From boots to barefoot-style shoes, we cover the entire footwear spectrum. Our staff runs, hikes, treks, and climbs in new footwear and shoes each week.
The Hercules is the “first true mountaineering boot certified for wildland fire fighting,” according to manufacturer Cosmas, an Italian boot maker. It’s made to cater to young firefighters who now eschew traditional logger boots in favor of something with more performance and style. . .
La Sportiva’s to-be-released climbing shoe — a $215 magic boot that can purportedly endure a decade of alpine action — is named after the Tolkien wizard who guided Frodo and his entourage through the mountains of Middle Earth. . .
The Timberland Rime Ridge boot pulls characteristics from technical wintertime footwear as well as from the realm of the snow boot. At $190, they are not something most people will buy for tromping around the yard. But for snowshoeing, hiking and even easy mountaineering these pseudo Moon Boots offer an interesting option. . .
OK, clear your throat. Now let out a hearty laugh. Yes, these are gloves for your feet, and they look silly. Now listen: Vibram USA is onto something here. I have run close to 100 miles in a pair of FiveFingers, and darn if I’m not becoming a convert. . .
Bridgedale wants to make bulky ski socks a thing of the past. The company’s Precision Fit line features “anatomic knitting” that contours the shape of the leg, ankle and foot with varying fabric thicknesses and elasticity to ensure proper fit and performance in a ski boot. The ankle, calf and bottom of the foot feature… Read more »
Walk a mile through any woods, run down a ragged trail, and the chance of collecting a twig or pebble in your shoe is fairly high. For backpackers and hikers, a tiny intrusion — say a small stone wedged under your sock — can easily sprout a hot spot or blister.
I don’t actually know what “après anything” means, but with its new Terrasoles line of shoes R.G. Barry Corp. “targets the void many people face when transitioning from active footwear into something that is more comfortable and casual, yet remains functional.” Right. . . like when I get done climbing a mountain, remove my boots, and think “dang, if there wasn’t just a shoe perfect for this pub and the muddy lot I need to negotiate on my way inside. . . .”
“Boots off. Happy on.” That’s Zinetic Inc.’s slogan for its line of unisex pocket slippers for the outdoors. Kind of (somehow) sexy sounding I thought at first. But the product is fairly straight laced, just a flappy hard rubber sole and a meshy top. They’re made to wear in lieu of the heavy and clunky footwear often accompanying outdoors types to hostels, backcountry campsites, ski lodges, and yurts deep in the San Juans. . .
These to-be-released trail runners — the Carbon Fyre from GoLite Footwear — will be among the priciest ever made when they debut in March 2008. Indeed, at $160 the shoes go at twice the price of a good pair from Vasque or Inov-8. But GoLite always has some tricks up its sleeves, including. . .
Yes, these are crampons. Well, sort of. Pedestrian crampons. But with 10 spikes, each one 3/8-inch long, and made of stainless steel, the Kahtoola MICROSpikes could do real work paired with hiking boots or running shoes to provide traction on snow and ice. A “shoe harness” made of a stretchy rubber flexes as you step in, then cinches tight. And they’re so packable and light that people (me, for example) will be tempted to try and employ them for easy mountaineering. My pair arrived in the mail yesterday, and I can say I am intrigued. . .
Sandal-maker KEEN (o.k., the company makes lots of shoes now, too) has just announced an expansion into two new footwear categories, climbing and cycling. You’ll have to wait a few months, but when these shoes debut the company promises some unique performance and comfort features, including. . .
6 hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds. That was Team Gear Junkie’s time at Saturday’s MNOC Adventure Race, a run/bike/paddle competition in east-central Minnesota, where some requisite gear hashing included a maiden test of Inov-8’s new Debrisoc gaiter. . .
In an attempt to run as unencumbered as possible, I’ve been testing a pair of Brooks’ T5 Racers, which are flyweight road runners nearly unnoticeable on the foot. They’re essentially a soft meshy shell with an EVA midsole, though very little support. Indeed, at 5.9 ounces per shoe, these sprinters are literally half the weight of some comparable shoes I own, which can be good and bad. . .
The esoteric nature of water sports like canyoneering, rafting, riverboarding, and whitewater swimming calls for equally esoteric footwear. Indeed, to acquiesce with eddies and tumbling submerged stones and nasty currents, companies have designed shoes that guard toes, give grip underwater, and generally protect your feet once they’re submerged.
The Aspen Boot from Salomon employs a material that’s been used in space suits and is approved by NASA. Called Spaceloft, the fabric permits thinner boot uppers at the same level of thermal protection as a thicker pair. Kind of like a pair of Sorels, only svelte and lighter like oversize trail-running shoes. Salomon is calling its Aspen Boot the “first ever nanotechnology application to outdoor footwear.”
Salomon has shipped me an early test pair of its latest trail runner, the Speedcross 2, which comes out in the fall and is built for cool weather and snow. It looks like an upgraded XA Pro, the company’s flagship off-trail/adventure shoe. But the Speedcross 2 is tweaked with a new “knee-saving” cushioning system that I noticed within the first few feet of my test run last night. . .
No, these foam-based, clog-type, slip-on sandals aren’t Crocs. Just very similar. Some would say rip-off-level similar. In business-speak, though, Cloggens LLC is simply a “fast-follower,” which is a company that jumps into the slipstream of another enterprise with a similar — and sometimes better — iteration of the same idea. . .
In a quest that’s stretching now beyond the two-year mark to find the perfect trail-running shoe, I’ve discovered only one real thing: There is no perfect trail-running shoe.
For every situation and every trail, for every person, for every foot, a different shoe will work better or worse. I’m happy now, finally, with that conclusion.
Keen and Mion have each sent me a pair of water/canyon/river shoes, respectively the Hood River II sandals and the Fast Canyon hybrid-frogfoot-sandal-thingy. Cool designs both, with sticky rubber on the sole, drainage, and protection for “amphibious athletes,” as Mion calls river walkers, canyoneers, and other odd water-loving types like me.
Heavy hiking boots are a thing of the past for any informed outdoors wanderer. Indeed, the clunky boots of yore — some weighing more than 3 pounds apiece — have been cast aside by most every footwear company now in favor of lightweight shoes and low-top hikers.
Can you say cream of the crop? The Salomon S-Lab XA Pro 3 shoes were developed for elite adventure racers, top trail runners, and mountain marathoners who might tick off a 40-mile backcountry session on any given Saturday.
Keen Footwear exploded onto the market five years ago, selling millions of its innovative toe-bumper-equipped sandals in its first year of business. Now, Jim Van Dine, the former president of Keen, has formed a new footwear company he believes will garner similar response. Ahnu Footwear (www.ahnufootwear.com) is, for the time being, a small operation in… Read more »
Custom molded footbeds used to be available only through retailers like ski shops, where fitting your foot to an anatomically-unique insole was managed by professionals.
Now two companies make products that let you mold a custom insole at home.
Kahtoola Inc.’s new FLIGHTsystem — an innovative overboot-snowshoe package that costs $334 — was made for wintertime runners and outdoorsy types who need to go fast and light through the snow.
Lake Cycling touts its new MXZ301 bike shoes as the “ultimate in cold weather cycling footwear.”
But these aren’t truly bike shoes. The MXZ301 model — insulated leather high-tops with neoprene cuff closures — are indeed full-on winter biking boots.
Since 1984, when a Grand Canyon river guide invented a unique sport-oriented sandal with over-the-foot nylon straps, the Teva brand has been synonymous with open-toe footwear of all kind.
But the company, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, dabbles in shoes as well.
The proverbial flip-flop sandal just barely passes for a shoe. It offers little support and no toe protection. It’s made to be worn casually, for comfort, convenience and little else.
There are myths and hearsay in backpacking circles of hardy trekkers who go days and weeks on the trail in only a pair of sandals. Now, these are not flip-flops, mind you. Over the past decade, companies starting with Teva and Chaco, and now Bite, Keen and others, have refined the traditional sandal into something with support, grip, comfort and durability.
A typical adventure race includes steep uphill climbs, river crossings, long treks off trail and miles upon miles of fast running on gravel roads and trails. As such, the footwear built for the sport must drain water quickly when submerged, protect the foot from roots and rocks, run fast when the trail opens up and offer enough comfort and support for the long haul.
In the early ’90s, Shane Cooper brought together the unlikely bedfellows of bike racing and sock knitting to create Defeet International. Cooper, who was a semi-pro cyclist at the time, grew up fascinated with his father’s knitting machine parts distributor business, and he decided to try a hand at making a better bike sock.
Timberland is a company that realizes business trips are not all work. At the very least, most business travelers have free time at night to explore town. Some — like me — even sneak off on quick day trips to check out nearby canyons or mountain trails when the chance arises.