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Saucony Peregrine 11 Trail Runners Review

Saucony Peregrine 11 on Liberty

The Saucony Peregrine 11 is a moderately cushioned trail running shoe designed for rugged trails that also makes an excellent hiking and backpacking shoe for mountainous terrain. It has a large toe box so your toes can splay out for added comfort with a mesh upper for enhanced breathability. Large lugs provide fantastic traction, even on sloping wet rock, while a front rock plate helps protect your feet from sharp rocks and roots. With a drop height of 4mm, the Peregrine is a very stable shoe that helps prevent ankle rolls and is easy to transition to.

Specs at a Glance

  • Best use: Trail running, hiking
  • Cushion: Moderate
  • Drop: 4mm
  • Stack Height: 27mm, 23mm
  • Rock Plate: Yes
  • Footwear Height: ankle
  • Footwear Closure: lace-up
  • Midsole: EVA
  • Gaiter Trap: No
  • Weight: 1 lb 5.6 oz/pair
  • Available in Wide: No
  • Fit: True to size
  • Break-in Period: None. Wearable right out of the box.
Mesh uppers provide good drainage with a wide toe box
Mesh uppers provide good drainage with a wide toe box.

The Saucony Peregrine 11 is a moderately cushioned trail running shoe that provides excellent foot protection and traction on wet and muddy trails in mountainous terrain without a reduction in agility or stability. They have a wide toe box so your toes can relax and splay out. Mesh uppers enhance breathability and drainage, but they have a lightweight interior liner that prevents sand and grit from getting inside. The low stack height is good for stability and trail feel, while a rock plate protects your feet from feeling sharp rocks and roots underfoot.

The Peregrine 11’s have a 4mm drop with a 27mm-23mm stack height
The Peregrine 11’s have a 4mm drop with a 27mm-23mm stack height,

The Peregrines have good forefoot protection with a front rubber toe kick and TPU sidewalls that extend down the sides of the shoe to the heels. The heel is fairly rigid to cup your heel, with an elastic heel strap that makes it easy to get the shoes on. The tongue is lightly padded without being too bulky. Multiple lacing positions are available so you can customize the fit, along with a front elastic strap to hold your laces in place so they don’t flop around. While there isn’t a gaiter trap on the heel, there is a metal ring above the toes to attach a front gaiter hook.

While these Peregrine 11’s have a lot going for them, the standout feature I like the best is this shoe’s traction on rock, particularly wet angled rock, since we have so much of it where I hike. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going up or down, the soft chevron-shaped lugs on the Peregrine 11 mold around the nooks and crannies on the surface of slabs and boulders making it easy to scramble in mountainous terrain without taking a spill.

The Chevron-shaped rubber gloves provide excellent traction on dry and wet rock.
The Chevron-shaped rubber gloves provide excellent traction on dry and wet rock.

For winter use, there are places in the sole for adding hex screw inserts for added traction on ice and snow and points for drilling added drainage holes. I don’t plan to use them but it is a feature of the shoes. I wear insulated waterproof boots in winter because our winter hikes are usually quite long and I need the added protection of an insulated boot.

Overall, I’m very pleased with these Saucony Peregrine 11 trail runners and they’ve replaced the La Sportiva Ultra Raptors I’ve been wearing for close to a decade. I’ve been having some foot and ankle issues pain this summer that’s made it tough to hike more than 10 miles a day without debilitating pain.

The Saucony Peregrine 11 provides great traction on wet sloping rock.
The Saucony Peregrine 11 provides great traction on wet sloping rock.

However, since switching to these Saucony Peregrine 11’s, my ankle pain has completely disappeared and my metatarsal pain has diminished significantly. I suspect that the Peregrine’s increased cushioning, lower drop, and wide toebox is the reason my symptoms have eased, but it’s hard to credit any one feature for sure. Still, I really like these trail runners and plan to keep using them for a while.

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22 comments

  1. Great review. These are my favorite trail shoes as well. That tread is crazy good. The comfort I feel on angled/wet rock is amazing compared to my Altras. I used Altra Lone Peaks on the first half of my AT thru hike before trying something else out and then finally getting a pair of Peregrines at Hanover right before getting into New Hampshire. The tread at the end of those 400+ miles was still better than tread on my Lone Peaks on day 1.

    The only issue I had with them was that they were a tad narrow at the front and put a lot of pressure on the bone right by the base of the little toe. That caused that spot to wear out on that shoe for 2 separate pairs during and after the trail. This was a few models ago (Peregrine 7s I think) so the regular model may be wider now. I went away from the Peregrines for a little bit because of this and got some other trail runners on sale. Just recently though I found out that they sale wide versions directly from Saucony and ordered a pair. Fit like a dream and maybe even roomier than Altra’s toebox. Next time I’m at an REI or something, I will try on the regulars to see if they fit my feet better so I can just buy them again after I burn through this pair.

    • I have found that when shoes are tight in the toe box that up-sizing about 1/2 size will fix it. Folks that hike a lot often find that their feet spread out some and the sizes of shoes they are accustomed to wearing have become too small. If your shoes are wearing out at that spot, there is a good chance you may need to get your foot remeasured. Contrary to the review, my experience is that the Peregrine runs a tad small and up-sizing made a tremendous positive benefit for me I wear Saucony Peregrines and love them. The review is mostly right on target.

  2. Thanks for the review. Will look at these as my next pair of hiking shoes now that Salomon appears to have screwed up the Ultra X 4.

  3. Interesting, especially with the rock plate and your reduction in metatarsal pain. Are you using them with the factory insole or a replacement?

  4. CHRISTOPHER MARSHBURN

    YouTuber Taylor the Nahamsha Hiker recently completed a very successful thru-hike of the AT using this shoe 90% of the way (she started with Altras but changed soon due to foot pain).

  5. Just bought my Peregrine 11 shoes after reading this and reviews on the Saucony website. Also highly rated on other gear reviews for hiking. After several pair of trail shoe-boots have destroyed my feet, and my Targhee II are no longer available, I need to try the trail shoe. Hoping long pants work as well as gaiters as I rarely if ever wear shorts while hiking. First real world test will be the hike up Mauna Kea in October.

    • Real world test update. I hiked the rim of Kiluea, the nearby lava tube, the upper portion of Mauna Kea. Much of Kiluea and the lava tube was in light rain. The shoes were very comfortable from the beginning. The traction on the uneven terrain was very good. I tried to find traction challenging situations, and in Hawaii the ubiquitous mud provided ample opportunities.
      These are pretty light, plenty of room in the toe box, and dry out rather quickly. This is my first year using trail shoes and I am impressed with the versatility and comfort.

  6. Im currently wearing Peregrine 8s and while a terrific shoe, the toe box is too tight. This was also the case in their earlier models. Do you by any chance know how the 11s compare to the 8s in that regard? Because I’m about to switch to Brooks Cascadias, which are also wonderful, but don’t quite have the traction of the sauconeys

  7. What?? You moved away from the LS URs? I too have been wearing them for the past 5 years or so and love them. But two of my sons wear the Peregrine…may have to check it out, assuming there is a women’s model?

    • At least for the moment, since I do have a few unused pairs in the closet. Just have to recover from these foot problems and the Peregrines are better at that than the LS URs.

    • Elise, FYI, there is a women’s model, which I just bought. No comments yet, as it is “in the mail;-)”

      I may write a post after I use it for awhile. I’m particularly curious because I’ve always used zero drop shoes. However, since I also hike in the Whites primarily, I’m in it for the traction.

  8. I wish someone would create a wizard that would help narrow down the choices to research for boots and shoes.

  9. How does the sizing compare to the LS Ultra Raptors? I guess I mean, do you wear the same US size in both or did you have to size up or down on the Peregrine’s?

    Thank you so much for the info.

  10. I actually switched from peregrine 10 to the ultra raptor. The raptor just fits my feet better (the heel hold is superior). Both are very stable which surprised me as the raptor has a high heel stack height. As far as traction on wet rocks, I think the raptor is a little better but neither are as good as megagrip and continental rubber (but much better than contragrip and the much-hyped inov8 graphene).

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