Reviews > Footwear > Sandals > Keen Boulder > Stephanie Martin > Field Report

Field Report: Keen Boulder Hybrid Footwear

Field and Test Information:
Location(s) of test:	Various locations across the state of Arizona
Terrain:	These hybrid shoes have been on and off trail, with terrain ranging from flat packed dirt to bouder hopping in and around streambeds to steep loose rocky hillsides.  They have also pounded lots of pavement in and around town.
Weather Conditions:	Outside temperatures in the mid 70s F (low 20s C) at night and low 100s F (high 30s C) during the day, inside temps vary depending on central air settings

This report is the second of three.  Please read this report in conjunction with my Initial Report for more details on the product and fit.

Contents
- Summary of Adventures
- Performance with Orthotic Devices
- Continued Testing strategy
- Summary

Summary of Adventures
The Keen Boulders have been my footwear of choice for the duration of the test period thus far - whenever I've had to wear shoes, those shoes have been the Keen Boulders.  They have accompanied me on my mundane daily activities - from going to work, dashing to the gym and running numerous errands around town - to more adventurous endeavors such as backpacking, canyoning and scampering up and down various trails across the state of Arizona.  Weekend hikes have ranged from eight to fifteen miles (13 to 24 km).  The Boulders have seen terrain from carpet and concrete to grippy sandstone and water polished basalt and granite.  They have been in and out of water, sand and mud and have come out of their ordeal looking and smelling remarkably good, showing very little wear or discoloration for all the activity they've been through.

After some initial troubles with rubbing at the Achilles and on the outside of my pinkie toes, my feet seem to have become accustomed to the Boulders.  For every day use and for shorter hikes where stream crossings aren't required, I prefer to wear the Keen Boulders without socks.  In this configuration, my feet have remained quite comfortable, and appreciate the open air design of the Boulders.  For longer hikes (longer than half a day in duration), hikes on more aggressive terrain or hikes that include stream crossings, I tend to prefer to wear the Boulders with a pair of socks.  On the occasions that I have worn socks, they have been either regular hiking socks from a variety of manufacturers or thin (3 mm thckness) neoprene socks.  I prefer to wear socks in these situations to provide additional protection to my feet, mainly to prevent irritation from the grinding in of accumulated trail dirt or sand.  In addition, if the odd pebble lands inside the shoe, a sock provides a welcome cushion.

Hiking and adventuring with the Boulders have been mostly a pleasurable experience.  The shoes have remarkable traction on all varieties of surfaces.  I've felt surefooted on all the terrain I've been on thus far - and that's saying quite a bit since one of my favored activities involves boulder hopping up and down rocky streambeds on water polished stones.  On occasion, I do pick up the rare piece of debris in the shoe.  When this happens, I usually have to stop to dislodge the offending material as I've been unsuccessful in developing a way to kick or fling my foot in a manner to expel the hitchhiking pebble from inside the shoe.  When I have been in and out of water, the shoes seem to dry quickly, and they remain remarkably stain and stink-free. 

I say that my adventuring has been mostly pleasurable because one of my fears noted in my Initial Report Test Strategy has born itself out, namely the ability of the elastic cord to hold my foot securely within the shoe.  It seems that over time, the cord locks on my shoes slowly creep loose - this happens faster on uneven and aggressive terrain, but also happens on completely flat terrain.  On one hike, I resorted to tying knots in the cord immediately after the cordlock to prevent this from occurring - and while it solved the problem temporarily, it made it difficult to don and doff the shoe.  Since then, Keen has made some changes to the Boulder (and the Newport as well, as I understand it) - one of these changes includes changing the lace from an elastic cord to a static lace - still closed with the cordlock system.  It is possible to retrofit the Boulders to this configuration by doing the following:

Pry open the toggle securing the ends of the cord		Once open, remove the cord from the toggle
Once the cord is freed from the endcap of the toggle, the cord lock can be removed and the cord completely unthreaded.

The elastic cord can then be replaced with a static lace by reversing the above process.  When I attempted this procedure, I noted that I had to chop the lace tips off the laces after threading them through the cordlock, but before securing the end toggle back onto the laces.  This procedure was shown to me by a Keen representative.

My only other concern with the Boulders is the fact that my feet do seem to fatigue a bit faster in these shoes than they do in boots while boulder hopping or on rocky trails.  It seems I can feel the trail more through these sandals than I can through other footwear I've worn in the past.
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Performance with Orthotic Devices

Keen Boulders with Orthotic inserts inserted	Heel Stabilized 3/4 length Custom Sports Orthotic	Non-Stabilized 3/4 length Custom Orthotic

During the course bulk of the test period, I have worn my Boulders with either an aftermarket insert inside or my custom orthotic insert inside.  I found swapping out the Metatomical Footbed that comes with the Keen Boulders to be a simple affair - the inserts were easily removed and replaced.  I was successful in replacing the Keen Metatomical Footbed with both Shock Doctor Ultra Custom inserts and my custom heel stabilized three-quarter length sports orthotics.  Wearing the custom orthotics in the Keens did require that I locate some flat liner insoles to place underneath my orthotic devices.  Once I secured the liners, wearing the Boulders with my custom sports orthotics became my configuration of choice.  Sadly, I was not so successful in wearing the Boulders with my non-stabilized three-quarter length custom orthotic devices.  The heel on my non-stabilized orthotics were considerably narrower than the heelcup of the Boulders and the devices slid around inside the shoe rather annoyingly. One thing I did notice, which is purely cosmetic, is the fact that both my aftermarket and my custom orthotic inserts are visible from the side when worn.  This does not affect the performance of the sandals or the orthotics in any way, but they do mar the clean lines of the Boulders.
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Continued Testing Strategy
During the remainder of the test series, I plan on continuing to wear my Keen Boulders everywhere.  They will continue to see plenty of urban use in addition to my weekly adventures into the Arizona wilderness.  If plans go as scheduled, they will also see the insides of some fabulous Utah slot canyons during the remainder of the test period.

As a part of my testing, I have converted one shoe to a static lace and will leave the other shoe with its provided elastic cord.  I hope to see if the static lacing resolves some of my foot-sliding issues while wearing the Boulders.  I will continue to monitor the tread on the sandals, and I plan to also evaluate the shoes with their Metatomical Footbeds inserted to see if I notice a considerable difference in fit or comfort when compared to my current preferred configuration with my custom orthotics inserted.

Additional things I will be continue to evaluate are: durability, breathability (do they accumulate sweat and get slippery inside? Do they get stinky?), surface wear, performance on varied terrain, fit, style and comfort. 
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My thanks to Keen Footwear and BackpackGearTest.org for this testing opportunity - I look forward to my further adventures with these shoes.

Reviews > Footwear > Sandals > Keen Boulder > Stephanie Martin > Field Report