It’s raised a few eyebrows when people asked what trail shoes I was wearing and I shouted “Bestard!” at them. I know it’s puerile, but I couldn’t resist. Bestard are a brand from Spain that you may not have heard of but with a name like that you’ll remember them. I know it’s a translational thing, but it’s still fun.
This is the Glove trail shoe. As you can see, there’s plenty of mesh, so breathability is a given. They sport a Vibram Tubava sole unit and they weigh in around 900g for my size 11 which is light, but not crazy light, so you get a mix of stability, support and weight reduction when compared to boots. If you’re not sure about leaving boots behind, here’s a great option to convert you. They offer a GTX lined version also, but I’m not a big fan of membranes in shoes, so this is the vanilla variety.
I’ve worn these for a few months now and so far, I’m very impressed. Comfort is good out of the box, they resist water and mud well and breathability is excellent. My sternest test for a sole unit is a mix of wet schist and wet grass, which means that almost all of the Arrochar Alps are a perfect test bed. These have been very grippy on both grass and rock, which is encouraging. Scrambling performance is good, because they’re very precise; so much so that I’ve even used them on easy rock climbs.
Support and stability are good with heavier backpacking loads and I’ve eaten up the miles easily. I’ll continue to put these to the test, but so far I’m very impressed.
You have no idea how hard it is to resist putting another pun in here about the name.
Update 25th June 2013:
The Glove is part of a flash sale at SportPursuit. If you are interested in buying a pair and want to support Scottish Mountaineer, use the affiliate link below to buy and I’ll get a couple of quid to keep the site running. Ta muchly.