Keen Obsidian Trail Shoes
Reviewed By Pat
McNeilly
Initial Report: July 8, 2009
Field Report: September 20, 2009
Long-term Report: November 30, 2009
Name: Pat McNeilly
Age: 46
Gender:
Male
Height: 5’ 8” (1.7 m)
Weight: 155 lb (70 kg)
Email address: mcne4752 at yahoo dot com
City, State, Country: Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA
Backpacking Background:
I have been hiking for at least 20 years but backpacking for only the last five
years. Most of my backpacking is done as
overnight trips and occasional weekend and week long trips. My typical pack weight is approximately 18 to
20 lb (8 to 9 kg) before food or water.
Most of my backpacking is the three season variety in the mountains of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West
Virginia. In
addition to backpacking, I also fish, hunt, and enjoy orienteering. As a result, some of my backpacking equipment
gets use in a number of different venues.
Product Information:
Product: Obsidian Shoes
Size: Men’s size 10
Color: Black/Grey (and green sole)
Manufacturer: Keen, Inc.
Year of Manufacture: 2009
Listed Weight: 13.7 oz (388 g)
Measured Weight: Left shoe 14.7 oz (417 g)
Right shoe 14.3 oz (405 g)
Pair 29 oz (822 g)
URL: http://www.keenfootwear.com/.
MSRP: Not available yet
Initial
Report
Report Date: July 8, 2009
Product Description:
Information
about the Keen Obsidian is not yet available on the company’s website. The pair that I received had hang tags
indicating that they are a “Development Sample.” The Obsidian is a
synthetic mesh trail shoe with a waterproof breathable membrane lining.
The shoe has a fairly aggressive tread and a non-marking sole. The shoe also includes a flexible stability
shank, stone bruising protection plates, and a removable footbed. The Obsidian has the characteristic Keen
rubber bumper toe. The upper of the shoe
consists of three different materials.
The front portion of the shoe is a black heavy mesh which appears to be
welded to a heavier grey plastic fabric in the heel and toe areas. There is another mesh fabric which makes up
the tongue and surrounds the top of the shoe.
The plastic material in the rear of the shoe is very stiff and
produces a rigid heel counter.
The shoes have an asymmetric lacing system which
consists of webbing loops which curve toward the outside of the shoe. The laces feed through webbing loops except
for the very top which feeds through a plastic eyelet. The lowest two lacing loops appear to be
welded to the mesh fabric while the others seem to be sewn in place. The mesh fabric tongue seems to be minimally
padded and the top portion of the tongue is covered with the same plastic
fabric as the heel portion of the shoe.
There are also fine mesh gussets on either side of the tongue.
Product Review:
Right from the beginning, I noticed that the Obsidian Shoes are completely
synthetic and have a plastic smell to them.
They are also quite light. Maybe
not the lightest shoes I’ve ever put on but certainly not the weight of full
leather hiking boots. The next thing
that I wanted to see was how well they fit.
The size 10 shoes fit well. I
typically wear a slightly smaller size but Keen indicates on their website that
many of their shoes run a half size small.
The size was a bit of guess for the Obsidian since I didn’t have a full
description of the shoes but I am happy with the fit. The shoes have lots of room in the toe box
and feel as though they might be made on a wide last. While wearing mid-weight hiking socks, I
certainly don’t feel as though they are constricting my feet at all.
The asymmetric lacing looks a little funny to me. Somehow I would have expected the lacing to
curve toward the inside of the shoe rather than the outside. In any event, they do give the shoes a unique
character. During the test period, I
will try to assess whether this lacing system provides any particular advantage
in the fit of the shoes.
I pulled the footbed out to look at its construction
and found that it is comprised of three different materials. The toe portion is a soft flexible material,
while the section surrounding the arch and heel is a more rigid material. Finally, directly under the heel is a soft
material possibly to help with shock absorption but that was not described in
any material I have seen.
The tread on the shoes is fairly aggressive but the lugs in the center look to
be a bit smaller than those along the outside.
There are also two grooves in the tread along the ball of the foot which
seem to help the sole to flex. The
rubber bumper toe is an extension of the sole material and completely covers
the front of the shoe. It also wraps
around approximately the front third of the shoe. I also do not see any seams anywhere on the
outside of the shoe with the exception of the where the lacing loops and rear
pull loop attach. The material I saw on
the shoes mentioned that the fabric is welded and that seems to be the
case. I can’t say that I have ever seen
a shoe with such minimal amount of stitching.
Field
Report
September 20, 2009
Field Conditions:
I have
worn the Keen Obsidian shoes almost every day since the test began. If I was not hiking or backpacking, I wore
them around town, mowing the grass and most any other daily activity. I wore the shoes on one weekend backpacking
trip in the Great North Mountain
area of the George
Washington National
Forest.
The distance covered on this trip was approximately 18 miles (29 km) and
at elevations of 1200 ft to 2500 ft (366 to 762 m). Temperatures ranged from 65 to 90 F (18 to
32 C) and I did encounter strong thunderstorms on this trip. All the hiking was done on maintained but
rocky trails.
In addition to backpacking, I wore the shoes on a variety of hiking trips in Maryland and Northern Virginia. I also took the shoes along on a trip to Alaska where I was able to do some day hiking along the Alaska coast, including
a portion of the Chilkoot Trail. All these hikes were on maintained trails
ranging from smooth gravel roads to rough rocky terrain. Temperatures on these hikes ranged from 45 F
(7 C) in Alaska
up to 95 F (35 C) on the east coast.
I haven’t done much running in these shoes but can say that I use them for
orienteering (i.e., running with map and compass) which to assess how well they
perform off-trail. Distances involved
were relatively short, approximately 3 miles (5 km) with temperatures near 85 F
(29 C).
Overall, I have hiked only approximately 75 miles (121 km) plus any additional
wear from wearing them around town.
Product Review:
With about two months of wear on the Obsidians, the shoes seem to be holding
their own. The uppers don’t really seem
to be very worn at all. Although, I have noticed over the years that
I tend to wear out the soles of shoes faster than the uppers. I haven’t seen any holes, loose stitching, or
separating of the rand from the upper. I
initially had some concerns that the soles might wear faster than I would like.
I noticed that the soles seemed to have their fine details (i.e,
small knobs or ridges) wear off quickly and some of the black material around
the edge of the sole wore down showing the green material underneath. This initial wear seems to have slowed and
soles appear to be in good shape.
One
thing I have noticed with these shoes is that they seem to grip surfaces
well. I haven’t had problems on trails
or rock surfaces (wet or dry). The only
problems I have seen are with wet very smooth surfaces (like in bathrooms) or
on wet wood. While using the shoes
orienteering, I took a fairly nasty fall when stepping on a wet log but other
than that they performed well off-trail.
Most shoes would not likely perform any differently on these surfaces.
The shoes fit pretty well but I had a couple small blisters on my left Achilles
tendon when I first started wearing the shoes.
I haven’t had any since. The left
shoe does feel as though it comes up a little higher and puts some pressure on
my Achilles tendon than on the right shoe.
I have had some chronic Achilles tendonitis and am sensitive to these
types of issues. However, other than the
blisters, I haven’t had any flare-up of tendonitis.
I found that the soles absorb shock fairly well. I could handle rocky trails for a while but
if I hiked over 5 to 6 miles (8 to 10 km) I would start to feel the rocks under
the ball of the foot. This was worsened
if I was carrying a heavier pack. The
pack weights for my West Virginia
hikes were approximately 20 lb (9 kg).
I love how wide the shoes are. There is
plenty of room for my toes to be comfortable without causing blisters. There have been a few times that I wanted to
tighten the shoes in the front (e.g., on downhill portions of trail) and when I
felt my foot slipping inside the shoe.
I had a hard time getting the shoes tight on the forefoot. The shoe is pretty wide but the asymmetric
lacing doesn’t seem to allow much adjustment.
I
was able to test the water resistance of the shoes and can say that they keep
water out pretty well. While backpacking
in West Virginia,
I did encounter some substantial storms and wet condition and the Obsidians did
their job of keeping water out. The
outside surface of the shoes would appear wet but the inside was dry. The shoes seemed to take a long time to dry,
which surprised me but I did not actually time this process. The shoes have been pretty breathable. I typically wear a midweight wool sock with
these shoes and, for the most part, my feet have been dry, even after vigorous
hiking or running.
One negative thing about the shoes is that they still have that plastic smell
to them. It is most noticeable when the
shoes have been in a warm place, like a hot car, for a while. The smell isn’t as strong as when the shoes
arrived but I still notice it almost every time I put the shoes on. There were a couple of cool mornings when I
actually used the heater in my truck and, after a few minutes, I could smell
the shoes.
Long-Term
Report
November 30, 2009
Field Conditions:
The Keen Obsidians have been getting a fair amount of use in this portion of
the testing. I wear them as much as
possible around town and in the yard. I
have not had opportunity to use them backpacking but have worn them on nine day
hikes. These hikes were primarily parks
or forests in northern Virginia or Maryland. I did wear the shoes one hike in the Norvin Green State Forest in northern New Jersey.
The hikes ranged from 4 to 8 miles (6 to 13 km) and were all on
maintained but often rocky trails.
The weather this fall has seen quite a bit of rain here and I have used the
shoes under wet conditions for the majority of my hikes during the long-term
testing. Temperatures have ranged from
40 to 85F (4 to 29 C).
During the testing I noticed an advertisement for the Keen Obsidians which I
had not seen before. The ad indicated
that the shoes were being billed as cross-trainers. So, in addition to the hiking, I did wear the
shoes while on a couple afternoon runs.
These included both street and trail runs in clear weather.
Product Review:
Overall
the wear on the shoes has been good. I
can see that some of the smaller portions of the tread are wearing down but
there still seems to be quite a bit of tread left. There also is a bit more wear on the heel of
each of the shoes but nothing that I would consider excessive. I did have one issue when I nearly took a
fall while wearing the shoes in town. It
was raining and I stepped inside a store onto a tiled floor and felt my left
foot slide out from under me. I was able
to catch myself before making a scene.
However, I noticed that I felt like I was skating on the tile for a
couple of minutes until the soles eventually dried out enough. I’m glad this wasn’t something that happened
on some slick rock outcropping. I
haven’t had similar experiences on trail, even in rainy conditions, but will
keep this in mind for future use.
At the beginning of the test, I wasn’t aware that Keen was marketing these
shoes as cross-trainers, so I decided to at least see how they performed for
running. The shoes did not seem like the
best thing for running. They did not
seem to have the right amount of support for running, particularly on streets,
as I would like. They were fairly stable
on a quick trail run but I prefer a shoe designed with running in mind.
I haven’t had blisters form while using the Obsidians but I have noticed that
my foot can sometimes slide forward in the shoe, particularly on downhill
sections of trail. In the Field Report I noted that I couldn’t tighten the toe portion
of the shoe and I haven’t been able to resolve that. I also note here that the insoles are very
smooth and allow the foot to slide forward easily. This hasn’t caused blisters or toe jamming
but for me it is a little annoying.
Much of the hiking I have done in the last couple months has been in wet
conditions. I have been impressed with
the Keen Dry membrane. I have not had my
feet wet from rain or surface water while wearing the shoes. My feet have also stayed reasonably dry when
my feet perspire, even when running with a wool sock. This leads me to the conclusion that the
membrane breathes well. I can’t say that
my feet would be bone dry but certainly drier than I would have expected.
The one thing that has not gone away is the plastic smell of the shoes. I can always tell I have the shoes on when I
get in my truck and the heater warms up the shoes, I get that wonderful odor. It has faded over time but I really would
have expected not to still be encountering that smell at this point in the
testing.
There hasn’t been any ripping of the upper or separation of the rand or
sole. The only other minor comment I
have is that the eyelets at the top of the lacing are starting to cause wearing
of the laces. The laces haven’t broken
but I can see some wear.
Summary
The Keen Obsidian Shoes are an all synthetic trail shoe built on a wide last
with plenty of room in the toe box. The
shoes have an asymmetric lacing system and the characteristic Keen bumper style
toe. The soles are fairly aggressive and
grip well on most surfaces. The
Obsidians have a waterproof breathable membrane which keeps my feet dry. The forefoot is a little difficult to adjust
for a tight fit. The shoes do have a
plastic smell that hasn’t gone away during the testing period.
Things I like:
1. Soles grip well
2. Keep my feet dry
3. Wide last
Things I don’t like:
1. Difficult to adjust in front
2. Smell like plastic
This concludes my testing of the Keen Obsidian trail shoes. I would like to thank Keen and
BackpackGearTest.org for the opportunity to test this item.