Shoe Drying Trials
INTRODUCTION
I read Carol Crooker’s spotlite review of the Inov-8 F-Lite300 trail running shoe and her shoe drying test which determined that it is an exceptionally slow drying piece of equipment. Since I had just purchased the lighter trail racing version of this shoe I was interested to see how it would fare compared to my other shoes.
PURPOSE
To quantitatively examine drying times of various trail shoes after being immersed in water and then run in to pump standing water out and then left to dry.
HYPOTHESIS
None
METHODOLOGY
The four pairs of subject shoes with laces and no footbed were immersed in water for 30 minutes. The shoes were sequentially removed from the water, drained upside down with toe raised 4” for 1 minute, weighed, run in for 5 minutes, re-weighed and enclosed in a plastic bag to arrest water loss.
When this process was completed on all 4 pairs they were all removed from their bags, placed on a coarse metal mesh 2-1/2’ above the ground right side up with the toe raised 4”, and the tongue pulled through the laces.
The shoes were placed in the sun and faced toward the southwest (in honor of Carol?) in the early to mid-afternoon on a sunny, 72-76 degree day with 4-7 MPH wind. Relative humidity was 28%. The first ½ hour drying period started at this time.
While impressed with Carol drying her shoes on her feet in hiking mode, I eschewed this serial approach to maintain identical drying conditions for all subjects and therefore dried the shoes statically in open air.
SUBJECTS
Timberland Rapid Trail Mid / hiking boot /size 9 / 2lb .3oz
Montrail Hardrock Velocity / motion control trail running shoe / size 9 / 1lb 9.4oz
Mizuno Wave Rider 8 / road running shoe / size 10 / 1lb 5.4oz
Inov-8 F-Lite250 / hard pack trail racing shoe / size 9-1/2 / 15.7oz
All weights /pair, shoes and laces, no footbed
All shoes are sized to fit a nominal size 9 foot
NOTES
All weights measured in grams for convenience and accuracy but converted to English units because our elected representatives have ensured that most Americans remain unfamiliar with the metric system.
DATA
My word document chart was compressed to the point of unreadability during the transition to forum post so I have had to present the data in paragraph form.
water weight/pair in ounces
Inov-8: soak & drain 7.5, 5 min.run 2.6, .5hr 1.9, 1hr .9, 1.5hr .4, 2hr .1
Mizuno: soak & drain 13.1, 5 min.run 5.3, .5hr 4.4, 1hr 3.4, 1.5hr 2.7, 2hr 1.9, 2.5hr 1.2, 3hr .6, 3.5hr .3, 4hr .1
Montrail: soak & drain 17.1, 5 min.run 5.9, .5hr 4.8, 1hr 3.5, 1.5hr 2.8, 2hr 1.9, 2.5hr 1.2, 3hr .6, 3.5hr .4, 4hr .1
Timberland: soak & drain 18.0, 5 min.run 8.6, .5hr 7.3, 1hr 6.0, 1.5hr 5.0, 2hr 4.1, 2.5hr 3.2, 3hr 2.3, 3.5hr 1.7, 4hr 1.1, 4.5hr .7, 5.0hr .4, 5.5hr .1
SIGNIFICANT DATA
Inov-8: By far and away this shoe retained the least water after the 5 minute run at 2.6oz. Average water loss per 30 minute period up to 2-1/2 hours (at which time it was dry) was an astounding 62% making it the fastest drying shoe of the lot. Based on Carol’s evaluation of the F-Lite300 (the more cushioned, harder soled, road capable version) revealing it’s slow drying time, the 250 with it’s un-backed mesh construction is clearly a very different animal.
Mizuno and Montrail: In a virtual dead heat, these shoes retained ~5.5oz of water after the run. At 3 hours they were down to .6 oz. Average water loss per 30 minute period up to 2-1/2 hours was a moderate 26%.
Timberland: Not surprisingly, the poorest performer of the test lot was this leather reinforced, mid high boot. Its post run water weight came in at over ½ pound. It took 4.5 hours for its retained water to go under an ounce and its average water loss per 30 minute period up to 2-1/2 hours was a paltry 18%.
CONCLUSIONS
Many believe that a dry foot is a happy foot and that it’s better for a shoe to dry quickly at the expense of water resistance than to repel water but then be slow to dry. For those who so subscribe, the Timberland is a poor choice, the Mizuno and Montrail are good choices and the Inov-8 is an excellent one (keeping in mind that it is a specialty shoe). See Reader Reviews for its significant limitations.
METHODOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS
Better monitoring of time intervals: Before using a timer to alert tester, I let one drying period run to 40 minutes.
Consistent tongue placement: Actually not a speech pathology issue, rather, I had variations in shoe tongue position possibly affecting drying time until I used the laces to consistently hold the tongue open allowing consistent circulating air and sunshine access to the body of the shoe.
Repeat test 2 more times to test the consistency of my data and ensure that standard deviations are within acceptable norms.
