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Reviews > Footwear > Trail Shoes > Merrell Waterpro Ultrasport > Colleen Porter > Initial Report
Tester: Colleen Porter Gender: female Age: 30 Height: 5'8"/1.73 m Weight: 140 lb./64 kg Email address: tarbubble at yahoo dot com Location: Orange County, CA Backpacking History: Backpacking Background: I’ve been backpacking for 10 years, usually with my husband. We used to be heavyweights, but having children forced us to go ultralight, and now on my own my 3-season base weight hovers around 13 lbs/6 kg. On family trips the weight usually doubles. I just had my second child in June of this year and he is now 2 months old, plenty old enough to start backpacking. Our 3-season backpacking haunts are the San Gabriels, The Santa Anas, the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, and winters find me in the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Field Conditions: Although California is not as famous for canyons as, say, Arizona and Utah, we still have quite a number of both wet and dry canyons here, at all levels of ability. There’s a fantastic small canyon in my own city, a stone’s throw from two housing tracts. This will probably be the location visited most frequently with the Waterpros. Since canyons sometimes are found in the unlikeliest of places, I’ll bring the WaterPros on all of my trips for the next four months, most of which will be in the desert, where canyons of all kinds can be found and explored. These canyons will be either dry or wet, and will feature surfaces ranging from slick to highly abrasive. I can think of one that has a nasty, sulphuric spring as its water source. That should be an interesting challenge for any pair of shoes. In November or December we are planning to pack into the Mecca Hills, which are riddled with dozens of slot canyons. Although I am planning to take an introductory canyoneering course this month, very little of my canyon explorations will be at all technical in nature. Most of my use of the Waterpros will take place below 4000 feet/1200 meters. Temperatures will likely range from 95 F/35 C to at or just below freezing. I don't anticipate doing much canyon hiking in the rain, for safety reasons, so typically the weather will be clear and dry. Product Description: Think of a much beefier, sturdier pair of lace-up mesh pool shoes with Vibram soles. Think of a climbing shoe with mesh uppers and a lugged sole. Think of a shoe that feels almost like a slipper, but that laces up snugly and has solid, grippy soles. The Waterpros are all of these things. The upper is a mix of sturdy mesh, synthetic leather, very thin webbing and even thinner laces. The webbing zigzags vertically along the inside and outside of the foot and forms the loops through which the laces feed. There is a rubber toe cap, which seams into the Vibram sole. The sole is interesting, with a great deal of variety of texture in it, including 5 circles which almost look like suction cups. The heel cup is slightly adjustable and can be tightened or loosened. They don't feel like hiking shoes at all.Initial Impressions: These shoes are light. Beyond being light, when I put them on they felt like a strange combination of being both shoed and shoe-less. They were quite comfortable right out of the box, but as I walked around my house I felt like I should step lightly in them, as they almost didn't feel like a real shoe. As I said in the Product Description, they almost felt like climbing shoes, or slippers. But once I wore them for a little while and got over feeling like I needed to step gingerly, I resumed my natural gait and found that the Waterpros really didn't need me to baby-step in them at all. I initially wore them with no socks and did notice one area of potential concern - the mesh that seams into the area of the toe cap has a very rough edge on it, and I'm fairly sure that after a few hours of sockless use, the mesh might start rubbing a raw spot, especially in wet conditions. I have been waiting anxiously to get the Waterpros, so once I received them I managed to sneak out of the house at 6 am to explore a small un-named canyon located about 3 miles/5 kilometers from my house. I packed up my Six Moon Designs Comet pack with two drybags worth of gear, food, and water - enough to approximate on overnight load. The pack wasn't heavy, but the drybags fit loosely inside and tended to shift, making the load slightly unstable. I wore the Waterpros over a pair of Seirus Stormsocks, which are intended to insulate feet in wet, cold conditions. The approach to the canyon was short but brutal, down a manicured but muddy slope in front of a row of suburban homes, and then down a dry hillside choked with nasty, prickly, spiny weeds over 6 feet/1.8 meters tall. The Waterpros handled this part decently, but not as well as a standard pair of hiking shoes or boots would have. The soles on the Waterpros are narrower than those on most outdoor shoes I've used, and while this may make them more nimble it also reduces the amount of surface they grip. I'm accustomed to a wider platform underneath my feet, so I'll have to make a mental adjustment when wearing the Waterpros. Once in the canyon, I was very pleased with the performance of the Waterpros. I used them several different ways: dry rock-hopping, crossing the creek (both by stepping on slimy rocks and by just walking through the water), bushwhacking through dense weed and tree thickets, edging along thin rock ledges, climbing down an old washed-out concrete dam, and wading through sandy silt and mud-bottomed sections of waist-deep water. The Waterpros sailed through all of this with no problems, and performed very well on the climb back out of the canyon. Even with ankle-deep sandy silt the Waterpros did their job well and didn't take on or retain an excessive amount of sand. When I got home and shook out the sand that did remain in the shoes, it wasn't really that much. I wanted to take a peek at the Waterpros' last, so I pulled out the insole. I was surprised to find that the insole was glued in, although the glue was very weak and the foot bed was still easily removed. The last is stitched around the edges and appears quite solid. The insole is very light and soft without being too soft - it won't squash completely flat, and it is waffled on the underside. So far, I am pleased with the Waterpros. I'm excited to be testing them and am looking forward to playing in them a lot over the next four months. Test Plan: Grippier rubber
tends to be softer rubber. Will the Waterpros'
soles wear down faster than other shoes? Can a sole
designed to perform in both wet and dry environments really do both
well? I’ve yet to meet a shoe that could
really
master two different applications; typically it’s a “jack of all
trades, master
of none” result, or worse. Can I use
the WaterPro as both an approach shoe and as a canyon shoe, or will I
find that I’ll need to pack them in and use shoes
with tougher soles for the drier and more abrasive approaches? I have taken photographs measuring the depth
of the lugs on the soles, so that I can monitor the amount of wear and
tear that results
from use over the next four months. Merrell refers to the lacing system as being "dynamic." I'm not certain what they mean by that, but the lacing system does seem to tighten the entire shoe, all the way down the sides. My main concern is the very thin webbing used for the lacing loops - it seems vulnerable to abrasion, although that's purely speculation at this point. Merrell claims the footbed is specifically designed for women, with a design they call "Q-Form." It is allegedly designed to provide better alignment for the way women walk. I can't make a direct comparison with the men's version of this shoe, but after seeing and feeling the footbed that came in the Waterpros I am a little bit skeptical - it doesn't look very sophisticated. But sometimes simple things are amazing, and so I'll just have to keep using them and see. Read more reviews of Merrell gear Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter Reviews > Footwear > Trail Shoes > Merrell Waterpro Ultrasport > Colleen Porter > Initial Report | |||
