SCOTT SPEED CARBON RC

Tri pioneers enter the carbon shoe arena

From the brand’s DH tri-bars to Ali Brownlee’s Plasma 6 tri bike, Scott has a long heritage in multisport innovation. Yet it’s far from the first to the party when it comes to carbon-soled run shoes. So does this loud latecomer have enough tech wizardry to stand out from the increasingly-crowded carbon market?

The Speed Carbon RC shoes come after a reported 10 years of continued R&D which, for a run shoe, displays either a painstaking pursuit of perfection or some serious gestation issues. The key specs are a Carbitex DFX carbon fibre plate in the midsole, an Evolved Rocker2 for forward propulsion and the Kinetic Light Foam, which keeps the weight of the shoe down to 250g despite a high 30mm heel height. The heelto-toe drop is a relatively low 5mm.

It’s the above numbers that make Hoka’s Carbon X our point of comparison; both are lean yet oversized, both encourage a fore/ midfoot strike and both don’t come cheap (£160 for the Hokas). Yet the Scott seem to belong in the 5-15km category. They’re great going down and up hills, too, but they lack the Hoka’s long-course versatility.

No matter how many times we ran in them or tried various lacing combinations, they just failed to secure the back of our feet (possibly due to the incredibly thin materials). This looseness led to inevitable sore spots and a reluctance for us to fully hit top gear. Hopefully this’ll be sorted when the inevitable Carbon RC sequels arrive as there’s much to admire, especially in the midsole and vented upper. scott-sports.com