Low cut trail runners are the de facto standard for UL backpacking and can be worn most anywhere - on trails in the mountains of America and Europe or off-track in the Australian bush, for instance. But, some walkers still prefer mid-height or even full-height shoes, and there are quite a few brands on the market. We have seen claims that some of these mid-height shoes weigh no more than many lightweight low-cut trail runners and provide more support and ankle protection for off-trail hiking. Several of the mid-height Innov-8 shoes are a good examples of this. We examine the reality, both for the manufacturers' claims and for what is available for walkers with wide feet - because the authors/testers all have wide feet. Sadly, because of our duck feet, we were not able to include the Innov-8 mids in this article; we simply were not able to wear them.
We decided to survey mid-height shoes weighing less than 450 g/shoe (16 oz) for a Men's size 9 (since many companies quote weight for a size 9). We were hoping to find a mixture of waterproof/breathable and highly breathable shoes with synthetic uppers and (preferably) no leather. We decided to focus on genuinely wide shoes, a 4E if available, to fit all the testers: Roger and Sue Caffin and Will Rietveld. In addition, a few selected low-cut shoes were included in the survey to serve as a comparison. The reason for saying 'genuinely wide' will become obvious soon.
However, it should be noted that while Roger and Sue really do take a 4E width, Will is technically an E fitting. To quote Will:
'Shoe size is 12 E; my feet are wide in the toe area, with a high instep, slightly narrow heel, and moderate pronation. I took the Phil Orem boot fitting class, and that is my foot description according to their diagnostic method. I have tried EE width shoes, but they don't seem to be much wider than a D width, so I go to 4E. Size 4E fits well for width but the shoe volume and heel cup are often too large. My solution is to wear a 4E width with thick cushy socks to adjust the fit. Some manufacturers' shoes in an E width fit me better than a 4E, but it depends on the manufacturer and shoe model. Footwear is complicated when you have wide feet, and the choices are few.'
It will be seen that this made a huge difference in who could wear what.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Background and Sermon
- Selections
- Montrail
- GoLite
- Treksta
- Salomon
- New Balance
- Summary - Things We Learned From This Project
- Mids are Controversial
- Fit is Everything
- Having Wide Feet Presents a Challenge
- Defining the Issue
- What Works for Roger and Sue
- What Works for Will
- Ditch the Leather
# WORDS: 3710
# PHOTOS: 7
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Discussion
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Hi Ken
Yes, many brands were omitted. But do any of the brands you mentioned have shoes for people with genuinely WIDE feet?
Actually, I don't think many of them even state the width, which means that their shoes are probably D or E in width. That was not wide enough for the purpose of this survey. Yes, we did ask a lot more companies about this, and that is what we found.
Oh – and have you checked the weights of those brands? Some of them don't understand the concept of light-weight. That eliminated quite a few brands as well.
I guess you have to be a really big vendor to be able to make different widths as well as different lengths. Small niche companies have to just go for the median, which is not going to help us duck-feet at all.
Cheers
Roger I have no issue here. i just thought it funny that Eric made almost the same post last year. You'll notice that it is his post in my response. I have size 15 feet. That comes with it's own set of problems.
Roger, I also have wide feet and they get wider on week-long backpacking trips. Merill and Danner DO make boots for wide feet and I've had both brands. I dunno about the other brands I listed but at least they should be checked out by the reviewers.
Hi Eric
I looked at both web sites, but there seems to be no way to search on width. Care to suggest some wide models?
Cheers
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