La Sportiva Mutant Debuts with Two Top Editorial Awards

La Sportiva has won two prestigious editorial awards for its new Mountain Running®shoe, the Mutant. Outside Magazine has presented the shoe with its coveted Gear of the Year Award in the trail running shoe category, while TrailRunner Magazinehas awarded the shoe its Editor’s Choice award in its annual trail shoe roundup.

“The Mutant is a burly mountain running shoe for the serious runner,” says Jonathan Lantz, president of La Sportiva North America. “With a cushioned ride on top of aggressive lugs that provide traction on a variety of surfaces, this shoe excels in both training and on race day. We’re proud that the editors of Outside and Trail Runner, who put shoes through the ringer while testing, were impressed enough by the Mutant to present it with their top awards.”

The Mutant is an aggressive trail shoe with exceptional cushioning and a lugged outsole constructed from sticky climbing rubber. Weighing just 11.3 oz., and featuring a 12mm drop, the Mutant is one of the most cushioned shoes in the La Sportiva line. A spiral tongue provides a customized fit and the Fusiongate™ lacing system uses high-frequency welded reinforcements for a soft, yet supportive lacing harness. The Mutant retails for $130.

According to Outside, “the most secure-fitting, responsive shoe in our test, the Mutant felt like a cross between a racer and a big-mountain rambler, cruising nimbly over sharktooth rocks and blasting through flats and turns.”

In its review,Trail Runnerwrites, “Another monstrous mountain runner from La Sportiva, the Mutant features an aggressive, sticky-rubber tread that lends confidence on mud, slick surfaces and technical mountain trails, and an abrasion-resistant upper that protects the foot from all sides.”

The Mutant is part of La Sportiva’s Spring 2015 line of footwear and apparel for climbing, hiking, mountaineering and Mountain Running®. The complete list of Gear of the Year winners is featured in the Outside Summer Buyer’s Guide, which hit newsstands on April 28. The TrailRunner Editors’ Choice awards are included in the 2015 Trail-Shoe review, on newsstands today.