5.11 Shoes

[antikythera]

Hello All,

I'm moving from Arizona to North Carolina next month for college. Needless to say, I don't have any footwear for when it rains. I was looking at the 5.11 Tactical Trainer 2.0 Mid as a light, non "tactical" looking, wet urban/outdoorsy shoe, and noticed a distinct lack of reviews. LAPG has a pretty good freebie deal going on, so are they any good?

I'm looking mostly at comfort, traction (dry and wet), and general waterproofness.

Thanks!

 

[Jim D.]

My 5.11 boots were comfy out of the box, but the insoles died in record time. Once I put in quality insoles, they were great.

Another thing I've seen with their hiking boot looking shoes is that their laces tend to come loose all the time. A buddy of mine wears his to work and is re-tying them constantly.

If the fit your foot type, they're probably worth looking at.

 

[ElConquistador]

The 5.11 site has a few reviews on them, they are the best place I've found for reviews on their stuff: http://www.511tactical.com/All-Products/Footwear/6-Boots.html

I've got a pair of North Face Hedgehog IIIs, kind of the same idea as your 5.11s, that I like. They come with gore-tex or without and high or low top. I think I got mine on sale at zappos.

 

[antikythera]

Okay. Thanks for the input! I ordered them and was waiting for them to come in. After all, there's free return shipping, so nothing to worry about.

Anyway, they're actually really nice. Comfortable, unbelievably light (lighter than my walkaround shoes!), great traction, and pretty good looking too! I ordered the Anthracite wide after seeing people complain that the shoes are too narrow, and it fits perfectly. I will probably get an insole for it at some point, but I'll wait and see, in case they've since made a design revision. They also addressed the untying issue by adding sausage laces, which in my experience, work extremely well. I've also got a pair of L.L. Beans coming in (today, hopefully), but unless those are absolutely phenomenal, I'll be keeping the 5.11s. I really like that the logo is blacked out, so it's very unobtrusive.

Are they really waterproof? I don't want to dunk a cup of water on them to test (in case I'm going to return them), but with the ventilated mesh and all, I'm just curious. They're rather toasty for ventilated shoes (although it is somewhat warm over here), so I imagine they are.