Shoes: February

The Ecco’s are still holding up nicely, and we’ve had some extreme temperatures to test them in.  My feet were still reasonably comfy in them in the high 90s, with 80% humidity.  Goretex is amazing.

We’ve put some more miles on our running shoes, but the heat and humidity has dampened that a bit—still not a lot of wear on these, even for running shoes.

I’ve been wearing the Toms a lot more in the heat, and the toes are a bit dusty, but otherwise holding up better than I expected, though there is some definite tread wear right at the heel—in the same place the Eccos are losing tread.

We’re approaching Bali in the rainy season, and I gave second thought to my shoe choice for torrential rain.  The Goretex on my Ecco’s won’t help when the water is running down my ankles, and wicking in through a pair of soaked socks.  So I picked up a pair of cheap flip-flops in Australia—“jandals,” as they call them here—and after trimming off the savagely sharp molding seams around the toe strap with a vegetable peeler, they’re quite comfy.  These actually replaced some mesh/neoprene water shoes I’d used for snorkeling/beach use previously, which dried out painfully slowly, and mostly served to collect half the sand on the beach inside them.  They pack as flat as the water shoes, are a little lighter, and don’t absorb water, so they should be great for travel.  They’re already a huge improvement for beach use.