Hoka’s Mafate 5 Might be the Ultimate Trail Running All-Rounder

Can one shoe do it all? The new Mafate 5 gives it a crack with big grip, thick cushion, and durable rocker.

Trail running shoes are having a crazy time at the moment. That’s the thing with gear, it often gets better in concentrated bursts when new tech gets discovered or the activity hits a patch of popularity (and R&D dollars).

It also means a lot of misses as brands try and find the next big thing, or simply cash in. I’ve seen trail runners that are basically road running shoes with grip on the bottom, that are nowhere near stable or durable enough for most Australian trails, and shoes that are surely too tall and wide for running on anything ‘technical’.

It was the Hoka Tecton X3 that first changed my mind on this. With 40mm of soft performance foam under the heel, it was massive just one year ago, and I gingerly ran trails in it until I was comfortable. I ended up choosing them for the Jabulani Challenge 12k, one of the most slippery, chunky trail races I’ve ever run, and had no issues.

I rocked the Mafate 5 at the Capital to Coast Stage Race recently | @annnaerobson

While some brands are doggedly sticking to narrow shoes and firmer foams because ‘that’s what you need for technical trails’, Hoka has shown that if you make the platform wide enough, and ensure the foam compresses in the right directions, you can reap the benefits of having more of it under your foot. The team took this all the way with the Mafate X, which has 49mm underfoot, but also features a carbon plate and is focused on bulk kilometres over easy terrain.

I found myself yearning for a shoe that felt like the Mafate X but was able to handle treacherous trails. Around where I live in Sydney, you’re almost guaranteed to encounter some nasty stuff if you head onto single track, but you’ll also probably end up running roads and concrete paths in the same run.

Thick cushion and thick grip, ready for anything

Enter the Hoka Mafate 5

Hoka describes the Mafate 5 as ‘plush cushioning for tough terrain’. It has 44mm of foam under the heel, down to 36mm at the forefoot, giving it a high-for-Hoka, but not unusual, 8mm drop, which is a little kinder on your achilles tendons.

The foams are super visible. In black is a supercritical EVA foam. Reports say this is particularly soft for durable EVA foam, with tiny nitrogen bubbles used to increase the softness. Up front there’s a compression-moulded EVA, seen here in light blue, which adds shock absorption, stability, and structure to the shoe.

44m of supercritical EVA sits under your heel

This means you can heel strike on the big soft heel on steep downhills, while still getting a responsive, snappy ride on flats and gentle uphills where the forefoot works harder. The shape of the heel is reminiscent of the Mafate X, with an angled cutout that helps redirect the shoe towards the centre.

Lovers of the Mafate Speed 4 might be conflicted. Some users have described it as a completely different shoe, and yeah, it’s softer, taller, and about 20g heavier (and about 20g lighter than the Mafate X). But can it keep pace on the same terrain? Also yes, and it’ll probably feel better too.

The Mafate 5 is the lower, lighter and more technical running little brother of the Mafate X seen here | @jackjbrookes

Rocker Integrity Tech

The Mafate 5 features early-stage MetaRocker, which is a fancy way of saying that the shoe rolls you forward and helps you push off cleanly on less technical terrain. Problem is, rocker often flattens out after a few hundred kilometres, and you lose that speedy feeling.

The plate seen here in the black foam keeps the toes angled upward

Hoka has solved this with a TPU plate that runs a ring around the forefoot of the shoe. It’s much more like the stability plate seen in The North Face Vectiv Pro 3 than the stiff propulsion-focused plates in road running shoes. The plate basically holds the toe up and gives the soft foam some integrity and manners, allowing you to get a sure footing on the rough stuff.

Thick Vibram Megagrip Outsole

Vibram Megagrip is basically the gold standard in grippy rubber, and Vibram famously do demos of it in Europe on a granite slab with a built-in waterfall. It’s on the outsole of the Mafate 5 where it pairs microtraction lugs (with tiny dots designed to further increase grip) with sharp, wide lugs designed to dig into soil and mud. Both are 5mm deep.

I wasted no time getting lugs in the mud

It’s super aggressive in a world where a lot of race-focused trail runners are skipping out big lugs to save weight, which also reduces the life of the usable grip. Hoka has saved weight by strategically placing the grip around the edge of the shoe, and down the centre of the midfoot. There’s heaps of exposed EVA midsole, but it’ll see very limited ground contact with those lugs.

Comfort as a Priority

I saw Mafate 5s on the feet of people running the 175km Ultra Trail Mont Blanc recently, which is a bit of a testament to the long-haul focus of the Mafate 5. Hoka’s focus on ultrarunning means comfort (like thick, soft foam) is a priority.

Comfort is also found in the cushioned heel cup, which is quite plush, and the patent-pending ‘dynamic vamp’. It’s essentially a stretchy section of fabric just above where your toes fit that hugs your feet whilst giving them the room they need.

Dynamic vamp builds more stretch into the forefoot of the shoe (seen here in black material)

The only area where the racey ambitions of the Mafate 5 are really obvious is the tongue, which is minimal with strategic cushion. As a testament to the flexibility of this shoe compared to the Mafate X, I didn’t need to use the extra eyelets to get a good heel lockdown.

Durable Build

Another area I’ve seen trail running shoes blowing it is durability. Especially road running brands that think they can just slap a grippy sole on the bottom and be done with it.

Trails are rough. You kick rocks and roots. I once had a stick pierce the top of my shoe and cut the top of my foot, and I’m pretty sure I broke my pinky toe kicking a stump the other week.

The Mafate 5 has a thick engineered ‘warp knit’ mesh with an overlay that gives it structure and more protection. It’s pretty confidence-inspiring. The toe protection is more minimal to save weight, but the permanent rocker and high stack height keep your toes pretty far from danger.

Overlays enhance the toughness of the upper

I’ll check back in with a review on these, but from deep lugs to dual foams, a tough upper, and a plate to preserve the rocker, Hoka appears to have built a trail runner that’ll keep on going for all the filthy kilometres you have planned. I’m keen to give them a go while hiking too.

Read more: Trail Runners vs Hiking Boots

I reckon this will become a pretty familiar sight