I've been running in Fireblade now for a year, and no other shoe compares to the sleek low profile. The shoes just seem fast! After recently completing the entire Appalachian trail in 54+ days, I would never go back to another shoe. The stiff plate underneath the forefoot kept the rocks from poking at my arch. The toebox allows enough room for my swollen feet, and along with the bomber construction, they never wore out. I only went through a few pairs the entire 2176 miles of rugged terrain. They last, don't break down and provide ultimate support for any Ultramarathon. No wonder they are ranked at the top as one of the best shoes of 2007!

Just looking at these shoes makes you run faster. It has just the right stiffness giving you enough protection from rocks and good movement. I have wide feet as well, and the Firebaldes give me plenty enough room in the toebox.
When your posture gets sloppy, the Fireblades pick you right back up and keep you running.

This is a great light weight performance trail shoe, for various terrain, flexible, dependable and feels comfortable for all day runs. It took my feet a few excursions to get use to the narrow shoe design, but now it's my favorite pair in my arsenal. Plus the sticky outsole handles the rocks like a charm. Happy running!

I have a lot of praise for these kicks! I look for lightweight shoes to do heavy trail miles in on various terrain. These shoes fit the bill. First run in them was 23 miles over dirt, gravel, mud & grass - they performed great! I am 5'08", 160lb, and I usually wear a 9.5 shoe. I bought these in a 10 (43 EUR) due to also having a pair of Slingshots that ran small. They fit perfectly and comfortably. I would (obviously) highly recommend them.

These shoes are great. These are the lightest pair of trail shoes I have worn from LaSportiva. Right out of the box I tested these shoes and they are it! I would not recommend these for a real rocky terrain though- I ran a pretty rocky course and I felt the rocks and did not seem to have the footing like the LaSportiva crossroads or Cardiffs, But would slide these babies on for a single track dirt or fire road terrain and I would definitely size down a 1/2 size if possible.

great show, a little more narrow than I'm used to, but good fit to keep you foot in place. Good grip overall due to the sole.

don't hesitate to purchase.

Absolutely love everything about these shoes. Their low profile definitely keeps you nimble on the trail and makes you feel really fast. Everything from hard-packed trails to slushy/muddy trails, these shoes do it all. The traction is deceivingly good as they stick to almost everything. Just a word of caution, however, if you want a plush ride with lots of cushioning, these will probably not be your shoes. They are somewhat firm, which allows you maximum control on technical trails, while maintaining smooth heal to toe transition. I wear a size 10 in all road running shoes (i'm a 9.5 street shoe) from asics and adidas. A 43 in these shoes fits perfectly. The toebox has just enough room and width is not a problem.

This is not the shoe for me.As someone who followed SpeedGoat's AT trek I was really stoked to try these shoes. Especially when this past June in Utah was a muddy, wet mess. (Not unlike what Karl encountered along the northern AT)In any event, I first wore them on a run from Elbow Fork to Lamb's with packed damp trail and snow crossings. The snow crossings were like wearing flip flops, bad news.On my second run in the Fire Blades the down hills and rocky technical terrain on Black Mountain were pretty darn good, but again anything slippery, or wet got sketchy really quick.The final blow was a run around Jordanelle Reservoir were muddy conditions and no traction resulted in two months couching it with an Iliopsoas tweak. After lots of rehab and a return to Salomon's my recovery is nearly complete.Bottom line: For dry technical conditions you'll probably like this shoe a lot. If you are extremely fit like Speedgoat you may do okay in wet conditions too. But if you are weekend warrior, have history of groin pulls, and are likely to encounter wet conditions, I wouldn't even think about it.

I got the Fireblades to fill the gap between my backpacking boots and road runners. So far, they've been an excellent choice. The fit is true to size and quite comfortable. The sole is stiff, but still did fine for some sub-seven pace trail runs. They feel fast and look good, but beware, the orange is pretty bright. Sticky rubber on the outsole gripped wet rock and roots with ease. They'll performed admirably in some light scrambling. More to come later on performance with a heavier pack and on low 5 climbing.

La Sportiva makes great stuff. The materials in these shoes are nice. The shoe is well constructed, and will last mile after mile. The toe box has a nice "run free" feel to it and the heel cup is stable. The shoe is low to the ground and has a clear feeling of the trail as you run. I took this shoe on a very rocky 13 miler and my feet (bottoms) were getting hot the last 2 miles. I took them out again the next day on a trail a bit less rocky and I could feel the soreness from the day before. I am 6'3" and 175 lbs. As a bigger runner they were not great for me but I could see them working quite well for all the skinny fast boys who beat me to the finish line. I still like the Crosslites and Wildcats more.

The Fireblade was my first trail shoe from a smaller company (rather than Asics, Brooks, etc). Mine just endured a full summer's abuse on rough/rocky trails, so I'm ready to speak for them.

Pros: These shoes performed well and held up nicely. The sticky rubber tread kept me upright on slick and steep sections of gravel/snow/mud just as I had hoped. If not for some interior cushioning flaws, these likely still had some miles left in them. They are very lightweight just as advertised and seemed true to size, fitting my neutral foot (mostly) comfortably. Externally they were solid and outperformed any of the previous trail shoes I've run in.

Cons: I think there was a slight sacrifice in protection to keep these shoes light, as I found myself feeling pointy rocks through the bottom and sides more often than I should have. Also, although the interior fabric was soft and cushy, the heelcup rubbed my heel in such a way that a couple holes wore straight through the fabric, prematurely ending the life of these shoes.

Bottom Line: While I felt the Fireblade could get the job done, I was more impressed by its sister shoe, the Raceblade. The Raceblade is even lighter, features a sewn in upper to keep crud out of your shoes, fits a little more snugly (good in my case), and is build with a more frictionless interior fabric that has witheld a lot more abuse than the Fireblade's interior. And being about the same price, I'll be buying just the Raceblades in the future.

Very good trail shoe. Lightweight, but well constructed to handle the rocky and technical terrain where I train. The impact absorption is where the sacrifice was made and even though I love the shoe, I no longer use them for runs over about 20 miles. It starts to feel like jackhammers on my feet. I'm 6'1" 170# so that may be the difference why some folks who are a little lighter, like Karl, can enjoy this shoe for ultradistances. If you're running rocky trails, especially where you want good turnover to push your downhill pace, this is a great shoe.

I've been using these shoes for about a month now and I gotta say they are fantastic. I have been running on road, trails, beach, and rocks. The traction holds up great and even after accidentally getting hit by a wave from the Sea they dried out quickly (while running) and still run like new. The laces may be shorter than most but it cuts down on unnecessary weight as you can still easily tie them either bow or double-knotted.

Coming from a beefy Salomon shoe, the fireblade seemed lighter, faster, had more grip, and a lower profile. It has great traction on just about any surface that I have tested so far. A few runs in these shoes and I improved my time on my daily trail runs. I credit this to the light & grippy feeling you have in them. They cool/wick easy, but they also don't have any protection to keep water out. I also feel more susceptible to spraining my ankle in them due to the low profile. The laces usually stay tied. I also wear a gaiter with them to help keep trail debris out due to the low profile.

I ended up ordering these because I couldn't find Salomons in my size. At first glance, I didn't think they would have adequate cushioning. The fit is incredible though. I love European footwear, they absolutely have it dialed in for people with narrow feet and higher arches. These fit like a glove through the instep, but have a roomy toebox.These are very lightweight, and I have really grown to like the lower heel versus other trail runners I have worn. The seem to offer plenty of protection from rocks.They'll get a good test in a month when I run the Bridger Ridge Run in Bozeman. Last year I wore Montrail Continental Divides, which I found to be pretty ho-hum. I'll give an updated review after the race.

Review Update:

Love the low heel, these shoes have a great "feel" for the trail through technical rocky sections. I didn't lack for cushion at all on the Bridger. The "Sticky Rubber" sole is quite impressive on smooth boulders.

Very nice shoes.

I've had heavier, bulkier trail runners and wanted something more sleek and low-profile. I wanted shoes for moving quickly (fast hiking and running) on dry trails on day trips. The Fireblades definitely seem to be that - but unfortunately I didn't get to use them other than for extended periods of wearing them (trying them out) inside my house. The fit seemed good for my fairly low-volume, high-arched, just-the-narrow-side of medium width size 44 - 44.5 feet. The upper contoured the right places and curves. Right away, however, I could tell that there was not much in the way of cushioning. I felt this mostly in the forefoot. I think my rigid feet have lost some of their padding over the years of use, especially under the ball of the foot and behind the toes. My determination was that if I was feeling the lack of cushioning during inside use, then spending several hours in them on the trail might be uncomfortable - maybe even painful. I would like to have done some real runs in the Fireblades - maybe I would have been surprised, but I doubt it based on past experience with shoe feel and fit. I wanted to like them and keep them but think I need more underfoot padding and shock absorbing ability than these provide. Another thing is that the laces are quite short - they are barely long enough to make double knots.

Conclusion: These are probably good shoes for some people but didn't work for me so I returned them.

Have only run one 10K single track but am really pleased so far. Because of a lingering plantar problem I wear power step insoles in place of the Fireblades. I wear a size 12 in my Mizuno and Asic running shoes, and the size 12 in the Fireblades seems to be fine. Ran through a couple of small streams, and the shoes don't seem to have any drainage, but no big deal. Lightweight, but adequate cushioning.

The La Sportiva Fireblade is a solid shoe. The shoe gets great traction, has a good fit (maybe a little more narrow than I am used to, but definitely comfy). In comparison to other shoes, you may feel the ground more. After running in Brooks Cascadias for a while, this shoe feels much lighter and faster, but maybe you won't get that "running on a cloud" feeling". The toe box along with the rest of the shoe protects your feet very well from kicking rocks, etc.

I wasn't terribly happy with a La Sportiva shoe that I bought about 18 months ago, but this shoe is definitely an improvement. Great for fast trail races, or ultra-marathons.

These are my new favorite running shoes!!!
The inner-soles are quite hard, so I changed them with a spare pair of Pearl Izumi's inners.
(I would recommend buying the Montrail inner soles which can be heat molded)
Despite this minor problem, I'm still giving the Fireblades 5 stars.

I've done road and trail running in these and they're perfect.

I really like the fit of these shoes. They're pretty narrow in the heel area up to the mid foot, and they open up quite a bit in the toe box - perfect for my foot type. I've taken these on a few trail runs and have been very pleased. La Sportiva didn't go overboard with the cushioning - they probably could have added a little more under the forefoot. The heel cushioning is adequate, but you can feel the rocks through the forefoot pretty well. Overall, these are great trail runners.

I've had this shoe for about three weeks and I've logged approx. 125 miles of North Carolina trail. So far so good. This is a quality shoe, very well made. It's light weight, which for me is its number one feature. However, what you lose in weight you also lose in cushioning. I would classify this as a "trail only" shoe, stay off the roads. The shoe does run a little narrow, a problem I solved by switching to a different sock.

If you are looking for a lightweight, fast shoe but still need a little support and pronation control, this is the one. I have tried several models that have all lacked either support, durability and/or comfort. The Fireblade delivers in all areas. The snug midfoot and roomy toebox, along with a good pair of injinji socks, have eliminated my blister problems. Great shoe!

This shoe is one of the best shoes I have ever worn. Having run on trails for years I finally made the switch to trail shoes from road shoes. I tried the Nike Trail S and while comfortable gave little support and protection during a 26 mile run on the Appalachian Trail. I then switched over to the Soloman XA Pro and ran my first 50k in them without too many problems. I have a farely narrow forefoot and a thicker midfoot that required a little extra arch support. At the 50k I won a pair of Fireblades and made the switch immediately. The give the perfect amount of support and great protection. The low profile allows you to really feel the trail. I have gone as little as 5 miles and as much as 29 so far and have loved every second.

Howdy. These shoes look like a very good pair of shoes, however after having received them, trying them on, relative to the Salomon XA PRO 3D Ultra, they were narrow... but, they were good looking, nice sole, and sexy.

haven't worn these a ton since I've gotten them, but they are really nice and light, and the rock guard in the sole is good. I like the sole because it's simple and doesn't have a whole bunch of knobby stuff. I find that that type of stuff just gets ripped off.

First pair of La Sportivas and am happy as a pig in...Great low profile, decent shank protection, excellent heal cup, good grit guard, light weight and plesently surprised by the tread. The Frixion rubber is sticky and the tread design gives ample traction going up and going down. Lots of comments about these being tight; I have wide feet and do not think the Fireblades feel restrictive at all. I got the 'wide' sized version (there is a + next to the size number). A well designed trail runner sutible for training and positively race worthy. Roll on with these tied to fleet feet.

Had high hopes for these shoes. After my first run on a rocky trail I realized they weren't going to work there. Then I used them around town, to work or the gym and they are good there. Then I decided to try them on climbing approaches and they failed miserably there. They have very little protection from rough surfaces or rocks or trail irregularities. Maybe I misunderstood what this shoe is for (road running?) but it just didn't work for me. I will say they are comfortable and lightweight which I do like. If you are looking for a rough trail shoe keep looking.