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RWheeler
12-31-2011, 19:24
I was able to pick up a pair of La Sportiva Wildcat trailrunners at REI today for under $50. At that price, I didn't give it a second thought to pick them up.

I was just wondering what the standard procedure is for replacing shoes on the trail, as I'm sure you would ideally have some kind of break-in on them beforehand. They didn't have any more in my size, so the choice was fairly easy for me to make on how many pairs to buy, but should I buy some slightly larger sizes and work on breaking them in, have them sent to me when I'm on the trail, or should I just break in the first pair, use them on the trail until they fall apart, then buy a new pair and continue on?

leaftye
12-31-2011, 20:07
You don't need to break in trail running shoes. At least I've never had to. In fact, the trail running shoes I've worn only get worse with every mile. I suspect that most people buy shoes along the trail, but if you've found your perfect shoe, and it's not a very common shoe, then you could have a company like Zappos ship it to your next stop.

Papa D
12-31-2011, 20:14
I think it is SO great that you got LaSportiva shoes - they are my favorites - like leaftye says, no break in required - just put em on and go - LaSportiva is great about service - contact them directly if you need to - tell them you are thru-hiking (assuming that is what you are doing) - they will even mail drop you a pair - that company is on the rise.

RWheeler
12-31-2011, 20:27
I think it is SO great that you got LaSportiva shoes - they are my favorites - like leaftye says, no break in required - just put em on and go - LaSportiva is great about service - contact them directly if you need to - tell them you are thru-hiking (assuming that is what you are doing) - they will even mail drop you a pair - that company is on the rise.

I was walking by the shoe display at REI, saw them out of the corner of my eye, figured I'd try them on for the heck of it. They were listed as $68 at the rack, which to me, seemed like a good deal. Slipped them on and... it just felt right. Hopped around the store for about 20-30 minutes in them, and decided to get them. When the sales associate there asked how I had liked them, she offered to scan the box, just to make sure they'd ring up right when I went to go check out. To my surprise, they rang up at $48. Giggity.

I very much like them.

Now that I know I don't need to break them in, that makes things a lot better. I'll be sure to toss the contact info for them into the phone I'm bringing with me so I can call them, and have them ship a new pair to me somewhere on the trail when I need more, if I can't find them in a store along the way.

Now I guess all I have left to fully set my mind on is a cookpot... ugh...

Papa D
12-31-2011, 20:34
I've put about 1000 miles on a pair of the ECO 2.0 GTXs twice. I'm closely affiliated with a local dealer (I even help out at the store some) and he tells me that LaSportiva is investing a lot in their north american shoes - mine first pair were made in France but i think they sub out to China too (unfortunately) -- anyway they are a good company --- the price you paid is un believable -- I get a 20% across the board discount at the outfitters I mentioned and I think that I paid about $100 for my last pair - they are a high-end shoe - you did really well

BTW, You need a MSR Titanium 1QT cookpot

www.sportiva.com/products/footwear/hikingbackpacking/fc-eco-2.0-gtx

garlic08
01-01-2012, 16:00
If you haven't thru hiked before, you feet may grow. Mine did on my first long hike but have not changed since then, so I buy shoes ahead of time on sale and have family ship them to me every 600 or 700 miles or so. You may want to hold off on buying multiple pairs, but not everyone's feet expand.

Ditto the advice on not breaking them in. My experience has also been that they're best right out of the box and start deteriorating with every step.

I also liked the one pair of La Sportivas I tried, but they were a tad too narrow for me. Great traction as I remember.

RWheeler
01-01-2012, 16:07
Yeah, that was my concern about buying them early, anyway. If they had more than one pair, I would have been really torn.

But if people are telling me that they're good out of the box, then I'd rather not risk buying the wrong sizes and just buy them again when I need new ones.

Thanks for all the help, WB!

Miner
01-01-2012, 16:57
2 things happen to your feet. One that can get longer. The other they can get wider so shoes with a wide footbox are better for many doing long distance hiking. Don't do a long distance hike with the same size of shoe you normally wear at home. Make sure its sized up as it will reduce having bruised and lost toenails at the very least. I know people who had to cut a hole in their shoes for their big toes due to their feet getting bigger until they could replace their shoes.

For first thru-hike (PCT), in about 2 weeks of hiking, my foot size had already grown almost a 1/2 size larger which I hadn't experienced in all my previous weeklong backpacking trips. For the rest of my hike, I settled into using a shoe size 1.5 times what I normally wore at home which allowed for my foot's conitinued elongation plus some spare room for swelling during a hot day of hiking. That worked for me for the rst of the trail and my feet were pretty comfortable with the size. I ordered all my shoes online and had them shipped along the trail. You will occasionally find an outfitter with some good shoes along the way, but if you find a model you really like having them shipped is better since you may not find it in town. After I got home, my foot did shrink back some, but I still had to wear 1/2 size larger then before and now prefer a wider shoe.

rusty bumper
01-01-2012, 19:08
I used 3 pair of shoes on my almost-thru-hike. They were all the same brand and the same size, which was 1/2 size larger than normal for me. I used the 2 replacement pairs "right out of the box" with no problem at all. After the 1st pair wore out, my feet had calluses in all the right spots for the particular brand and size of shoe I wore, so there were no break-in issues. Several hikers I met changed shoe brands along the way and experienced break-in problems as a result, i.e. blisters in new and different places on their feet.