I bought these after reviewing a number of water shoe comparisons and customer reviews. I was looking for a shoe for canoeing and hiking on trails where I crossed a number of streams and where I would be walking around water falls.
I've had the shoes for about a month now.
The shoes fit well and are very comfortable - both with socks and without socks. I wear them going through airport checkin here in the states where we have to take our shoes off. In these cases, I wear socks with them. When hiking and canoeing with them, I wear them without socks. I have used them on up to four days of consecutive hiking, covering anywhere from five to eight miles per day over a mix of paved, gravel, and dirt trails. I did not experience any rubbing or other problems with the shoes. The trails included both up and down as well as flat trail surfaces and the shoes provided good solid protection to my feet from stones and sticks in the path. However, when crossing creeks/streams with large river rock type stepping stones (i.e rounded, not flat. and wet, not dry) and when walking over wet granite type rock, the shoes lost all traction and became more a hazard then a help. I also found when hiking over wet metal grates that have been put up around that have been used around some of the water falls that I have been hiking around, they also loose traction. I checked with other hikers in my group that were walking on granite and on the metal grating with traditional low top hiking shoes (not boots) and they didn't have the same problems I did. The shoes did fine in small river rock stream beds, in dirt mud stream crossings, and in lake shore mud flats/sand (canoeing) (they didn't do so well in clay mud but I have yet to find a shoe that does so I don't hold that against them). They were easy to clean off but did take a long time to dry if not left out in the sun. The few times when I left the out to dry overnight, they were still damp in the morning. I found that it was easy to clean any mud off of them by spraying them with a hose or by rinsing them off in lake or stream water after taking them off. I haven't had any problems with pebbles/sticks getting in the shoes when walking on dry or mud that isn't deep. The shoes have gotten mud in them when walking through streams and lake shore mud flats but I just rinsed them off when I got out of the stream/mudflat and continued hiking in them wet. Again, I haven't had any problems with them chaffing while either dry or wet.
I have worn them on a sand beach. I would not wear them in dry sand but they did fine in damp sand. in the dry sand, they just kept getting sand in them that I would have to stop and shake out every two or three steps.
Overall,I like the shoes a lot but they aren't very good when it comes to wet rock hiking. If this is what you want shoes for, then I would say to keep looking. However, if you are looking for a show to use when canoeing, hiking over dry ground, damp sand, and mud, or gravel river beds, then I would say that these should would be a strong option.
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