HikeArizona.COM

Saw this in the:
Arizona Trail Association E-News - February 6, 2014

Since the Arizona Trail features some of the most rugged terrain in the West, Vasque Performance Footwear is looking for product testers in Arizona. Would you be willing to put their boots to the test on the AZT? Vasque is currently in need of avid outdoor enthusiasts that would like to wear and test new boot designs. Before they commercialize a new footwear style, Vasque needs to conduct extensive wear tests to measure performance and long term durability.

Tests can last for one week or three months. No purchase is necessary; testers just need to wear the boots under actual conditions and at the end of the wear test they will need to complete a brief questionnaire.

For compensation, you can keep the test boots after Vasque inspects them or they will provide another style of your choice. Vasque is currently in need of the following sizes to be tested: Women's 7m & 8m, and Men's 9m & 10m.

To become a qualified Vasque Tester, just call (651) 385-5082.

pops c wrote:Saw this in the:
Arizona Trail Association E-News - February 6, 2014

Since the Arizona Trail features some of the most rugged terrain in the West, Vasque Performance Footwear is looking for product testers in Arizona. Would you be willing to put their boots to the test on the AZT? Vasque is currently in need of avid outdoor enthusiasts that would like to wear and test new boot designs. Before they commercialize a new footwear style, Vasque needs to conduct extensive wear tests to measure performance and long term durability.

Tests can last for one week or three months. No purchase is necessary; testers just need to wear the boots under actual conditions and at the end of the wear test they will need to complete a brief questionnaire.

For compensation, you can keep the test boots after Vasque inspects them or they will provide another style of your choice. Vasque is currently in need of the following sizes to be tested: Women's 7m & 8m, and Men's 9m & 10m.

To become a qualified Vasque Tester, just call (651) 385-5082.

Yes, if they will go back to making narrow boots! But no, they won't do that. So, I won't buy Vasque any more, even though they were my boot of choice for 20 years. They actually fit. Now they are made in China instead of in Italy. And even when they still did produce a few models which they labeled "narrow," the lasts had changed a great deal, and they were not narrow at all. Used to be, a pair of medium width Sundowners ran narrow, and their narrow ones were super-slim. But no more. Some of us have switched to Teva sandals and Asics sneakers, since we can't find shoes to fit.

Vasque needs to realize that "boots" are not a good gear choice for desert hiking. The lack of breathability is worse than the ankle stability you gain.

nonot wrote:The lack of breathability

While even mesh shoes have less breath-ability than Teva's, I wouldn't agree that boots have no use for desert hiking.

I'll still wear Teva's on trails, but when I'm going through every kind of terrain on my bush-whack hikes my 8" Danner leather boots are my footwear of choice. Even in triple-degree temps I haven't experienced overheating or excess moisture buildup so I'm very willing to test whatever they are seeking feedback for, whether shoes or boots.

"There are unknown unknowns..."

Vasque may not know or care, but a valid use for leather boots, particularly in desert grassland environments, is to prevent stickers and seeds from becoming painfully and intractably enmeshed in footwear / socks / feet. This can be a big deal from around October through February or whenever the summer grasses finally lay down. It's peculiar enough to specific environments that I wouldn't ever base a thru-hiking footwear choice around it. But if I were to regularly bash the brush in those middling elevations, esp. in S and E AZ as well as C and S NM, I might pack along a pair of lightweight leather boots in order to prevent that problem. I suppose any full leather upper shoe or boot would do, but if Vasque were offering wear-test models that weren't overbuilt for the task at hand, I might consider it.

Kind of small foot size to be lugging a load, but thank you Vasque for the offer.

Regarding stickers and such, I generally wear gaiters. They sure do help.

azbackpackr wrote:Regarding stickers and such, I generally wear gaiters. They sure do help.

The key word here is help... Yes, gaiters can help keep the fox-tails, etc. out of the shoes/boots but just helping doesn't work well enough for me. I tried three different styles of gaiters and none helped enough to be worth the hassle.
But since I started wearing the tall leather boots I have yet to get anything I didn't want inside my boots. While at the same time, even on less trashy terrain Tracey is constantly taking her Merrell Moab Ventilators off to get the crap out of them. They breathe so well the fox tails go right through the mesh so gaiters won't stop that.

Yep, I was referring more to the tendency of stickers to get in directly through the uppers of breathable mesh footwear, particularly trail runners. Sideoats grama seems to be one of the most insidious offenders here, delivering stealthy salvos all the way through shoes and socks directly into the foot. By day's end, shoes may appear relatively unscathed, but socks look like victims of porcupine attack, bearing permanent scars, and feet feel likewise.

blisterfree wrote:Sideoats grama

AKA Fox Tails

@Nighthiker
Wait so will buying larger shoes increase my ability to carry heavier loads? no wonder my pack has felt so heavy over the years, its my shoe size! I never thought of that!

@friendofThundergod
This is why I always wear snowshoes.

The Eagle wrote:

blisterfree wrote:Sideoats grama

AKA Fox Tails

Foxtail chess. Not really the same thing, eh? But what's in a name.

@chumley
well you know what they say about big shoes....generally big socks ;)