Merrell Antora 4 Review

The Merrell Antora 4. All photos: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

The Merrell Antora 4 ($130) is a solid bop-around-the-neighborhood shoe that can handle pavement, smooth dirt roads, and light trails quite well. It received significant updates from the previous version, from upper to outsole, that moved the shoe slightly away from the trail category and more into the hybrid category. It’s a women’s-specific shoe built on a last with a narrower foot in mind.

Last year, I wore through a pair of the Merrell Antora 3, and admittedly didn’t like it. As someone who’s more used to the precise feel of narrower shoes meant for technical mountain terrain, my feet felt like they were swimming in the 3s. But another iRunFar tester liked the shoe, and you can read more about it in our in-depth Merrell Antora 3 review. Fast forward to the present day, and it feels like Merrell refined the toebox of this shoe slightly and reduced its overall volume, making it a viable option for my feet. They were still wide enough that I appreciated having extra room for my feet for runs where precision footwork wasn’t a top priority.

While I’d love to be in a situation where I can run technical terrain day in and day out, I’ve reached a phase in life where I sometimes simply need to walk out the door and go for a run on flatter, smoother terrain. Enter the Merrell Antora 4: a shoe that made logging miles for the sake of getting out and wiggling my body more enjoyable than any of the other trail shoes in my quiver.

While this isn’t a shoe designed for technical terrain, the 3-millimeter lugs provide sufficient grip on easy dirt, and the 29-millimeter stack height at the heel, combined with 21 millimeters of foam under the toes, provides enough cushion for short- and medium-length runs. The 8-millimeter drop feels dead-on average for most trail shoes of this genre. With an actual weight of 7.76 ounces (220 grams) for a women’s U.S. size 7, it’s a light and airy shoe.

I logged most of my miles in this shoe around Moab, Utah, on a mix of hard-packed dirt roads, sandy dirt roads, flatter trails, and some trails for which this shoe probably isn’t appropriate. I found that there’s a distinct limit to the terrain this shoe could handle before I started to roll off the sides and felt like I was going to twist my ankle. But for the flat road runs that transitioned from pavement to dirt to sand, this shoe excelled in the comfort category.

Merrell Antora 4 Upper

A lateral view of the Merrell Antora 4.

If there is a way for a trail shoe to look feminine, the Merrell Antora 4 nails it. All of the colorways are almost pastel, and the whole shoe just looks petite, almost doll-like. This allows the shoe to double as a casual shoe when you want to walk about without your look screaming Trail Runner. The toebox is roomy without feeling too wide, but the whole shoe is rather narrow compared to others from Merrell. There is very little sole flair below the narrow midfoot of the upper, making the shoe a bit tippier than many other trail shoes.

The upper, which received a fairly significant upgrade from the previous version of this shoe, features an engineered mesh with TPU overlays for increased protection around the toes and stability around the heel. Merrell removed many of the TPU overlays around the midfoot of the shoe from the previous version, potentially compromising its structure and stability. The tongue is reasonably padded without feeling overdone, and it comes with an elastic lace keeper for those who prefer to tuck their laces away. I never had any issues with the laces coming untied, even if they weren’t tucked away. Merrell had some durability issues with the laces pulling through the eyelets in their most recent Agility Peak 5, but thus far, after about 100 miles of running over the course of two months in these shoes, the laces seem secure in their spot.

I found the upper to be quite breathable when the desert heat kicked in, and the robust mesh was effective at keeping the sand out — a critical component of a good desert shoe. While I don’t think the durability of this upper would hold up to more technical trails, it’s shown very little sign of wear with casual use.

The TPU overlay on the toe provides a fair bit of structure and some protection from stubbed toes. Merrell utilizes an external rear sling on the heel to provide additional stability in the rear of the shoe.

For a shoe designed for dirt roads, road running, and light trails, the upper provides sufficient lockdown and support. However, the moment things go off-camber, it becomes apparent that this shoe lacks some lateral stability.

Merrell Antora 4 Midsole

A medial view of the Merrell Antora 4.

The Merrell Antora 4 midsole features the brand’s FloatPro Foam, an EVA foam used in many of their shoes. The additional flex grooves in the foam could potentially increase the shoe’s flexibility, but it’s hard to tell the difference in a shoe with this low of a stack height.

The foam is fairly firm, but I found it provided enough spring and protection from the ground that I could easily run 10 moderate miles without any foot pain and without the shoes feeling clunky. This isn’t a shoe that I’d take for longer distances, as I think I’d choose something with a bit more cushion, but for shorter, easier runs, it provided plenty of comfort.

Merrell markets these shoes in the moderate trail running category, but I think I would place them more on the lighter side of things. There’s no rock plate, and there’s not quite enough cushioning to protect the feet from rough trail debris. The shoe has some rocker, encouraging a smooth running gait, but I also found them comfortable for wearing around town to do errands while making the walking motion.

As mentioned above, there’s very little sole flare to this shoe, meaning that the midsole stays essentially the same width as the footbed all the way down to the outsole. Shoes with some sole flare tend to be more stable, and I found this shoe to be more tippy than other shoes I run in, especially something like the Hoka Speedgoat 6, which comes from a brand known for a lot of sole flare. In other words, I had some close calls with going over the side when venturing into terrain I probably shouldn’t have been in with these particular shoes.

Merrell Antora 4 Outsole

The outsole of the Merrell Antora 4.

The Quantum Grip outsole of the Merrell Antora 4 provides enough grip on pavement, dirt roads, and gravel. The design of the outsole underwent some changes from the previous version, including a reduction in lug length by a millimeter. The 3-millimeter, chevron- and rectangular-shaped lugs are low-profile enough to transition between surfaces easily and dig into softer, but still firm, surfaces well. Interestingly, that’s the second reduction in lug length in the past two updates, dropping from the Antora 2, which had five-millimeter lug depth.

The lug pattern and shape have changed slightly, but for the shoe’s intended purpose, I don’t suspect the new setup would make a significant performance difference. I wouldn’t take these shoes on any sort of rubbly trail or mud without expecting to end up on my rear. The outsole cutouts, extending from the front to the rear of the shoe, are larger than before, serving to increase the shoe’s flexibility while also reducing its weight.

The rubber seems fairly firm, and even after spending a considerable amount of time on rough sandstone, it shows remarkably little wear after approximately 100 miles.

Merrell Antora 4 Overall Impressions

A top view of the Merrell Antora 4.

The Merrell Antora 4 is a solid shoe for cruisy runs on non-technical terrain. Overall, it’s a pretty little shoe that received some major upgrades that have lightened it up from the previous version, but, for better or worse, have somewhat moved it away from the trail shoe category and into more of a gravel one.

The upper features fewer TPU overlays compared to the prior version, particularly around the midfoot, which reduces its lateral stability. Still, the heel holds well, and I didn’t have any issues with lockdown, as long as I wasn’t trying to move on off-camber terrain. The midsole is firm enough to provide protection and doesn’t feel overly squishy. It’s not a shoe that encourages speed, but for moderately-paced miles, it does the job. Finally, the outsole is now lower profile, featuring smaller lugs and larger cutouts that expose the midsole.

This is a shoe that’s great when you just want to get out and run on a variety of surfaces without thinking too hard about which shoe to wear. It’s more grippy than a road shoe, but less luggy and supportive than a true trail shoe, and for the runs where I just wanted to move and get some exercise, this shoe performed admirably.

Call for Comments

• Have you worn any of the Merrell Antora shoes? What did you think?
• Do you have a favorite go-get-some-exercise shoe that you can trust on a variety of surfaces?

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