Mount to Coast H1 Shoe Review

The Mount to Coast H1 is for you if...

You want a “best of both worlds” shoe for both roads and trails 

You want to hit the trails (or roads) in style 

You stay off the “extreme” trails and are comfortable with shallower lugs 

What is the Mount to Coast H1 made for?

Born from a desire to cater to the ultra-marathon running community, Mount to Coast has positioned itself as a brand that emphasizes long-lasting durability, resilience, and a desire to test the limits of human (and shoes) potential. Their shoes propel some of the ultra community’s most ambitious athletes and have already powered some daring distance performances. The Mount to Coast H1 echoes this spirit into a comfortable, resilient road-to-trail shoe. With a stylish design that evokes the beauty of West Coast deserts, and a commitment to nurturing the long run, the Mount To Coast H1s caught our reviewers’ eyes. But did it catch our hearts? 

Comfort

The comfort of the shoe really broke down into two categories for us. 

The underfoot experience was comfortable enough, but not plush. We wore them on roads, trails, and even took them to a wedding reception (have we mentioned that they’re stylish?) and the foam did its job through each trial. It’s not a soft foam, but it’s an effective foam, and we can respect it for that. 

The upper was more of a divisive topic for our testers. For some of our testers, the dual-zone upper with the jacquard mesh was a success. It was built from a stylish, nicely padded performance material and earned “at least” a 9.5 out of 10 rating. Some of our other reviewers worried about the stuffiness of the shoe on hotter runs. The material itself failed to provide adequate stretch or movement for some members of our team, and the bottom lace system wasn’t as helpful for making adjustments as we would have liked (more on this in the Fit section).

Performance

One of the biggest things we appreciated about the shoe was its consistency. Whether we were on paved roads, gravel roads, easy or moderate trails, the midsole provides a standard of cushioning that you need for all of it. The lugs added the grip we needed when we switched between terrain, and we appreciated how balanced the whole shoe felt. There’s no huge rocker, or other odd geometries that needed to be accounted for during transitions. It just ran with us, and there’s a lot to be said for a shoe that can manage that. It can also flow between paces pretty seamlessly. The H1 managed easy pace 10 milers at altitude just as well as it handled mile repeats at goal marathon pace. Our testers stayed comfortable and confident through it all. 

One tester brought the shoe out of its comfort zone, attempting a local technical/verty trail and even found the H1 to perform well enough there, despite it being outside the shoe’s intended scope. In short, the range of the shoe’s performance abilities are impressive.

Fit

We found the Mount to Coast H1 to be a bit finnicky in its fit- with narrow footed testers and wider footed testers both reporting struggles to get their lockdowns just right. The shoes ran true to length, and we never experienced hotspots. We found the shoe to be mostly pleasantly roomy, although narrow-footed friends may want to be careful when lacing up. One of our testers with a C-width foot felt like they were pulling the TunedFit Dual Lacing System as tight as it would go in order to secure their lockdown. They got there! And the eventual fit was enjoyable. Another one of our testers never managed to get the shoe feeling just right. Instead, they found that the shoe’s materials and fit stayed “restrictive,” and they couldn’t make the adjustments needed to get a good lockdown for their heel. Despite their work to get the dual lacing system right, the tester ended up developing heel blisters on their long run. 

Additionally, one of our testers found that the moderate “waist” curvature of the foam created an initial under-arch hanging sensation, but they were pleased to find that this sensation went away for our tester after a couple of miles. In general, the shoes took a decent bit of work to get feeling correct. Some of our testers were able to get the shoe “just right” and enjoyed their time with the shoes from there on out, while others did not.