See, I knew I would be going to tube the Guadalupe (we ended up at the Comal instead) and going to Kaua'i so my wifey bought Keen Waterfronts.
Not the sexiest shoes but they got the job done and Robin loves them. I was looking for the same thing and decided to get the Vibram Five Fingers, slight problem though, I couldn't find them anywhere. These things are apparently the hottest thing to go on feet this year. I had intentions of some barefoot running then I remembered I haven't been doing any running of any kind so barefoot running is the least of my worries. But while shopping for the Five Fingers, I came across the Salomon Techamphibians.
Note the mesh construction, nice an airy right? Soles looked like my trail runners so plenty of protection and grip right? For half the price of the Keen's I got me these suckers and I'm thinking to myself "SCORE!!"
So I start wearing them around, they're designed to be worn sockless so I do that, and there's a stitch or something in the right one that starts rubbing on the top of my pinky toe. No blisters but you do notice it and it is an irritation.
Time for the river trip so I have these bad boys on and yeah they're good... sheds water when you get out but then I noticed how long it took for it to dry. It took FOREVER, almost 2 hours after getting out of the river and intermittently taking them off to let them air out, they were finally dry. I'm thinking, no big deal, it'll take longer to dry.
Well time for Hawaii, and these are the first things I pack. I wear these things everywhere the first few days, I had to wash them every night because of how sandy they were inside and left them outside to dry. It was during this routine that I discovered a few things.
- Kaua'i is humid and rains alot.
- These shoes don't dry well in central Texas, and they really didn't dry well in the humidity
- Whatever goes on between my feet and these never really dry shoes caused them to get rank
So what have I learned? There is a reason flip flops and sandals are brilliantly conceived wet/humid weather pieces of shoe tech. Just because a shoe has tons of holes it doesn't mean it will dry out quickly. I'm not sure what the solution is for something like the Techamphibians. I'm sure part of the issue is that it secures your foot to the soles, maybe a quick release of some kind so it does allow you to flip flop it so the entire insoles are allowed to see sunlight as you walk? Maybe they need to figure out a different material for the soles? Who knows, all I know is I'm out $60 bucks for shoes that lasted me all of 1 month.
