Men's Altra Footwear Wahweap Trail Shoe Green 9.5 M

I wanted a minimalist approach shoe with retro-styling. Originally I bought a pair of Evolv Cruzer Psyche's but found them far too narrow with no wiggle room for my toes, so I returned them. After weeks of searching, I found the Wahweaps... I agree with some of the other reviewers, my first couple of weeks of streetwear were not the best: the sole was too hard/uncomfortable, there is an awkward heel-to-toe transition, and ankle area dug into my skin a bit. However, once I broke them in on the trail, my opinion totally changed. The shoe is protective and agile going over rough terrain, it has that barefoot quality of bending around the terrain instead of smashing through it. It keeps dust and dirt out of the shoe well, while maintaining good ventilation. They look fantastic and are beginning to soften up a bit making them more comfortable for every day use and offering a smoother heel-to-toe transition.

This shoe is fantastic. The sole is a bit stiff, just like you'd expect from an approach shoe. If switching from a running shoe it takes a few days to get used to. The foam footbed is dense foam and the bottom is fully covered with real rubber very similar to a typical approach shoe. The toe rand on the front is real rubber as well, but the rand looking parts along the sides and heel are simply a heavy coating on the fabric and would not offer alot of protection if you stepped on say a sharp rock with the back of your heel, but the toe box is well protected. This lack of a real heel rand along with the non-padded nature of the upper means you can fold the heel down and wear them like slippers for belaying between routes at the crag and without any padding in the uppers they fit great in a climbing pack taking up about as much room as a pair of flip flops...so perfect to pack up a multipitch walk-off. Fit is excellent, the upper is such that it almost seems like it is glued to my foot. When walking on side hills or scrambling on boulders my foot doesn't slide around inside the shoe at all like it does with the same sized Altra trail running shoe. The shoe feels very secure on talus and off-trail. The upper is basically a low stretch canvas style upper but its 2 layers, the outer being coarse hemp fabric and the inner being what looks like a 500 denier nylon, so while thin they are quite strong and durable. In short, great fit, very packable, very secure off trail and of course the unique Altra toebox is great as always. This is a great addition to their lineup, and I'm glad they picked some decent neutral colors for once.