Review of the NNormal Kjerag Trail Running shoes
Second pair of NNormal
I already owned the Tomir, which I covered in that article.
If you have read that article, you'll remember that I stopped using them because of the size (they were too big). However I liked the brand and wanted to test their Kjerag, which is the "performance" model.
I wasn't especially looking to buy them, but I needed a new pair of road shoes
(that I use while doing intervals with my running club), so I went to my local
sport shop, and they happened to also sell those Kjerag.
I tried them, this time being super cautious about the size and asking advice to
the shop's staff, and found them really nice: light yet comfortable and with
good cushioning, so I bought them - as well as some Topo Athletics road shoes:
Specifications
Look
To say the least, the Kjerag are... discreet. They come in a black and white
flavor, with the NNormal logo in grey - you can barely see it.
Personally I like it: after all, I'm wearing shoes to run and prefer comfortable
shoes over "flashy ones" - even though it's also nice to have good-looking
shoes.
Lacing System
The lacing system is normal (no pun), and does not follow what they did on the Tomir.
The tongue shoe is different from the Tomir one: there are strips on each side, allowing to have the tongue closer to your foot when wearing the shoe. Actually a good idea I think.
Cushioning
There's no additional insole as you would find in most shoes (including the
Tomir) - I found it weird initially, fearing that the cushioning would be tough,
but after several months running with them, I can confirm it's fine.
Of course they're not as comfortable as other shoes I have (e..g, the Altra
Olympus), but on the flip side, this allows keeping your feet "aware" of the
trails, which I like.
Drop
With a drop of 6 mm, they're in the upper range of what I feel comfortable running with.
TEST!
As I mentioned, I bought those shoes a while ago, in August 2023, so roughly 6 months ago - which means I put them to the test a lot of times :) (550 kms as I'm writing this).
This includes 2 fairly long trail races [the Nice by UTMB 62k and the Veni Vici 72k) and also used them one smaller races and muddy runs.
The grip is excellent, they are really light even when covered by mud, the level of protection is good (I tested them properly on screes on the Nice UTMB). The only noticable thing is the cushioning: passed 50k, you can really feel that they don't have an insole.
Wrap Up
I like those Kjerag - and even though my bad experience with the Tomir was not NNormal's fault, I'm glad to enjoy another of their shoes, as it was really the very first time that I had an issue with shoes I bought.
I will probably buy another pair when this one dies - recently, I have stopped sticking to only Altra, and have introduced other brands, including Salomon: after the Ultra Glide I bought 2 years ago, I opted for the S/Lab Genesis, which I'm testing these days and will soon write about.