GORUCK Mackall Review
The GORUCK Mackall, a backpack that bridges the gap between rugged functionality and sleek design. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler, a daily commuter, or an outdoor enthusiast seeking gear that can keep up with your adventures, the GORUCK Mackall promises to deliver. GORUCK Mackall Review, we’ll dive deep into the features and performance of this versatile backpack to see if it lives up to its reputation as the ultimate everyday carry companion. Join us as we explore why the GORUCK Mackall has become a favorite among those who demand both form and function from their gear.
The Mackalls are the rucking shoe from the rucking company (GORUCK…if that wasn’t obvious). Engineered to handle rougher terrain and withstand the rigors of extended time under heavy load, they do this very thing very well.
As a speciality shoe, the Mackalls don’t purport themselves to be “all-around” fitness shoe trainers or to be particularly good at rucking in more controlled or less variable conditions.
For the rucking “purist” who prefers the feel, and possibly even the look, of a (heavy) training shoe more than they do a traditional rucking boot, the Mackalls are top of the line. For everything else, it’s probably better to look elsewhere.
Pros
- Triple compound outsole ideal for maintaining grip in rough terrain
- Wide toe box and protective toe cap for enhanced foot comfort and security
- 13mm heel drop is “sweet spot” for rucking
Cons
- Materials don’t feel the most “quality”
- Not ideal for indoor “dynamic” rucking
- Most expensive of GORUCK’s shoe offerings
Thankfully, the GORUCK Mackalls are neither regular workout shoes nor deceptively bad shoes for outdoor activities and rucking. In my experience, they are actually the best shoes for rucking from the company that describes itself as “The Rucking Company”.
“Pure” Rucking (GORUCK Mackall Review)
If throwing a bag over your shoulders and walking (maybe “shuffling” a bit) from paved roads and sidewalks down through heavy brush for a few hours is all you need your shoe to help you do, you might be able to quit reading after this section.
In my opinion, the Mackall is the best shoe for “pure” rucking.
Let’s start with the “bad” news: the shoes are offered exclusively as low tops. If you require additional ankle support and/or padding or if you simply prefer the feeling of a mid-top or high-top shoe, the Mackall might be a bit of a disappointment.
Thankfully, it’s all uphill from here!
For me, the most important components of any rucking shoe that I’m actually going to wear off trail are grip and the ability to gain and maintain traction and general foot protection. The first of these qualities is especially important to me since I’ve never been great at maneuvering downhill and have the irrational (rational?) fear of flailing down like some Looney Tunes character if I lose my footing.
The Mackall’s outsole provides the perfect combination of cleats/lugs that are positioned almost like the bottom of a football cleat, but being far too subtle to notice during casual wear. I find that this subtlety quickly falls away when I’m on a hill (moving up, down or laterally), when the weather sucks and its muddy, or when other wise “flat” terrain is actually pretty uneven.
I also appreciate the overall abrasion resistance the Mackalls provide. Nobody is going to confuse the outer materials and toe cap with that of any run-of-the mill hiking or even combat boot, but the tight-knit polyester does a pretty good job of keeping the bad stuff out.
Interestingly, I don’t find the outer materials to be of particularly high quality and sometimes I wonder if the Mackall would be better served with the same Cordura ballistic nylon that GORUCK’s Ballistic Trainers are made of. They might be better at actually warding off the bad stuff; as protective as my Mackalls are, they almost consistently look a bit scuffed up.
Guess its better to have crap all over my shoe than poking into my shoe.
Like the outer materials, I don’t find the laces included with Mackalls to be overly impressive, but not bothersome enough to change out. They’re also heavier than typical training shoes, but weigh far less than just about any boot you might opt for. You probably won’t notice this on Mile 2. You’ll probably notice this on Mile 26.
At the end of the day, I consider myself more of a gym rat than a rucker. Having not grown up in boots, but being well aware of the kind of footwear necessary for rucking, the Mackall is a “bingo” for me in this category.
“Pure” Rucking Score: 95
“Speed” Rucking
If you’ve participated in any number of “official” rucking events, most notably those that involved rucking a certain number of miles through a city or area for time, you’ve unwittingly engaged in “speed rucking”.
I’d be willing to bet that the majority of these events took place on sidewalks, streets, and other paved areas as opposed to in brush or even relatively level forest trails and the like. Because of this, you may have even gotten to get away with wearing run-of-the-mill training shoes to get you through.
In situations like these, the main advantages that the Mackall shoes possess are largely lost because pavement doesn’t require (or even really allow) for cleated/lugged soles to dig into the ground for better traction, the same type of grip isn’t necessary, and the overall heavier shoe weight makes it more difficult and tiring to maintain higher speeds.
Obviously, this assessment changes quite a bit if you are actually able to move really quickly under load through unimproved terrain, although, due to the conditions and environment, I would still classify this activity as “pure” rucking.
Ultimately, the Mackall’s superior ability to handle/maintain my ruck’s weight under load makes it slightly better at the task of “speed” rucking more than many other shoes, but the added weight negates this advantage. If you see yourself as more of a pavement (or even as a treadmill rucker) more than a trail or terrain rucker, the Mackalls shouldn’t be your top choice.
“Speed” Rucking Score: 85
“Dynamic” Rucking
If you like to train outside, you do a lot of hill sprints, or if you have a GORUCK Light, Heavy, Tough or similar event coming up, the Mackall will be of exponentially more value to you than if you do none of these things.
Think about it for a minute…when was the last time you wore some type of cleat, even a shoe with smaller, more subtle cleats, to do preacher curls in in? Run on the treadmill in? To squat in?
I mean, no shame if you actually do this stuff on a regular basis, but I think you might agree that none of these activities require such a shoe, and, in all of these cases, there are definitely better shoe options for the task at hand.
Are Mackalls the worst shoes for this type of activity? Not by any means, and I have actually found these to be more comfortable than expected for certain indoor functional fitness movements (to include squatting).
…however, this type of situation can actually lead to the worst outcomes.
Squatting in Mackalls feels pretty okay with ~135 pounds…so you up the weight to 185…then 225…and on…
Eventually, as much as I would wish that it didn’t happen, the bottom cleats are going to slip or will otherwise cause you to be less than “fully grounded”. The heavier the weight, the more dangerous this situation would turn out to be.
Bottom line, be careful if you try to rock these for indoor, dynamic movements.
In contrast, the Mackalls are pretty good for outdoor workouts, particularly for those out in the field, on grass, etc. I would venture to say that for any of the GORUCK events briefly mentioned at the beginning of this section, the Mackalls are your best option of any of the GORUCK shoe options. None of these events (outside of, like, GORUCK Selection) include significant running, traditional implement (barbells, dumbbells, etc.) work, but include a lot of PT on the field.
Additionally, and the “dynamic rucking” activity I associate with the Mackalls the most is hill sprinting (which, for me is more like a “hill kinda fast shuffle”). When I try these in any other shoes (to include all of my training shoes), the results are anywhere from “this is really difficult” to “when am I going to hear ‘the pop’”.
(I don’t remember these feelings when I was running these as a younger man. Hill sprints are obviously a young man’s game!)
As you’ve probably guessed by now, the Mackall has its niche purposes, “dynamic” rucking tasks being no exception, but know if those purposes match your purposes before taking the plunge.
“Dynamic” Rucking Score: 80
General Training
As you can imagine from reading the previous section, the Mackalls aren’t on the top of the list as a general training shoe. Depending on the training facility, these shoes may not even be allowed (mainly due to their slightly cleated bottoms).
When I talk about “general training”, I’m mainly referring to what most people get into at the gym: light circuit training, bicep curls, treadmill running, walking from machine to machine…if you can tell me why you would need a heavy, protective shoe for this regimen, I’d love to hear it…because I ain’t seein’ it!
As with our discussion of “speed” rucking, many of the Mackalls advantages are irrelevant (and can actually become hindrances) in the very controlled gym environment. Additionally, activities like treadmill running are a lot more difficult in heavy, cleated shoes.
I would say that these are good for certain outdoor “general training” pursuits, but do not provide any significant value for those performing these types of workouts. If these are your main interests, though, I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a hold of these.
General Training Score: 75
Construction & Materials
The Mackalls have an interesting distinction of feeling simultaneously like solid shoes while not feeling like they are of particularly high-quality materials. That’s not to say that they feel like cheap or “bad” materials; they just don’t feel like exceptionally high quality-materials.
To be more specific, the top features that make the shoe so appropriate for their intended use are the triple compound rubber outsole (which is pretty legit), reinforced toe cap (not steel toe, of course) and the densely-woven polyester outer materials. As mentioned a number of times, the somewhat aggressive cleats/lugs are an important feature, even though they plastic/rubbery composition feels a bit cheap.
I can appreciate how protective the outer material is and I rarely feel anything penetrating into my shoes, but I don’t find it to be overly “quality” material, if that makes sense. In contrast to the Cordura material on a shoe like the Ballistic Trainer, I can’t say it feels like some type of proprietary, “gonna change the world!” type of material. However, it certainly accomplishes its task.
I also find the shoes’ laces to be adequate and certainly “speedy” (as the shoes’ description attests), but they feel quite flimsy and I have found them to be more susceptible to randomly coming undone (likely because they don’t tie up as tight as other shoes or boots). However, some might appreciate them for being really quick to try and lace.
Regarding the overall shoe construction, the Mackall shoe designers have done a gone job of accommodating them for their intended task. As has been discussed above, there are definitely activities the shoes are not constructed and, as such, they shouldn’t be used for.
However, the material composition, combined with an appropriate 13mm heel drop and decently padded midsole conveys a degree of care and intention to detail in the design of the best “pure” rucking shoe.
Construction & Materials Score: 80
Price
The Mackalls are the most expensive of any of GORUCK’s shoe offerings. However, being that they only retail for $20 more than either the Ballistic Trainers or the Rough Runners, they aren’t significantly more expensive than the company’s other footwear offerings.
Compared to some of the other entries on the list of the best shoes for rucking, the Mackalls are a higher-priced entry, but are only a lot more pricier than the more “budget”-priced options.
One thing to keep in mind is that the Mackalls, like all of GORUCK’s shoe offerings, seem to almost perpetually be on sale. Not every color combination or size is always on sale (the company isn’t one of those “every day 50 percent off!” types of stores common in Mexican tourist trap location), but if you’re cool with getting a second or third-choice color, you can save quite a bit of money.
If you look at the color of the Mackalls in my pictures, this was obviously my strategy. I have no regrets!
Price Score: 75
Customer Reviews
As one of GORUCK’s newer footwear offerings, there aren’t a ton of reviews in for the Mackalls yet (as of May, 2024, that is). But of the ~170 reviews, the vast majority are pretty good.
The 4.6/5 is more in line with GORUCK’s Rough Runners (and is slightly lower than the 4.8 that the Ballistic Trainers boast), but is, nevertheless, rather impressive for a rather niche shoe.
Only 7 of the reviews rated the Mackalls at 3 stars or lower with the most common complaints being that the shoes felt overly heavy and that there was actually too much arch support.
Then you get reviews like this guy’s. I thought it was funny.
Because, ya know, I’m sure this dude’s wife has never bought a stupid pair of shoes (or 10) that she wore, like, once. Don’t check your credit card statement, man!
Anyways…GORUCK’s stuff doesn’t’ really shoe up on websites that aren’t owned/managed by GORUCK so it’s difficult to find off-site reviews of their products. As it is, for now we’ll take these official site reviews as the definitive customer shoe experiences.
Customer Reviews Score: 92
Customer Service
One thing I appreciate about GORUCK is that their people are generally pretty easy to get a hold of and when you interact with them, they’re pretty empathetic and understanding. I don’t think they have the biggest group staff, but I think it works well enough for them.
I’ve made a few GORUCK orders over the last few years and have had very little trouble with any of the orders or the service I’ve received. However, on one occasion, I made a mistake with my order (I entered some incorrect information) and immediately notified the customer service team. Instead of simply updating the information, they had to cancel my order and I had to repeat the entire process again. This seemed a bit superfluous, but coulda been worse, I guess.
Customer Service Score: 85
Who are the Mackalls really for?
As rucking has grown in search interest and overall popularity, there has been greater and greater demand for footwear appropriate for the task (no, rucking shoes aren’t the same as hiking shoes). As we dive deeper into the niche, we can find the “ideal” Mackall wearer.
“Pure” Ruckers who Prefer Shoes
I would bet money that the majority of the new people getting into rucking didn’t come into it with a lot of rucking, combat, or other boot experiences…or preferences. A lot of people love boots and I can appreciate the times and places where I know I really need the added protection they provide…but that’s not…like…90 percent of my rucking activities.
If you don’t want to restrict yourself to the streets and sidewalks, but you also don’t want to wear boots every time you ruck…the Mackalls are “Mackallin’” you (zing!)
Those who Prioritize Outdoor Workouts
This category covers people who regularly perform workouts on grass, on the field, etc. who require a bit of traction and who would actually benefit from a some more weight/stability in their training shoes.
Not for Those Looking for Indoor Training Shoes
The Mackalls are not designed to be your all-purpose training shoes nor are they designed for any type of “functional training” or CrossFit-like workouts. They’re too heavy for these tasks, the soles aren’t ideal for the even/level flooring, and the protective elements are really unnecessary in the climate-controlled environments.
How we reviewed Mackalls
I ruck at least two days each week. One of these is always a ruck up and down a paved road into the closest town while the other one is either a treadmill ruck or a ruck out on a mixture of old, beaten up trails and pure forest.
Since I got the Mackalls back in October of 2023, I have almost exclusively worn them for my trail rucking and occasionally wear them on pavement. When I was initially testing them, I wore them a bit more on pavement and a couple of times on the treadmill before opting for a more appropriate options for these settings (my Rough Runners).
I also almost exclusively opt for the Mackalls during “backyard” training sessions where I generally employ a lot more sand and a lot fewer barbells into my workouts.
Against my better judgement, I used the Mackalls for a squat session (not too heavy, though) and for some indoor, dynamic movement workouts.
Mackall Alternatives
I assume that most people interested in the Mackalls are rucking purists and are on the hunt for footwear that will best facilitate these types of endeavors. However, I’m aware that some may be cool with a great rucking boot or even the “speed” rucking champ:
Frequently Asked Questions
At this point, you’ve probably already made up your mind regarding how you feel about the Mackalls. If not, here’s a few more answers that may do the job for you:
How long do these take to break in?
How do these compare to the MACV-2s?
Conclusion
The GORUCK Mackall backpack is a versatile and durable option for anyone in need of a reliable everyday carry bag. Its rugged construction and functional design make it ideal for urban commutes, travel adventures, and outdoor excursions. With ample storage space and comfortable straps, the Mackall offers both style and practicality. Despite its slightly higher price point, the quality and craftsmanship of this backpack justify the investment for those seeking a long-lasting and dependable bag. Consider adding the GORUCK Mackall Review to your collection for a versatile and reliable companion on your daily journeys.
