It took fifteen generations, but Saucony has finally given the Peregrine the one update trail runners have asked for in every review since 2012. The Peregrine 16, on shelves globally since November and now widely stocked across the UK and Europe at £130, ships with a full Vibram Megagrip outsole - the first time the brand's mainline trail flagship has used the Italian rubber compound rather than its proprietary PWRTRAC. After a spring of testing in Snowdonia, the Peak District and the Highlands, the verdict is clear: the change is as significant as the spec sheet suggests, and it reframes where the Peregrine sits in a now extremely crowded all-terrain category.
The outsole rework is more than a rubber swap. Saucony has stayed with its 5mm chevron lugs, the heritage geometry that has made the Peregrine such a confident off-road shoe in soft terrain, but added a pattern of small "traction lugs" - tiny rubber dots that ring each main lug to extend ground-contact area on rock, hardpack and wet roots. In practice, those dots make the most noticeable difference exactly where PWRTRAC used to feel skittish: smeared off-camber granite, bog-side flagstones and the kind of polished limestone that has historically punished thinly-rubbered trail shoes. The grip ceiling is now genuinely Megagrip-class.
Above the outsole the changes are subtler but compound. PWRRUN foam has gained roughly 4mm of stack, taking the midsole to 28mm in the heel and 24mm at the forefoot, with the same 4mm drop. The result is a softer, more forgiving ride than the Peregrine 15 without the dead, mushy feel that often comes with extra cushion in this segment. The shoe still drives forward when you pick up the pace, especially on rolling singletrack, and the rock plate has been retained for protection on jagged ground. Against the Hoka Speedgoat 6 the ride is firmer, against the La Sportiva Bushido 3 it is more cushioned, and against the Brooks Cascadia 18 it is noticeably more agile.
The upper has been retooled as well, with a recycled jacquard mesh that breathes much better than the slightly stuffy 15 and a redesigned heel collar that holds without the slipping reported in earlier samples. Sizing is true, although runners with wide forefeet should size up half a notch - the toe box, while improved, still leans towards a precise rather than roomy fit. The gusseted tongue and the integrated debris-shedding gusset are unchanged, which is welcome; both worked well already and trim several grams compared with stitched-in alternatives.
The Peregrine 16's positioning is the more interesting part of the story. With the new outsole, Saucony has finally produced a shoe that competes head-to-head with category leaders rather than functioning as a value alternative, and at £130 it is also £30-£40 cheaper than the Speedgoat 6 or Cascadia Elite. For runners who treat the Peregrine as a year-round daily trainer that needs to handle Lake District scrambles one weekend and the local woodland the next, the move to Megagrip removes the only meaningful complaint anyone had with the previous version. After fifteen iterations, the Peregrine is finally the shoe its long-time fans always argued it was.