TREKKING
Product 2021
Woman, Man
The hiking world sees surprising products appear, both for their looks and their technical qualities. We saw this recently with the outlandish Hoka One One shoe, the Tennine Hike GTX.
Columbia is offering a product that stands out in the crowd too, the Facet 45 Outdry.
You will immediately notice the lack of laces. Designed like a slipper it has two straps on the instep. There’s no Velcro attachment. The straps aren’t adjustable and aren’t very stretchy.
The ankle has a stretchy fabric that provides two functions: helps you put the shoes on and also prevents any grit, twigs, snow, etc. getting inside the shoe.
We thought it was an outdoor shoe, the Columbia website refers to it as “a waterproof hiking shoe inspired by a running shoe”. Testing we tried but we couldn’t find any qualities that qualify it as such.
First of all, it is a pain to get on, despite the fabric zone around the heel, you need to tug on both straps in front and behind the foot. How long will these straps hold out? The two straps on the instep sometimes come out of their casings, your foot then slides in more easily but afterwards the straps are more difficult to put back in position.
Once you’ve got the Columbia Facet 45 Outdry on, they are sized quite big. They are therefore not very snug fitting and foot hold is lost, also due to the soft fabric. The outer sole is also flexible all over. Since the heel is not very tight, coupled with thick cushioning and not much precision, the foot strike seems quite unstable.
Whilst walking (we didn’t imagine running with this shoe), you very quickly feel where the material folds at the toes, and it becomes uncomfortable. This shoe isn’t very light either, 375g in size 42.5: bizarre as it isn’t fur lined or reinforced or have any laces.
The outer sole works well on surfaces that don’t need too much grip, in the snow they clog up very quickly.
The Columbia Facet 45 Outdry is waterproof though, quite breathable and manufactured with care.
So? What would we use this Columbia Facet 45 Outdry for? From our point of view, we would use them in an urban setting. Even possibly in a fitness gym. But even here, it is so difficult to put on, and the sole so unstable, it probably wouldn’t be suitable here either. Personally, we believe they need to start again from zero.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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