La Sportiva TX5 GTX, Men's Mountain Boots

Product Information

The heel cup is stiffened and protects the foot here and, combined with the Konnect Fit system, kept the rear of the foot in place and provided the good stability. The system is cord that wraps around the whole heel and rear shoe section and connects a metal lace loop that cinches the shoe around the foot. Follow our mate, Zoe as she heads up to Scotland in La Sportiva’s Mid-cut, approach boot and gives her thoughts. The Danner Trail 2650 is a nicely styled shoe that doesn’t look out of place on the street, but which has technical features for trail and hillwalking. The forefoot is quite broad and is medium volume, but the toe section narrows at the edges, which felt a little pinched for my feet. There was also a slight discomfort from time to time at the flex point at the base of the toes.

Comfort around the ankle and heel were good too. The Boreal shoe has a short inbuilt gaiter as the rear section of the ankle padding, which gave good flexibility for the ankle. The tongue had just the right amount of padding, but the gusset is quite thin and had a tendency to wrinkle a little if the shoe wasn’t laced carefully, introducing a little discomfort on the side of the foot. The gusset only comes half-way up the lacing, which allowed water to get into the shoe on deeper bogs and puddles. The forefoot is wide and felt quite roomy, with quite a large volume, despite the low profile. The heel cup held the foot well on uphill sections, and the ankle cuff and tongue had just the right amount of padding. Super grippy Vibram MegaGrip compound with Impact Brake System and differentiated lugs that enhance traction uphill and provide a sure grip downhill. However, even after the most rigorous assessment and testing, there is no better way to be absolutely sure than to have the boots on your feet for an extended period of time. We therefore offer our Home Trial Period which gives you the opportunity to wear the boots around your house to give you an indication of how they feel before you venture outside. We recommend that during the Home Trial Period that you wear the boots for as long as possible and at different times of the day, wear them up and down stairs, when moving around and when resting, you can even sleep in them if you want.But let’s not dwell on what you don’t have, instead we shall teach you how to ascertain your size using some common household objects.

Over an extended period of testing, the Danner shoes were very comfortable, and performed well in a variety of settings, from everyday street use to trail walking and country footpaths. The main features of the TX5 are mostly in the fabulous construction, but there are a couple of clever technologies that are worth a mention. It’s the lightest in the test, and uses a close mesh fabric in the uppers, with a plastic overlay round the bottom half of the shoe. The mesh contains recycled material. The outsole has additional stiffening elements in front of the heel section which provided extra torsional stability in what is a fairly pliable shoe. The outsole is a Vibram unit with Opti-Stud patterning, the rubber of which provided extra absorption. There’s an Ortholite insole with a good amount of foam padding, again adding to comfort on longer days.Garments engineered with GORE-TEX® Active product technology are built for extreme breathability and are ideal for highly aerobic, done in a day activities. All components are built for optimised sweat management to ensure extreme breathability and optimum comfort in high aerobic conditions. The performance is also supported by a tight fitting and minimalistic garment design. You should now be able to see approximately 2 cm (about an index fingers width) of the footbed poking out in front of your toes.