing their own versions of supershoes, which consistently featured the same key elements: resilient foam, lightweight construction, specific geometry, a forefoot rocker, and longitudinal bending stiffness, achieved through a curved carbon plate,” says Clément Jaboulay, sport scientist at Salomon Sports Innovation Lab in Annecy, France.

The formula caught on. After Nike’s Vaporfly and Alphafly models made headlines for helping elite runners shave minutes off marathon times (and even break world records), nearly every major brand rushed to launch its own plated racer. Saucony’s Endorphin Pro, Adidas’s Adizero Pro, Hoka’s Rocket X, and Asics’s Metaspeed Sky all hit the market within a few years. Carbon-plated shoes were no longer just for elites; anyone chasing a PR wanted one. But for a while, those plates stayed firmly on the pavement, where the benefits were well documented.

In recent years, trail running brands started trying to bring that road magic off-road. In 2021, The North Face released the first-carbon-plated trail shoe, and throughout 2022 and 2023, Hoka, Adidas, Nike, and Saucony followed suit with their own trail models promising improved propulsion and stability—and maybe enough of an edge to podium at your next trail race.

Some elite racers are buying in. At high-profile events like Western States and UTMB, you’ll find plenty of top finishers like Jim Walmsley and Katie Schide wearing plated shoes. Others, like Courtney Dauwalter—whose back to back wins at Western States, Hardrock 100, and UTMB in 2023 make many claim she’s the most dominant ultrarunner in the world—continues to win in non-plated shoes that prioritize ground feel over tech.

That split reflects a larger divide in the trail world. Salomon (Dauwalter’s longtime shoe partner), for example, has resisted the trend. Its shoe designers, including Jaboulay, don’t believe that plates live up to their reputation when put through the paces on the trail.

Part of the issue is speed: you need to maintain a pretty quick clip to get the full benefits of running shoes with carbon plates. “The slower you are, you get diminishing returns,” says Martyn Shorten, biomechanist, longtime footwear researcher and principal investigator at Biomechanica, an independent testing lab that works with running brands.

Because of this, Salomon researchers hypothesized that when runners are going uphill, their pace would be too slow for carbon-plated shoes to improve their running efficiency, says Jaboulay. After testing their own carbon-plated prototypes, the researchers concluded that the design may actually hurt trail performance. “We were surprised by the detrimental effect of adding a carbon plate on running economy, which resulted in a 2 percent increase in energy expenditure,” says Jaboulay.

Hoogkamer, the researcher of the original super-shoe study, reviewed the study with Field Mag and pointed out some research flaws. He pointed out that while the shoes used in the study didn’t appear to have any benefit while running uphill, they didn’t help on flat ground, either. “You can’t build a bad shoe and then say it doesn’t work,” he says. “There are a lot of subtleties around how these plates are integrated and how they’re tested.” Basically, it’s not as simple as slapping a carbon plate into any shoe and expecting results.

How Do Carbon Plates Actually Work?

Carbon plates are thin, rigid inserts—made from carbon fiber, obviously—embedded in the midsole of a shoe. They’re designed to add stiffness, improve energy transfer, and create a snappier toe-off. For years, carbon plates got all of the glory as the key ingredient in the success of super shoes.

But at the same time brands began adding carbon plates, they also introduced new, highly responsive foams—and lots of it. “The role of the plate, even though it gets a lot of attention, is actually secondary to foams.” says Hoogkamer. “With more cushioning in the shoe, the body wastes less energy on cushioning itself in order to protect itself from impact load,” says Shorten.

These newer foams come with a tradeoff. They’re incredibly lightweight, but also fragile. Without a carbon plate (or some other stiffening element), many wouldn’t hold up. “The plate prevents the shoe from flexing too much, which reduces the tear loads on the foam. It makes the material more durable by protecting it from the stretch that would otherwise cause it to break down,” Shorten says.

The interaction between the plate and the foam is also part of what makes the system work. “With thin, traditional foams, the plate’s not doing much,” Hoogkamer says. “But when you get more stack height, it seems to do something—and we don't fully know why.” One idea, he says, is that the plate helps compress the foam more uniformly. “When you press your fingers into foam, you get five little imprints,” he explains. “But if you put a playing card on top of it and pressed down, you get one clean imprint.” The plate helps the foam compress as a single unit, rather than in fragmented zones.

Some designers view carbon fiber as the perfect counterbalance to modern foams. “The plate creates a yin and yang of soft and firm which delivers a balance and moderation of the two extremely opposite material properties,” says Hoka Vice President of Global Product Colin Ingram. While the research community is still divided on whether carbon plates actually improve trail performance, they agree the plates offer some protection. “Some plate-like barrier is good to resist penetration if you step on something sharp,” says Shorten. “But it doesn't have to be a carbon fiber plate. And it doesn't have to be a curved plate. It doesn't even have to be a plate at all—it could be a mesh that is still flexible, but won't let anything get through it.”

How Brands Are Boosting Performance on the Trails

To create carbon-plated shoes for off-road running, brands can’t just rely on designs that worked for road shoes. Ingram told us that Hoka has actually reengineered its carbon plates to handle uneven terrain. Full-length carbon plates, which limit movement and increase stiffness, can be a liability on trails, he says.

As a solution, Hoka and other brands are exploring more flexible designs. “On trails where you're trying to adapt to different surfaces, movement of the metatarsal heads and the toes is part of that adaptation to the surface,” says Shorten. “And I think you need to not restrict that too much.”

Take the Tecton X, Hoka’s first plated trail shoe: it uses two parallel carbon plates that run side-by-side. “They act as independent suspension—providing stiffness heel to toe, but better adaptability medial to lateral,” said Ingram. In practice, this means your foot can still move and respond to the ground, while the plate provides a consistent base to push off from. Hoka’s newer Mafate X uses a similar philosophy, but with a single carbon plate that forks in both the forefoot and the heel. The goal is the same: stability in motion, without sacrificing ground adaptability.

Biomechanically, this design choice makes sense, says Hoogkamer: “If you have a fork or fingers or have less stiffness in the frontal plane, you are less likely to roll an ankle and you're more likely to adapt to the terrain.” Other brands are taking different approaches. The North Face Summit Series VECTIV Pro places a stability plate above a full-length carbon plate for added control. Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra uses forked carbon-fiber “energy rods” under the metatarsals that mimic the bones of the foot.

Salomon, meanwhile, stays carbon-fiber-free but still brings in design elements meant to improve trail performance. The S/Lab Ultra, the brand’s race day shoe, uses a thin, flexible layer made from thermoplastic material (like TPU) that sits between the midsole and outsole. Rather than acting like a rigid lever, it provides “terrain filtering”, says Jaboulay, shielding your foot from sharp rocks and debris while still allowing natural movement and ground feel. Salomon also prioritizes the design of their foams—which Hoogkamer and Shorten both agreed may be just as important (if not more so), anyway.

The Verdict: Do Carbon Plates Belong in Trail Running?

Right now, the only thing researchers agree on is that carbon plates absolutely work on the road—especially for elite marathoners. “That’s the area they were originally designed for,” says Shorten. “These shoes really work best for people running straight lines on hard surfaces.” On trails, the picture is far muddier.

Hoogkamer doesn’t think we’ll ever be able to definitively say that carbon plates are good for all trail running. “I think what we will be able to say is that for some races, they're going to be good. And for some races, they're going to be bad,” he says. “And I think both of those are true.”

Just like any trail shoe choice, it all depends on the terrain. “If you run a lot of steep, rugged terrain, you probably want to stay with a low stack and probably no plate. Maybe a rock plate,” Hoogkamer says. “If you run more runnable, mellow trails—California, Arizona—then you might want to go for comfort and go with more stack height and more foam and more plate. “

In other words: the carbon-plated trail shoe isn’t a scam. But it’s not a silver bullet either.