Salomon Fellcross 3 Shoe Review

Okay, so Salomon sent me a pair of Fellcross Three’s that I obviously ran in today at the Spartan Race. I want to respond to a few of the questions that I got. Now, if there was a zombie apocalypse and I needed to crush a zombie’s head in and then run quickly away into the woods, this is the shoe I would use. The cleats on it are unbelievably grippy and large. I use the S-Lab 3s and they’re pretty good. But, these are definitely way better as we tested them.

Another question I got was do I run faster in these than I do in my Merrell’s ? Well, I use my Merrell Bare Access Trails for about 90% of my running. But with the OCRs I usually switch over to the Salomons. I would say that if you’re running on a flat, smooth surface, minimalist shoes are great because they are lightweight. They also, if you go through water, they do drain really well. But, once you hit those hills and going up any type of terrain, you’re going to find problems with grip and you’re going to slow down. So yeah, these are actually faster because if you’re going downhill you don’t have to worry and slow down. These are giving you like a Spider-man like grip when you come down hills and when you go up hills it helps you along the way, whereas with a minimalist shoe you’re going to put it all into your feet and your calves and probably have to use your hands if it’s really bad.

The one downside to these is that because of the cleats they don’t do as well maybe on totally hard flat surfaces. So with obstacle racing you could run into problems doing something like the traverse walk getting your footing quite right. The comparison to other Salomon shoes, like the Sense 3, as what I also run in is much more rigid and tighter fit as well as more cushion in the back in the heel drop. It’s…having said that though, it’s narrow in all the right places. I have a pretty wide foot and this one actually felt good. I was expecting to have to take it off midway through the Spartan sprint today and change into a different shoe, but it felt good and it felt tight. It’s just narrow in a good way. Salomon says that they don’t offer a wide option because the narrow option offers some sort of stability and performance. But not everybody’s feet are the same amount of wide. So I don’t know whether that’s a totally good case.

Another question I got had to do with the lacing system. Does the lacing system actually get stuck with the mud? Yes, it does. But usually if you zip it back and forth a few times you can knock out all that debris and it wouldn’t be a buying decision.

How about draining water and does it pick up a lot of debris? Yes, it picks up a lot of debris and it doesn’t drain very well. It does drain eventually, but not as well as maybe a Vibram Five Fingers or something like that or a minimalist shoe. But what I did notice was the stretches between the water obstacles was long enough that it really didn’t affect my overall running. Yeah, I gained a little weight on the shoe but it was a fair trade off because of the grip and the comfort and the support that it was giving.

Does it turn the ladies heads? Well…

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Matt B. Davis

is the host of the Obstacle Racing Media Podcast and the author of "Down and Dirty-The Essential Training Guide for Obstacle Races and Mud Runs". He is also the only (known) #wafflehouseelite obstacle racer.