Trail Glove 7 After 440 Kilometres

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Since the 7th of May 2023 I have been wearing Trail Glove 7 Shoes for most of my walks. During this time I have walked in towns, villages, fields, the mountains and more. They have felt comfortable for almost all of this walking. As I am not familiar with this type of shoe I have been keeping an eye on the wearing out of the shoes.

Heels and Blisters

Usually with most normal shoes I wear out the rear part of the shoe, to the point that the soft material that pads the back of the heel is worn away to expose bare plastic, which then wears against the back of my feet, and leaves blisters. My solution, to extend the life of those shoes was to protect the rear of my foot from rubbing. This isn’t an ideal solution. That’s what encouraged me to try barefoot shoes.

Toe Box Spacing

For some reason as I wore new iterations of shoes that I previously really liked I found that the sides of my feet would sometimes rub against the side and adapt a way to protect themselves. I didn’t like the idea that normal shoes were damaging my feet. Designs that had been fantastic in the past, became uncomfortable to wear due to either poor design, or bad materials.

The Trail Glove 7

These are very comfortable shoes for the first 400 kilometres. They provide just the right amount of heel padding for the heels. After 400 km I believe that the sole of the heel is worn just enough for heel strikes to be felt in the bone, after a walk.

Over the last two days I have walked in rainy, wet conditions. Due to how worn out the soles of the shoes are I felt the shoe slide from under me. I expected that this problem would occur. The tread wears out within 120 kilometres depending on walking style and surfaces. After that you’re happy to have warm, dry weather, Slipping is less of a risk in such conditions.

The rest of the shoes look fine. There are no holes on the top of the shoes, no fraying or any other signs of wear.

Mud Grabbing

As I wrote before the tread of the shoes wears down quite fast, where our feet apply the most force to the ground, but remains intact everywhere else. The result is that if you walk in muddy conditions, as I did yesterday, the tread traps mud and you’re stuck having to clear out the mud with a skewer or tooth pick, rather than a brush. Brushing doesn’t work.

And Finally

Although I think the support from the heel of the left shoe is gone I will continue to wear them until they get a hole. I wore a pair of hiking shoes until the foot support was worn smooth inside the shoe, and the soles were also worn out. I have worn other shoes until the toes of the soles of the shoes were punctured. I plan to do the same with these shoes, to determine their endurance. At the very least I want to get them to five hundred kilometres.

You know it’s time to replace shoes when you walk through a shallow puddle and your socks get wet, from the bottom of the shoe, rather than the sides.