Saturday 27 June 2009

Trail Shoes & Goretex Socks pt. 2



I posted a few days ago about buying Goretex socks to use with my Karrimor Trail Run 83's only to find that they made the shoes too tight. I was considering my options but figured that as I already had the socks I might as well get another pair of Karrimor's from Field & Trek. When I'd ordered the last pair I'd actually ordered a pair of the Pro Run model as well, I sent them back as they were a tighter fit than the Trail Runs but they were lighter and looked as though they'd dry quicker when wet. To keep the size options open I again ordered a pair of both Trail Run's and Pro Runs both ones size up from before at 44 figuring I'd keep the ones that fitted best with the GTX socks. They both cost the same, £18 and as it turned out the slightly smaller fitting Pro Runs worked best with the GTX socks, the Trail Runs being too loose at the heel. That suited me fine as the Pro Runs were lighter at 296g each/size 44 which off-set the additional weight of the GTX socks. The all in weight for the pair including socks is 670g.

I wore them on Thursday night on a overnighter to try out the Hike-Lite tent and they were fine. No problems with wet feet this time and they were comfortable and gripped well on grass and wet boulders when crossing streams. I'll continue to use them over the summer and see how I manage, they're pretty light so durability might be an issue.

They're almost a 2 part shoe, mesh outer with a plastic support web effect and a fairly thin padded mesh inner. The soles don't look as though they'd offer much grip but shouldn't clog up as the pattern is pretty un-aggressive. Like before I can't complain, certainly not at £18.

4 comments:

  1. Are the trekmates socks the same/similar to the sealskin socks?

    I have them and find them are not that comfortable when worn all day.

    I remember you use to be able to buy gortex bootees which were much more comfortable but them seem to have disappeared when sealskins came along.

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  2. I don't think they're like Sealskinz although to be honest I've never looked closely at them, I assumed they (Sealskinz)were like a loopstitch sock only waterproof. The Trekmates ones are thin like normal goretex but with a stretch Goretex panel running up the middle from toe to ankle. You still wear normal socks under them. The bootee's you mention, were they the very loose fitting non-stretchy army boot liner type?

    There's another brand of GTX socks IIRC, Rocky I think they're called, they too are the thin normal GTX fabric with a stretch panel as far as I'm aware.

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  3. Yes; the bootees were the loose fitting army boot liner :-)

    I've have to take a look at the trekmates.

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  4. You can still get breathable army Boot Liners although they seem to be made from 'Breathtex'. I got a pair last year to use with my leaky 'waterproof' V-Lite Fast hike boots and they were fine but a bit too bulky for shoes.

    The Trekmates ones are closer fitting but if anything they run a bit small. They're sized Small/Med/Lrg with med being marked as 8-9, I'd suggest maybe going up to lrg if you normally take 9 and so on.

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