Hoka Mafate Speed 5
The mountain-ultra workhorse, refined. Grippier and better-fitting than the 4, still a lot of shoe underfoot.
The scorecard
The reworked Vibram Megagrip outsole bites hard on wet sandstone and greasy Glenrock clay.
A deep, forgiving stack that flatters tired legs late in a long day out.
The updated upper locks the midfoot better than the 4 and calms its sloppy heel.
Upper and outsole both holding strong past the 250 km mark.
All that cushioning comes at a cost. On tight, technical singletrack the cushioning swallows ground feel entirely, and on jagged, off-camber rock the platform can feel genuinely unstable, more prone to rolling sideways underfoot than a lower-stack shoe would be. The Speed 5 fits better than the 4, but it doesn't fix this.
Long-day mountain runners who want their legs protected over big descents and rocky kilometres.
Anyone chasing a connected, low-slung feel on technical ground, or a fast, light racing shoe.
The long run
I picked up the Mafate 5 the week it landed in Australia, straight off the back of the outgoing 4, which had been my trail shoe for a good while before that. I'd tried other options in between, the Speedgoat among them, but the Speedgoat 5's heel collar sat too high for me and left me with genuine ankle pain after a handful of runs. That was enough to send me back to the Mafate line, and the Mafate 5 has more than made the case for staying there.
The cushioning is the headline, and it's the best version of this I've felt from Hoka yet. There's a serious amount of foam under the heel, and it genuinely changes how your legs feel deep into a long day, the fatigue that usually creeps in by hour three or four is noticeably delayed, sometimes by a lot. The outsole has backed that up every time it's mattered. Vibram Megagrip lugs bite properly into loose dirt, wet rock, and mud, in conditions where I've had other shoes skate out from under me, this one has held firm. The upper's taken a proper beating from rocks and scrub without a mark to show for it, and the rolling, rockered geometry underfoot keeps you moving forward efficiently even once your form's started to go, which on a long day is worth more than it sounds.
There are a couple of things worth knowing before you buy. It's not the lightest shoe out there, and you'll feel that if you're used to something snappier underfoot. The tongue's a little thin and not gusseted, and on longer runs I've had it slip enough to cause some lace bite I didn't get in the 4, an easy fix with a lace lock, but worth knowing. In hot weather the same protective build that shrugs off sharp rocks does trap a bit more heat than a lighter shoe would.
None of that has kept it out of the rotation. Twelve weeks and 260 kilometres in, the upper shows almost no wear and the outsole is barely rounded off, which at this price is exactly what you want to see. If you loved the 4, or if the Speedgoat's collar has ever given you the same grief it gave me, this is the shoe I'd point you to without much hesitation.
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From the test
