Biographical Information
Name	Jennifer Pope
Age	25
Gender	Female
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Weight	140 lb (64 kg)
Shoe size	8.5 US
Insole size tested	3 (for women's shoe sizes 9-10 US)
Email address	Jennifer dot Pope at gmail dot com
Location	Los Angeles, CA
Backpacking Background Intermediate. I’ve been a car-camper as long as I can remember and started backpacking in Northern California when I was 16. I'm just getting back into backpacking after a hiatus during college. I backpack in the Sierras as well as other National Forests closer to Los Angeles. I also spend time in the California deserts and the mountains and coast of Northern California. I'm a tent camper leaning towards lightweight; but I am a fan of gadgets and I like being comfortable. I also do a mix of short and long day hikes in and around Los Angeles.

Product Information (back to top)
Manufacturer	Spenco
Manufacturer URL	www.spenco.com
Year of Manufacture	2005
Listed Weight	none
Actual Weight - out of box	3.8 oz (110 g)
Actual Weight - trimmed to fit	3.7 oz (105 g)
Color	brown & green
Warranty	one-year unconditional guarantee
MSRP	none listed
Product Description (from website)	For outdoor enthusiasts that are spending the day walking trails and hiking over light terrain. This level of outdoor participation needs a footbed with extra cushioning and support to help you experience more – more comfortably.

For more test results please see my Initial and Long Term Reports.

Testing Conditions (back to top)

So far these insoles have seen use for several day hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County and outside of San Diego. Elevations range from sea level up to 3,000 ft (900 m). Lately temperatures have ranged from the mid-50s to 80 F (10 to 25 C). The rain hasn't hit in full force yet, so it's basically been dry. I also wore the insoles for a couple weeks while in Northern California. There the temperatures got down to the low 30s F (0 C) and it was wet, very, very wet at times. The insoles have also seen a lot of urban use just around town, to the gym, and basic every day use.

Long Term Results (back to top)

In the Long Term test period the insoles have been in my Nike Trail Runners. I've worn them in this capacity almost daily in the last two months. My experience with the insoles has been much the same as it was as of my previous report.

I find that the insoles are great for day hiking and everyday use. They are very comfortable. They make the factory insoles look pathetic. The insoles still make my shoes feel a little tight and when I first put my shoes on my feet feel semi-smooshed; but after a few minutes of wear they loosen up and feel fine.

I've worn the insoles with a variety of socks including everyday cotton socks, athletic socks, light hiking socks and heavy hiking socks with a thin liner sock underneath. The insoles have performed well in each situation. I've never noticed having overly sweaty feet and I've never had a problem with blisters.

Wear and Tear
The insoles are still in pretty much the same condition as they were in my previous report. Although, the black portion (which is under the ball of my foot) is showing significant wear on the left insole only. I'm not sure if this points to me walking differently on that foot (which I've never noticed) or if that insole was weaker than the other. Regardless, part of the insole is peeling away. I never noticed any change in comfort while I was wearing the insoles in my shoe and only noticed the problem when I took the insoles out of my shoes for this report. Also, I think that washing the insole caused the problem to get slightly worse (see below).

peeling insole
Three views of the peeling portion of my left insole

Cleaning
For this report I also tried washing the insoles. I followed the manufacturer's instructions and washed the insoles by hand in warm water. I used Woolite to clean the insoles. After washing the insoles were cleaner and fresher looking. You could see an imprint of where my toes were on the insoles; other than that they didn't look very dirty to begin with. While washing small pieces of black foam from the bottom of the insole came off. This was with very little rubbing on my part. I will be much more careful when washing the insoles in the future and only wash them when necessary. However, it was easy to clean the insoles and they dried overnight after I lightly blotted them with a towel and set them next to an open window (yes it is warm enough to have a window open here in January, jealous?).

dirty and clean insoles

The dirty insoles are on the left and the clean are on the right, not much difference, but the imprint from my toes is less prominent on the clean insoles.

Summary (back to top)

Overall, I'm still very satisfied with the performance of these insoles. Spenco claims that they are day hiking insoles and I think they perform very well in that capacity. I have never had a problem on a day hike and I will not hesitate to use them in this capacity in the future. There may be a wear issue with the black portion of the insole, or it may be just due to my feet. Other than that, the insoles have performed very well.

I want to thank BackpackGearTest.org and Spenco for giving me the opportunity to test this item.

Read more reviews of Spenco gear
Read more gear reviews by Jennifer Pope

Long Term Report

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