Patagonia Men's Drifter A/C Hiking Shoe

Unlike many of the urban "hiking boots" at outlets today, the Patagonia Drifter is a solid performing true hiking shoe, very rugged and well built. Double and triple stitching in the right spots, heel pull that is well anchored and will not come loose. The toe box is roomy for a D-width shoe but not overly so, just perfect in terms of being snug but still room to breathe...after all they are named the Drifter A/C for a reason. Tough leather (some may call it suede) on the outter with nylon in the right spots for venting/breathing, these are very nice summer shoes but plenty warm enough for mid-30's and warmer weather. Four metal eyelets at the top of the shoe but all other lace retainers are nylon (non-metal) having owned five pairs of these shoes I can verify that although I initially doubted the toughness of the nylon lace eyelet system I have yet to rip through one in more than three years of use on five different pairs. Some reviews have indicated that the knobs on the vibram soles tend to peel off but that has not been my experience, all of the soles on my Drifters have held together very well and they have been through some rather tough abuse on three continents in extremely tough terrain. Of note, I have owned other hiking shoes with vibram outsoles that have been slippery when wet but these are as good as they get, they simply do not slide on wet surfaces and have great traction. Suppose one ding would be the aggressive traction on the sole does collect mud and once dried the mud can be a little difficult to clean out, but hey they're hiking shoes...if you only hike concrete then buy an urbanite boot as you will not grasp the full extent of what the Drifter has to offer. The single best feature of these shoes is the built-in shank, something that has become highly overlooked in quality footwear recently. The shank allows you to be on your feet all day but will not make your feet sore from continuous flexing that often accompanies non-shanked boots. Even the shoe laces are rock solid, still on my 1st pair of laces on a pair of shoes that are three years old and they're not even close to being worn through. Five stars because they don't have six...

This is the first pair of Patagonia shoes I have ever bought and given the relatively high price of the shoes I had great expectations. ZI wore them for maybe 15 or so hikes and noticed that the pieces of the soles started coming off. I tried to glue the pieces back inlace but it just didn't work and besides the soles continued to deteriorate. Merrill makes a much better hiking shoe and I wonder why I spent the big bucks on these Patagonia when the Merrill Moab Ventilator is by far the superior hiking shoe -- and less money too. Buyer beware! I should have returned them but since I wore them for my hikes, I felt obligated to just take the loss and report on the shoe's quality issue.

Update: Size 9 was too small, I changed them for size 9.5. They are still a little too small but I am not going to go through the trouble of sending them back. If you are a size 9, order a size 10. These shoes are awesome but the sizing is a problem. Nobody in Hawaii is authorized to sell Patagonia shoes so I had no way to try them on before purchase. I have never had a size 10 shoe before. Last week I bought Clarks and I had to get an 8 1/2. The Patagonia sizing is definitely messed up.I am a size 9. I've bought many pairs of shoes in my life time and I find that shoes made for the european market are sized slightly different. I don't know if these shoes were made to European standards and then they found the closest US sizes and labeled them as such. I do know that they arrived and they were 1/2 size too small. My toes scraped the end of the shoes. I returned them and ordered a 9.5. If I was to wear thick socks with them, I would have to order a full size larger.It took Amazon 2 weeks to get the shoes to me. I live in Hawaii and other items take about 4 days. I got the shoes at a great price/discount so I am happy.Other than that, they are well made and they will fit the bill when I get the right size. I will be using the shoes for the office and the occasional around town activities. I spend time in Montana every year and the shoes will be going with me for hiking and fishing there. I only go in the summer so waterproofing was not necessary. The shoes are great value for the price I bought them at and I only took off one star because they are not true to size.

Ich kannte Patagonia bisher noch nicht, aber dieser Schuh hat mich ueberzeugt. Sehr gute Passform, optimaler Sitz im Schuhbett und unvergleichbarer Komfort. Ein kleines Minus, aber eigentlich nicht der Rede wert: Ich habe die Schuhe in Gr.45.5 bestellt aber in Gr. 45 erhalten. Er passt trotzdem sehr gut, faellt also dementsprechend eher groesser aus. Ich muss die Schuhe allerdings noch auf einer laengeren Tour testen.