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Reviews > Footwear > Boots > Teva Ossagon Mid eVent Boot > Test Report by Ray Estrella
Teva Ossagon Mid eVent boots
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TESTER INFORMATION
I have been backpacking for over 30 years, all over California, and in many of the western states and Minnesota. I hike year-round, and average 500+ miles (800+ km) per year. I have made a move to lightweight gear, and smaller volume packs. I start early and hike hard so as to enjoy the afternoons exploring. I usually take a freestanding tent and enjoy hot meals at night. If not hiking solo I am usually with my wife Jenn or brother-in-law Dave.
INITIAL REPORT
The Product
Manufacturer: Deckers Outdoor Corporation Product Description
The Teva Ossagon Mid eVent boots (hereafter called the Ossagons or the boots) were delivered to me in their retail box. They came in excellent condition and are what I expected after viewing the boots on the Teva website noted above. The Ossagons are part of Teva's Adventure series, and are suggested by the manufacturer for use on "extended forays into the wilderness". As I do that quite a bit I hope that the Ossagons and I will get along quite well. Inside the boots are insoles (seen above) that Teva calls enhanced comfort OrthoLite. They are made with dual layers of foam under the ball of my foot. The outer layer has a lot of holes to allow moisture transfer. The heel area feels pretty nice out of the box and I will try them at first with these. (I often switch to after-market insoles for comfort and a better fit.) The soles are made of Teva's Spider XC rubber, their most durable type, but at the sacrifice of traction according to the chart printed in the box. They are attached to the boot with some type of adhesive. A thick toe guard wraps up the front of the boot. A very interesting part of the boot is the Wraptor fit system. A nylon strap is attached at either side of the heel at the sole. This strap runs all the way under under the boot below my arch. The strap folds over to form the top lace loops. Pulling the laces tight should help suck the boot into my foot. I have tried other systems like this. Some worked while others did nothing. It should be noted that the boots shown on the web site do not have the strap as I described. I will assume that these are newer versions of the system. The quality of my test boots seem to be very good. The stitching is all straight and uniform. There are no loose threads or blemishes other than the natural look of the leather. The leather is very soft to the touch and it feels as though there is some waterproofing applied. Maybe it is the ScotchGuard. I have Teva XT-1 trail runners in size 11 that fit well so that is what I ordered for the Ossagons. Right now they are a bit tighter than I like. I will start out with a mid-weight sock and see if the leather relaxes down the road. If it does not I may have them stretched as I like to wear a heavy sock in winter. In the words of the immortal Porky Pig, "Goo-b', goo-b', goo-b'…That's all folks!" Time to get these nice looking boots dirty and wet. Please come back at the beginning of the year to see how the Ossagons fare as I put them to the test. My thanks to Teva and BackpackGearTest.org for allowing me to try them out. Field Conditions
The Teva Ossagon boots have seen a lot use in Minnesota for the harshest winter I have seen there. I have worn them in a lot of snow including two blizzards and three storms, with lots and lots of wind! Temperatures were as low as -28 F (-34 C) with wind chills to -50 F (-46 C). (What is this global warming they talk about…?) Observations
I am pretty impressed by Teva's entry into the boot market. The Ossagons have proven to be out-of-the-box comfortable. I really like the way they felt when I first put them on. Everything over my foot and around my toes felt wonderful. Besides all the snow I was in, I also had to climb down into a creek bed to get to running water. I never saw any water leak into the boots. In fact the only place that I even saw the leather look wet was where the snowshoe buckles closest to the toe of the boots sat. With the success of that trip I wore them on a little longer trip with my wife. Again I took my heaviest socks to negate most of the slipping. They worked pretty well on this hike too. I did not get any blisters and the boots stayed dry through many creek crossings. I got to see how the eVent liner handled massive moisture inside the boot when I caught a salamander for Jenn, who had never seen one. I slipped off the submerged rocks I was standing on and had water go over both boots. I had another pair of Teko socks in my pack but decided to hike with the wet ones on. 5.5 mi (9 km) later the water had been transferred out of the boots. When I took the socks off that evening they did not even feel wet. I was very impressed with this. Above is a picture before I chased the salamander into the creek. I will continue to wear the Ossagons for the next couple of months. Hopefully I can get in a fast-pack to see how they do with a long distance trip. This concludes my Feild Report, the following is the conclusion of the four month test. Field Conditions
Stretching the boundaries of how they should be used again I wore the Ossagons on a 15 mi (24 km) winter peak bagging trip to the Mt Baldy area. We summited Timber Mountain, Telegraph Peak and an unnamed peak in one day. Conditions ranged from dirt trails with some snow on the approach to frozen snow/ice fields, hard frozen ground and rock. I did not carry a thermometer but will guess the temps to be from 30 F to 60 F (-1 to 16 C). Above is a shot as I traversed a very slick area below Timber Peak. (I know, where is my helmet?) Then Jenn and I did a 5 mile (8 km) hike that followed the coast in and out of the tide pool areas at Crystal Cove State Park. It was raining right before we left so it was a bit cool. It started out at 50 F and warmed up later to 68 F. (10 to 20 C) Next I did a solo hike in Cleveland National Forest including a summit of Sitton Peak. It was 40 F when I started and heated up to 82 F (4 to 20 C) by the time I finished, on trails that ran between rock, packed dirt and sand. I ended up with 19.5 miles (31 km) and 3320 ft (1012 m) of elevation gain and loss. The creeks are very low. Then Jenn and I went to Agua Bonita Spring in the Santa Rosa Mountains. This was a very hot hike that dropped from high desert to low desert. Highs of 75 F and got down to 33 F at night (24 to 1 C). I carried a 32 lb (14.5 kg) pack. We went 21 miles (34 km) with 2950 ft (899 m) of gain and loss. In March I wore them on an overnight snow camping trip in Minnesota. I stayed in a clearing near the river bottom by the Red River outside of Moorhead. It got down to 12 F (-11 C) and the humidity averaged 64%. The following weekend I drove up to Lake Bronson Minnesota, near the Canadian border to camp for the night. The low was 33 F (1 C) and I was walking in very wet slushy melting snow. The day after getting back I wore them for a day of volunteer work carrying sand bags through water, snow and mud in Moorhead Minnesota. At the end of March I wore them on an easy 5 mile (8 km) out-and-back overnighter in the Angeles National Forest near Lake Hughes. I stayed at 4000 ft (1219 m) elevation. The low temp was 26 F (-3 C). And lastly Jenn and I went for four days of assorted approach hiking, climbing and day-hiking in Red Rocks Nevada and Zion National Park in Utah. Our first day was rained out and got very cold but the next three days were great. Temps ranged from 40 to 72 F with elevations from 3600 ft to almost 6000 ft. Winds were constant, but mild except for the first day when they were very strong. The shot below is on the way up to Angel's Landing in Zion. Observations
I have had an interesting time with the Ossagon boots over the past two months. I have had them in lots of snow, lots of fresh water and even some salt water as we explored the tide pools and sea caves around Crystal Cove. Probably the Ossagon's strongest point is its waterproofness. (Is that a real word? It should be.) I have yet to see a bit of moisture get into the boots other than from me stepping in too deep, something that has happened a few times. I am very impressed with both the eVent and the leather itself. And when I did step too deep the boots dry very quickly. After babying the foot for a month I went to Red Rocks in Nevada and to Zion National Park in Utah. At the top of Angel's Landing while just starting back down I re-twisted the same foot. It was not as bad and it was feeling better seven days later as I wrote this. The strap that makes up the Wraptor System is fraying at the bottom of both boots. I think that I can say the only reason I have not had it break off yet is the amount of use I had on snow instead of my normal rocky terrain of the summer season. If Teva would like to keep this feature I think that they would do well to protect the bottom section with a sleeve or cover of some kind. Other than that they have held up well. The leather is getting pretty worn from all the traction aids, snowshoes, gaiters and such along with the steady diet of moisture in some form. But the stitching is still intact and the rand shows no sign of peeling. I still like the retro look of the Ossagons. I hope that Teva can work the kinks out with these boots. If so, I look forward to trying them again in the future. My thanks to Teva and BackpackGearTest.org for letting me test the Ossagon boots. (The salamander thanks them too…) This report was created with the BackpackGearTest.org Report Writer Version 1. Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Read more reviews of Teva gear Read more gear reviews by Ray Estrella Reviews > Footwear > Boots > Teva Ossagon Mid eVent Boot > Test Report by Ray Estrella |