Review Date: September 30, 2005

Specifications

Product Type: Leather slide-type open-heel walking shoes
Maker: Keen
Website: www.keenfootwear.com
Model: Jamestown Nubuck Slides
Size tested: US men’s 11 (Euro 45)
Measured Weight: 29 oz (822 g)
Country of Origin: China
MSRP: $80
Year purchased: 2004

Reviewer Info (bio at end of review)

Rick Dreher
Redbike64 (at) hotmail (dot) com
Male, 51
Height: 6 ft (1.83 meters)
Weight: 175 lb (79 kg, 12.5 stones)
Shoe Size: US 11.5 (Euro 46), medium width
Location: Northern California
Years Backpacking Experience: 37

Introduction

The Keen Jamestown Nubuck Leather Slides could be described as a really well made pair of bedroom slippers and I bought them strictly for knocking around the house and town. With that said, this review is essentially a story of bedroom slippers pressed into the wholly inappropriate use as backpacking footwear—I became a hikin’ surgeon who never went to med school. Yes, mistakes were made and this is the story of a mistake that became a gear test.

Environments of Use

It’s likely that 95% of these Keen’s use has been at home and in town, as Keen and I intended. As a result most of the use has been nontechnical, in and around the house in both dry and wet weather. However, they’ve now endured an extended backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada between 7,000 and 10,000 feet (2,130 – 3,050 m). Weather was clear with temperatures from 70 to 20 F (21 to -7 C), winds calm to strong, perhaps gusting 40 mph (65 kph). I estimate the trip’s total mileage at about 40 (65 km).

Design, Materials and Construction

The Jamestowns are made of Nubuck leather uppers with lugged rubber soles and a rubber toe box that wraps over the toes so that they’re completely enclosed and protected. The leather is lined with what appears to be foam and tricot nylon. Four lateral straps thread through a center, lengthwise strap. The top lateral strap is adjustable using a slide buckle and the other three are fixed in length. The footbed appears to be lined with leather. Because they’re slides, or clogs, the heel end is completely open. The footbed is significantly contoured with a pronounced arch support and heelcup, and the sole is molded into a rocker profile with a cutaway at the instep.

The Nubuck leather uppers are waterproofed. “Nubuck” is described as a “brushed, grain-sueded leather,” differing from suede in being of full hide thickness. The stout rubber soles are reasonably sticky on wet surfaces (hydrophilic) for good traction. While they’re lugged, the lugs are shallow compared to most hiking shoes.

Fit and Comfort

My Jamestowns are size 11, half a size smaller than I normally wear but nevertheless roomy. They’re large in circumference so that I have to cinch the adjustable strap fully tight to keep my feet from sliding out. My conclusion is that they’re designed for high-volume feet despite Keen’s assertion that men’s sizes are based on a “D” last. I discovered this roominess makes them extra challenging as hiking shoes, and it took two pairs of thick socks to snug the fit enough for life on the trail. Tighter still would have been better.

The footbed contouring makes the Jamestowns wonderfully comfortable and surprisingly stable, just what the doctor ordered for padding around home and town. Twisting them along the fore-aft axis shows them to be reasonably stiff (a critical test for all my hiking footwear). They’re also well ventilated so my feet don’t sweat much, even in the hottest weather.

Performance on Different Terrains and Surfaces

On the flats and modest slopes, so long as the surface is firm the Jamestowns provide good traction and footing, allowing me to walk normally. When I’m not wearing socks while on uneven ground they’ll sometimes roll on me laterally, taking me by surprise. All in all, the Jamestowns are fine in-town shoes year round.

A short tale of idiocy: Arriving at our trailhead, appropriately in the middle of nowhere, I discovered to equal portions embarrassment and horror that I’d left my hiking shoes at home (in the bedroom as it turned out). After confessing this to my hiking partner we examined the options: drive three or four hours round trip to the nearest hiking shoe emporium, bag our hike and car camp or hike in what I was wearing—the Keens. Hike-and-hope was the decision.

If an open-heeled sandal seems like a peculiar choice for backpacking it’s for uncountable good reasons. Loose surfaces and steep uphills definitely make for interesting and difficult walking. There’s the tendency to accumulate pounds of debris underfoot. Ankles and heels are exposed to bashings from rocks and roots. These shortcomings are amplified by the fact that many Sierra Nevada trails are already difficult to walk because of heavy commercial horse packer traffic, including much of the trail I walked in the Jamestowns. The yearly passing of thousands of shod hooves has eroded and widened the trail into deep, loose sand and dust mixed with equally loose rock, making it a challenge to push off with each step no matter what the footwear. It’s a lot like walking on a beach well above the water’s fringe and it shortens my stride, makes me flex my feet unnaturally and definitely slows me down. Add a steep uphill stretch and I’d find myself sometimes propelling my foot right out of the shoe. Brilliant conclusion: clogs might not be the best trail choice.

Downhill stretches surprisingly didn’t prove a problem at all. The Keens stayed on and I didn’t jam my toes, despite their being a half-size small. I learned to look forward to downhill stretches.

After the first day’s tentative walk during which I spun my wheels like a front wheel drive car on bald tires going uphill in a blizzard, I swapped my thin liner socks for a thick pair. With this change the Jamestowns fit me a good deal better and provided somewhat better traction, came off less often and accumulated less debris. My natural gait partially returned, especially once we’d left equine-ravaged trails behind. Stream crossings remained especially challenging and I had to plan each rock-hop or trunk transit with care, well in advance. The sticky rubber soles helped. The ultimate challenge proved to be many miles of technical cross-country after we got to alpine territory. I lost a shoe a few times and spent lots of time maneuvering around tough obstacles I’d ordinarily charge over, but the Jamestowns never let me down. (Whew!)

I hasten to note that my trekking poles helped restore my forward progress when I was spinning my wheels and halted more than one stumble. This was the first hike in a long while that I never once strapped the poles to my pack during some portion of the walk.

I want to single out the Keen’s wrap-over toe as a great advancement in sandal-type footwear. I can now stumble into a rock or log and not break a toe—brilliant! (I’ve broken several that way.) Another plus is that clog-type shoes are great in camp because they’re so easy to get in and out of, even with socks on. The Jamestowns are too heavy to toss in my pack as camp shoes but since I had them anyway they worked great. They’d be perfect for popping out of a hammock.

Shortcomings

Where to start? I’ve already mentioned lack of traction, losing my shoes and picking up debris. My outer socks arrived home well perforated, indicating I’d ground them up with trail grit. The skin on my feet had cracked down to the quick in several places and they are still healing a week later. I believe that a combination of the high, dry air and desiccating dust dried my feet to parchment and lead to the cracking since my feet were always fully aerated. I should have been using moisturizer on them and I’m lucky I didn’t get a nasty infection.

Wear, Tear and Care

The Jamestowns arrived home filthy but not showing any particular damage. They didn’t even stink, perhaps due to Keen’s “AEGIS” antimicrobial treatment. A trip through the washer and they now look surprisingly good, clearly ready for a few more years of adventure.

Conclusions

Am I going end by issuing a backpacker’s challenge that everyone switch to hiking in clogs? Not a chance. I was surprised—to my huge relief--that I could handle several rugged backcountry days in the Keens without personal peril but I don’t think I’ll be repeating the experience. (Not intentionally anyway.) That said, I might consider trail sandals in the future and there are Keen models that might just work, although trail debris and skin cracking remain big concerns. I’m closing this particular chapter and adding it to my book of “dumb things I’ve done backpacking and gotten away with.” I’ll leave clogging to the Germans.

Because of how well the Jamestowns have performed and worn, I have no qualms about saying Keens are keen. I’d definitely consider their other models.

Recommendations

In a typical review this is where I tell the manufacturer how to make a better backpacking product. I’m not going to do so with the Jamestowns because they’re clearly not aimed at the backpacking market. Besides, they make lots of shoes and sandals that come with the obvious cure: heels. My sole suggestion is to adjust the fit so that the instep strap adjustment will tighten them adequately for folks with less than boat-width feet. This would really improve traction going uphill or on loose surfaces.

Backpacking Bio

Most of my hiking is in the Sierra Nevada, the trips ranging from overnight to weeklong excursions. I like alpine territory best of all. I’ve shed several pounds from my pack for several reasons: traveling easier and farther, freeing myself from as many trappings as I’m comfortable discarding, and extending the duration of my backpacking career. My total pack weight for three-day summer excursions, including food and water, is now roughly 25 pounds (12 kg); longer trips see pack weights ranging into the mid 30s (17 kg) with water.