Gear Review: Merrell all out terra trail shoes
After my Iceland trip last year I realized it was time to buy new shoes as I had started using tape to keep my Haglöfs together. I’m not a big buyer of shoes so I had no idea what was being made at the time. I did however have a plan in my head of designing my own pair of hiking shoes. My ideal pair that I would design would be as light as the Haglöfs LIM low but offer superior grip, would have better toe and heel protection and if possible would even have a built in gaiter to keep rocks out. This to me would be the perfect trail hiking shoe.
So in my new found inspiration in life, and absolutely certain I had invented in my head the next great shoe; I decided to make my way to the local gear shop here in Stockholm and get more inspiration for how my new shoes might look. Little did I know how far shoe development had come in the time since I last bought a new pair of trail shoes. While a lot of the shoes I was looking at was close to what I had in my head none of them checked all the boxes… Until I ran across a pair of Merrell All out terra trail shoes. They had the same lightness (almost) as my beloved Haglöfs, they had much better grip with the vibram sole, toe and heel protection and as an added bonus they even had a built in gaiter.
It didn’t take me long to do the math in my head: Either buy these shoes for 100usd or invest thousands of dollars, design a pair, spend countless hours making different prototypes and in the end make simply a competing shoe that probably wouldn’t be as good as these shoes. So I purchased the shoes and a year later I’m not disappointed. For one my toes aren’t black and bruised anymore from stomping on rocks, I’m not sliding down the side of a cliff because of bad grip and I no longer have to bring gaiters with me.
Features:
These shoes have excellent grip for most surfaces besides ice. I have done trail runs, backpacking and regular road races in these shoes and I am not at all concerned about the grip. You can’t go wrong with Vibram soles and the Merrell all out terra trail shoes make the best of it.
Mesh all around no goretex to be seen anywhere means these babies get wet fast and dry just as fast. Perfect! Even the tongue and insides are mesh. This shoe is perfect for the trail.
No more black and bruised toes. This nice solid rubber toe guard protects my toes from any rocks or branches the trail happens to throw at me. I still stumble on my ass, but atleast I’m not sitting for 10 minutes holding my toes.
The Merrell allout terra trail shoes have excellent heel protect, side protection and a built in gaiter. Whats not to like about these near perfect trail shoes?
The Merrell allout terra trail shoe fits like a glove around the feet. I am truly impressed by these shoes and even after about 500 kilometers they are still holding strong.
Weight:
The allout terra trail shoes are light, not as light as some trail shoes on the market, but I will take the extra weight for the total protection and gaiters anyday. These shoes weigh in at 333 grams each or 666 for both.
Comfort:
The Merrell allout terra trail shoes fit my foot very well. I love the gaiter wrap and the missing tongue. These shoes just sit tight regardless of the terrain. The only real negative here is that I usually need a pair of Superfeet in my shoes, on the Allout terra trail shoes a pair of superfeet make the shoes lose their form a little. Or perhaps I need to buy a smaller pair. Not really sure, but they don’t pass inside the shoe as well as on some other shoes. But that’s not the worst thing in the world to deal with as the shoes are comfortable without superfeet insoles.
Conclusion:
As I stated in the introduction of this review, I had gone into the shop looking for ideas to the shoes I had already designed in my head. I was thinking of either starting my own company with my own shoe design or going Haglöfs with the design idea and see if they would license it. I left the shoe store with pair of Allout terra shoes and never looked backed. These are exactly the shoes I had in my head. Truly worth the investment. I see no reason not to buy these shoes if your looking for an excellent pair of outdoor trail shoes. I can’t really judge them as trail running shoes as I have only run a few runs in them totaling about 100kilometers. However I do have closer to 600kilometers walking in them.