Helly Hansen Falcon Running Shoes Review

The Falcon Trail Running Shoes by Helly Hansen are fast, lightweight and designed emphasize agility and off-road traction. This is my review:

The Falcon Running Shoes are built to be lightweight, with a recycled polyester upper that is comprised of mostly a highly breathable mesh, with polyester fabric and thermoplastic polyurethane for reinforcement. It features a traditional EVA insole for shock obsorption, lined with polyester to wick moisture while providing smoother contact surface. This sits atop a 100 percent rubber outsole, featuring narrow, angular lugs designed to grab onto soil and rocks from multiple directions for enhanced offroad traction. They feature flat laces, reinforced eyelets, and a narrow toe bumper to minimize weight. The shoes weigh 360 grams on average, and retail for $140.

Being a relatively straightforward trail runner, I’ll keep this review relatively short (gasp, I know), starting with what I liked. The off-road traction of the Falcons is quite solid, with grip on hardpack dirt, loose soil, mud and rocks being consistent and reliable. Their nimble build and relatively wide toe platform results in a responsive, reactive stride that handles turns and changes in directionality very well, even on angle surfaces and inclines. Their stopping power is great thanks to narrow heel brake lugs that bite down when shifting body weight back on them. The shoes are also quite comfortable with an extremely flexible upper and lower that bends and shapes with the foot right out of the box, only softening up more with use. They’re also extremally breathable and dry very quickly should they get wet. Once properly laced, they lock into place and do not shift or roll on the foot, resulting in good stability, no heel slip, and zero hotspots in my testing, when paired with wool socks. The wispy construction is extremely lightweight also, reducing fatigue on longer runs without sacrificing much in the way of durability in my testing.

No shoes are perfect however. I did find the Falcons had less than ideal grip on wet pavement and roots, resulting in situations that felt a little slippery at times. Pavement in general didn’t feel great to run on as the narrow lugs didn’t absorb the impact well. This isn’t the focus on the shoe, obviously, but most trail runners hit pavement as some point so it’s worth pointing out. I also found that the tread wear was faster than expected, with the lugs rounding off after just 50 miles or so of use. They also show dirt very easily with the white foam exterior being exposed to dirt and mud rather often. They do clean up well enough, but I would still have preferred basically any color other than white being used here, especially on a trail runner.

Overall

The Falcon by Helly Hensen is a reliable, lightweight, nimble shoe that performs excellent off-road thanks to well designed lugs constructed from soft, grippy rubber, and a wide toe platform that digs into hard and soft-packed dirt alike. They’re very comfortable to wear both on and off the trail, and look rather nice if the care is taken to keep them clean. They certainly emphasize off-road traction, as wet pavement can be a little slick with them and the tread pattern wears somewhat quickly, especially on pavement. Their choice of white foam on the outer on a trail runner questionable, but I did see some other color options online via Amazon. Otherwise, these are a solid choice for fast and light trail running, light hiking, or casual use.