Kahtoola EXOspikes Review

EXOspikes answer a problem MICROspikes never solved: what to wear when a winter run is ice for two minutes, wet pavement for ten, frozen dirt for twenty, then ice again. Twelve tungsten-carbide tips per foot, set into a low-profile TPU sole plate rather than hanging on chains, held on by the same elastomer harness. About 210 g a pair.

The result feels almost like a shoe. The tips stand proud by millimetres rather than a centimetre, so you can run on tarmac without the device dictating your gait, and the carbide bites frozen surfaces that rubber slides across. On genuine ice they are less secure than MICROspikes — meaningfully so — and that is the trade you are making.

If your winter mileage is mixed-surface and continuous, they are the better tool. If your winter is hiking on trails that are properly iced over, they are not.

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Sizing here is snugger than most people expect. Check the chart against the exact shoe you will run in — the harness needs to be taut, and a device that rotates on the shoe is a trip hazard at running pace.

How they feel underfoot

The design difference is the whole story. MICROspikes hang chains and 10 mm spikes below the sole, so there is a layer of hardware between your foot and the ground that you feel on every step. EXOspikes bond short carbide tips into a flexible plate that sits nearly flush against the outsole. The shoe still flexes at the forefoot, the stack height barely changes, and your stride stays yours.

On tarmac and hard-packed frozen dirt, that is transformative. You can run a whole loop in them without the pavement sections becoming penance, which is the honest reason most people abandon chain devices for winter running: they take them off, and then need them, and do not put them back on.

On frozen gravel, rime-glazed rock and hard-frozen mud the carbide is excellent. Tungsten carbide is much harder than the surface it scratches into, so even a tiny tip bites where a soft rubber lug just polishes. On packed snow they are good — not as good as a longer spike, because they simply cannot reach through a crust, but reliable.

On thick, smooth ice they are the weakest of the family. There is only a couple of millimetres of engagement, so the device relies on many small points of contact rather than penetration. You will feel a slight sense of skating on a frozen puddle that MICROspikes walk across without comment. Slow down for those sections, deliberately.

EXOspikes vs MICROspikes: which grip do you need?

Both come from the same company and share the harness, so the choice is purely about the ground.

The rule we use: if you would describe the route as "icy", take MICROspikes. If you would describe it as "wintry", take EXOspikes. Hikers moving slowly on iced trail want penetration; runners covering varied ground at speed want the device to disappear.

Carrying both is not unreasonable for people who run all winter — they occupy little space and cost less together than a pair of winter boots. Our winter trail running spikes roundup and the broader microspikes roundup cover the alternatives from Hillsound, Snowline and others.

Durability and care

Carbide tips wear extremely slowly. That is the point of the material: it is used for drill bits and studded tyres for the same reason. Running them on pavement, which would blunt steel spikes in a season, barely touches them. Expect the tips to outlast everything around them.

What wears instead is the TPU plate and the elastomer harness. The plate abrades on abrasive concrete and can eventually thin around the tip housings; the harness stretches and, after enough seasons, splits at a stress point. Neither is dramatic, and Kahtoola covers the device under a two-year warranty.

Care is simple. Rinse off road salt, which is more corrosive to the metal hardware than anything a trail will do, and dry them fully before storage. Do not leave them balled up damp in a pack for months. Check the harness for nicks at the toe and heel at the start of each winter — that is where a split starts.

One practical note: because the plate sits close to the outsole, packed snow can build up in the cutouts in wet conditions near freezing. A knock against a kerb or a pole clears it. In genuinely slushy weather no traction device performs well, and that is not specific to these.

Who should buy EXOspikes

Buy them if you run through winter on roads, bike paths and rolling trails where surfaces change every few minutes. Buy them if you own MICROspikes and keep taking them off. Buy them if you walk a lot of hard-frozen ground with pavement in between — a commute that starts on a gritted street and ends on a frozen park path is exactly their case, and they are gentler indoors than long spikes.

They also suit fast hikers on dry-frozen, low-angle trail, where the ground is hard rather than glazed.

Who should not buy them

Anyone whose trail is genuinely iced. If the surface is a continuous sheet — a frozen stream crossing, a north-facing switchback that thaws and refreezes, a boot-packed trail polished to glass — buy MICROspikes or a longer-spiked device instead. Two millimetres of carbide cannot do what ten millimetres of steel does.

Anyone on steep ground. Say this plainly: EXOspikes are the lowest-security device Kahtoola makes for trail use. They are for rolling terrain where a slip means sitting down. On slopes steep enough that a fall would slide, you need real crampons, stiff boots, an ice axe and self-arrest practice — not a lighter traction device. The boundary is set out in microspikes vs crampons and when do you need crampons. Traction devices reduce slipping; they do nothing about consequence.

Sidewalk-only walkers. If you never leave pavement, a bead or coil device is cheaper and does the job. Compare in the ice cleats for walking roundup.

Hikers wanting one device for everything. Then it is MICROspikes, not these. EXOspikes are a specialist, and they are honest about it.

Check price on Amazon

Check the size against your running shoes rather than your boots — EXOspikes are usually bought for a specific pair of shoes, and a size chosen for winter boots will rotate on a runner. The full lineup sits side by side in our Kahtoola guide.

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