VJ MAXx 2 Review
VJ is a brand known for its aggressive and bold shoes, and the VJ MAXx 2 ($180) is a great entry point into the brand’s stable of offerings. My experience with VJ trail running shoes over the last couple of years has been a welcoming affair — these shoes turn on and tune up for trail conditions. I often refer to VJ shoes as niche trail and mountain performers and obstacle course racers par excellence, but I encourage any trail runner or adventurer residing across the geographies and geologies to lace up a pair.
It is an experience.
This shoe is a great option for those who haven’t had prior experience with the brand’s offerings. It has a more well-rounded design and more midsole cushion than other VJ models. The shoe casts a wide net on distance and terrain that it performs well on, including pavement, hard-packed forest roads, and slabs. I wasn’t hesitant about taking them out on two of my longest winter runs immediately after granting them freedom to fresh air, rain, and sunshine from their boxed compartment.
The VJ MAXx 2 is different than the prior version of the shoe, the VJ MAXx, in several definable ways, but the overall result is the same — a versatile shoe for all distances and surfaces. The VJ MAXx 2 has slightly more lift with a 31-millimeter heel and 25-millimeter toe stack height for a 6-millimeter drop to go with a 4-millimeter lug height. These specifications are generally amenable to a large swath of runners.
I consider the MAXx 2 to be a high-volume shoe. It is spacious and has the ability to lock down where it is needed the most. There is ample room in the toebox, but it comes more from additional vertical space rather than a traditional wide toebox akin to shoes from Topo and Altra. It pushes the scales at a claimed 9.9 ounces (282 grams) for U.S. men’s 9.5, but the Finnish designers have a way of engineering shoes to ride light. As a side note, apart from their winter-specific training shoes, most of VJ’s models are unisex fit, but that hasn’t stopped this woman from loving many of these models.
