5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Merrell Outland - Comfortable, Light-Weight, Great Winter Wear, December 26, 2008
This review is from: Merrell Men's Outland Hiking Shoe (Apparel)
This is a very comfortable and light weight shoe. It is great for cold days to keep the weather off your feet and it has a high quality Vibrum sole for excellent traction. This is not what I would use for extended hiking but a good comfortable day shoe. Note, I find this shoe to run about 1/2 size smaller than most brands. I would recommend buying larger when in doubt.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Merrell Outland, June 8, 2011
This review is from: Merrell Men's Outland Hiking Shoe (Apparel)
I bought these shoes on sale at REI. I have had very good luck with the Merrell Moab Ventilators as my main summer shoe for day hikes and light backpacking in the Sierra of Northern California. I have 10 1/2 D feet, and the size 11 fit me just right in both the Moab and the Outland.
The Outlands have a much different character than the Moabs, but are a good shoe nonetheless. The uppers on the Outland are all leather and much warmer than the Moabs, but also more water resistant. Because of the heavy duty uppers, there is a break in period on these shoes, as opposed to the Moabs which require little or no break in. Most of the leather is double stitched, except for the black supportive heal piece. The similar stitching on my Moabs has been very reliable. The Outland toe cap is not very thick, but seems to do the job as far as I am concerned. The Outland soles are Vibram, which is always a plus, and an indicator of high quality. Some proprietary soles are as good as the Vibrams, but some are not. I tore a lug off a Hi-Tec brand sole once.
The supplied flat shoelaces irritated my ankles under the tongue, so I replaced them with "REI Waterproof Round Hiker Laces"($3.95). There are multiple lengths of these laces, so make sure you get the ones about 4 inches shorter than the supplied shoelaces. That size worked well for me in this shoe. The replacement round laces solved the irritation problem, and seemed to work better overall than the supplied laces.
On a recent hike on Yosemite's Vernal and Nevada Falls Mist Trail the Outlands did not leak or even wet out very much. There was a lot of spray from the waterfalls, plus it was raining that day. I sprayed them with "Tectron Footwear Water Repellent" ($7 at REI) beforehand. The Tectron worked very well with this shoe, which is not Gore-Tex, by the way. Toward the end of the hike they were just starting to wet out, but were not leaking to the inside.
Over all, a very good shoe, especially for the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn. They would work for snow shoes in winter under mild conditions(above 10 degrees), as long as you wear wool socks and gaiters, and spray them down with Tectron before use. For me, they are going to be hot in temperatures above 80 degrees, but great below that mark.
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