Thanks, great review. I have two questions for you since you have put some real time in them. Do you feel that they run true to size, I am trying to decide between a 12 and 12 1/2. Also do you know what length of laces they come with, I am planning on ordering some longer Pisgah range laces for them… Thank you again for your great reviews.
Been wearing these for about 8 months now, absolutely love them as a hiking/work boot. I do everything to climbing roofs and towers to walking miles locating utilities. I also found the laces to be too short, what I ended up doing is getting some rivet on lace hooks and putting them in the top two lace holes. It's the way they should have come in my opinion, makes a huge improvement to the boot
You vids a while back turned me on to lems. I have several pairs of trailheads. I’ve been looking at the boots they offer and will give them a shot this fall.
If you really want to go down the minimalist shoe and boot rabbit hole I would recommend the Softstar Megagrip PRIMAL RunAmoc. They're nearly perfect, just need some small adjustments when it comes to the interface between the midsole and the upper. I also like that they're out of Oregon. At the moment I'm testing out the Vivobarefoot Magna Forest Esc. It has some good elements and I would take them over Lems in a heartbeat but I'm not as impressed by the design as I was when I first started running Softstars.
@@LAWSON08yeah, that's one of the big shortcomings of Vivo. They have a really narrow build and don't have a particular wide toe box. Not something you would expect on barefoot focused shoes. I also dislike that they went with a knit instead of a traditional tongue for the ESC. For a knit to be effective, it actually has to comfortably make a seal around the ankle. But most knits tend to be oversized. Well it's comfortable, it doesn't actually limit debris from entering into the boot. Additionally it puts more noticeable pressure on the top of the foot when lacing up. It's a feature that comes out of the trail running community. What works on a maintained trail, doesn't overlap well with working your way through very rough terrain. That said, they had some workmanship issues on some of the shoes that do have traditional tongues so that may or may not have been for the best. A colleague of mine got the ESC at the same time I got mine, he returned his because of the narrow fit and knit after a genuine effort on his part to get accustomed to it. I kept mine, but only because it's one of the few barefoot shoes that have a truly aggressive tread. For my needs, the increased traction is greatly appreciated. I find it makes a huge difference. It'll also likely have greater longevity than the Softstars. Which was the big sticking point I had with the superior Softstar RunAmocs. I'm glad to have my ESCs and have gotten great use out of them, but I don't think they're worth MSRP. Especially now that they've increased the price to $270. With one time professional pricing I paid about $155 for them, which I think is a more reasonable price point. I've also been really intrigued by Wildlings. They have a really innovative outsole, but it doesn't provide a lot of traction, durability is subpar, and their linings are terrible. The challenging thing when it comes to barefoot shoes is a lot of the companies in the space started out making children's shoes. And branched out to the urban hipster market. Who then used them for trail running and hiking on manicured trails. There isn't a lot of institutional knowledge within these brands when it comes to putting together a shoe for professional users. For that you need about 1500 to get a specialty cobbler to make you a custom set. Which is what my colleague who gave back his ESCs did and what I will likely end up doing when my budget allows it.
How are they with weight on your back? I’m looking a new pair of Lowa zephyrs or these, and just want to know if they are comfortable once you start going distance with a heavy pack on.
