Men's Altra Footwear Lone Peak 4.5 Trail Running Shoe

I am a hiker, not a runner. I wore out my 4.0s on a 60 mile packpack in the Elkhorn Range and picked up these 4.5s, despite reading some negative reviews. First wear about 12 miles of rugged coast trail with a lot of up an down. For my feet, they were wonderful. No break in needed, comfortable, good fit. They are my 4th or 5th pair of Lone Peaks and the best yet for me. The toe box also seems to be a bit more sturdily constructed. I had trouble with the toe rubber coming unglued on former models, but it looks like this may not be such a problem with the 4.5. Time will tell, but I am very pleased with the shoe for my feet and my purposes.

Picked up a pair today and I believe there are some solid improvements over the previous versions. Compared to the 4, the upper around the toe box does seem to have slightly less width. However, the insole and outsole of the shoe are the same width as the 4. For me, this slight reduction in upper width is actually a benefit on technical trails as my foot won't move around as much. Combined with the new tongue and midfoot, this model is a much better fit and is less sloppy. Even with this, there is still plenty of room for toe splay and the upper will probably stretch some anyways.