Let’s be real for a second: when you hear “Teva,” you think river sandals, velcro straps, and your uncle wearing them with socks at the campsite. You do not think trail running shoe. So when we got an email highlighting the move into trail, we had to dive in a bit deeper.

Teva just dropped Trailpeak, its first-ever high-performance daily trail shoe, and it’s also the brand’s first shoe fully co-created with athletes from their new Teva Bureau of Adventure (TBA) roster.

We’ll say what we’re all thinking: if Teva is now building trail shoes, has trail running officially gone mainstream? Good or bad, that’s up to you to decide but it’s interesting to see such a legacy outdoor brand with 40+ years of sandal cred deciding that trail running is the next category worthy of dipping their toes into.

Let’s Chat Trailpeak

In the words of Teva, Trailpeak is built as a daily trainer that can flex up for bigger mountain days so let’s dissect that statement.

Trailpeak pairs the brand’s lightest HYPER-COMF+® midsole cushioning with a speedlace system for quick on-trail adjustments, plus a 12-point internal support cage for lateral stability and Spider Rubber® Endure underfoot for traction when things get loose.

TBA ultrarunners played a key role in the design with Erin Ton and Mike Wardian a part of the development and feedback loop. They were in the prototype process from the jump, alongside a broader crew of testers.

Zack Paris, Director of Advanced Concepts & Innovation at Teva, said, “Trailpeak represents a new approach to innovation at Teva. As our first co-created product with the Teva Bureau of Adventure, it showcases the power of designing alongside athletes who put our products to the test every day. From early concepts through real-world testing in demanding environments, their insights shaped every stage of development, resulting in a trail runner built to excel on our athlete’s shorter, faster pursuits.” 

Teva says the shoe logged 1,500 testing miles across 9+ mountain ranges in the U.S., Canada, and Peru to get it right.

The Specs

• Stack height: Men’s 30.5/24.5mm | Women’s 29.5/23.5mm
• Drop: 6mm
• Lug height: 3mm
• Weight: 8.3 oz / 235g (Men’s 9) | 6.5 oz / 185g (Women’s 7)
• MSRP: $160 USD
• Sizes: Women’s 5–11 / Men’s 7–14 

If you take away anything from the above numbers, it is that Trailpeak is in a pretty standard daily-trainer weight and stack range. There isn’t necessarily anything groundbreaking on paper, but also, there is nothing that screams “sandal brand’s first attempt” either.

The 6mm drop and 3mm lugs suggest Teva built this for moderate, mixed terrain rather than technical or mountain scrambling, which tracks with the company’s positioning. If anything, given Teva’s notoriety for being comfortable, we really want to get these onto our feet.

Our Thoughts

We’re genuinely curious about these. A brand’s first shoe in a new category is always a gamble, and co-creating with athletes who’ve actually got skin in the game (Ton alone has 200+ FKTs) is the right way to de-risk that gamble.

It doesn’t guarantee Trailpeak rides like a top-tier daily trainer, but it does mean they did this correctly, with a ton of input, and the people giving feedback are all athletes and want the best for their own feet and performance.

We’ll be getting a pair on our feet hopefully soon to see if Trailpeak backs up the testing miles or if this ends up being a solid first attempt that needs a Gen 2 to really figure it out.

Either way, the beloved sandal brand now building a legit trail shoe is a pretty good sign for where this sport is at right now. In full growth mode.

Trailpeak is available now at Teva.com and at select retailers including Fleet Feet Menlo Park, Running Warehouse, Paragon Sports, and Whole Earth Provision Co. $160 USD.

Let us know what you think. Yay or nay?