Review: adidas Hydro Pro shoes

[FatCanyoner]

G'day folks,

After two years of development, adidas released the Hydro Pro shoe in April. It is the first time the company has produced a specific canyoning shoe in a decade. The shoe is designed for any wet outdoor activity where grip is important (canyoning, river / creek walking, kayaking, pack rafting etc).

The shoe was designed and tested in Europe, however it was never used on sandstone (the dominant rock type in Australian canyons).

Despite the cold weather, I've spent the last two months testing them out (five canyons, several bushwalks, and some dry abseiling). While they have some flaws overall I have found them to be very good. Great grip, light, supportive, comfortable, warm, and reasonably hard wearing. I'm still not sure how they will stand up to the abuse of more remote, exploratory canyoning, but for most of the stuff in the Blue Mountains I think they are perfect. They have also been an absolute pleasure to bushwalk in. For trips involving challenging scrambling passes, or lots of stuff on wet rock, they are wonderful.

If you're interested in shoes suitable for more water-based outdoor activities and walks, I've put together a full review including lots of pics, technical specifications and detailed analysis of all the main elements of the shoe.

http://fatcanyoners.org/bush-guide/adidas-hydro-pro/

Cheers

Tim

[ninjapuppet]

I see you've been abit of a shoe-a-holic lately Tim.
Do they leave the volleys for dead?

and how are your other canyoning shoes holding up so far? Might look into one of these specialist shoes once the season starts again.

[steveo]

Thanks for the review/s Tim.
As a white water paddler I've been very interested in the 5:10's that you reviewed and now the adidas as well. My issue has always been finding a place that I am able to try them on, or an AUS website so that I can return them if they dont fit. (I have a drysuit with built in socks etc.)
If you get any updates regarding avalibility or websites with reasonable postage I'd love to know.

[FatCanyoner]

I see you've been abit of a shoe-a-holic lately Tim.

Absolutely. I've got a mate trialling out another shoe by 5.10, which is a water version of one of their approach shoes, and I'm also hoping to track down another canyoning shoe from the states. I'm determined to find the perfect canyoning shoe for Australian conditions, so until then I'll just keep trying any option available.

Re the Volley, these definitely leave them for dead. The new volleys are very poorly made. The rubber wears out after at best half a dozen canyons, at which point they become very slippery. The canvas also seems cheaper, and doesn't last much longer! There is no way I could go back to them given the far superior alternatives available.

Steveo, you may be particularly interested in the 5.10 Water Tennie for white water paddling. We should have a review for it up over the coming months, and I'll share it here.

I agree that it is a pain not being able to try the shoes on. I would much rather buy locally rather than online. The problem many retailers have (I have spoken to the guys at Summit Gear in detail about this) is that in many cases the wholesale price they pay is higher that what shoes can be bought online! So people come to their store, try on the shoes, then go home to buy. Therefore it just costs them time and money to stock a lot of these niche shoes.

[FatCanyoner]

Here's another canyoning shoe option I'm planning to take a detailed look at, this time from Spain. Ugly, but very effective.
Supposedly a pair of these survived being taken through 200 canyons!
Unfortunately they are quite expensive, and postage is huge, so we'll have to see how I go...
http://vimeo.com/19516441

[nq111]

Nice.

On your earlier recommendation I looked into these and will get a pair as tropical / wet season boots but have yet to pull the trigger. And the euro keeps on falling

Apparently they run a little large so maybe get 1/2 size smaller.

[dannnnn]

i've had my eye on a pair of these for a few weeks.... just maybe a bit narrow for me

http://www.teva.com/mens-fuse-ion-casua ... lt,pd.html

[FatCanyoner]

nq, going a half size small is definitely possible, especially if you plan to wear them with regular socks rather than neoprene.

dan, thanks for that. another option to look at. I love the minimal, sandshoe style design, although for $90 they are almost as expensive as some of the really hardcore canyoning boots that would last a lot longer.

[FatCanyoner]

i've had my eye on a pair of these for a few weeks.... http://www.teva.com/mens-fuse-ion-casua ... lt,pd.html

Dan, we've added your suggestion to our list. There is another water shoe by Teva that also seems interesting. We're going to try to give them both some use this season.

Also, just received the next lot of canyoning boots that I'm going to review in the post, the Bestard Canyon Guide (see pic below). These bad boys are very solid, built by a company that specialises in mountaineering gear. Supposedly during testing they took one pair through 200 canyons! I don't think there is a shoe on earth that can survive 200 on sandstone, but I'll give it a go!

A mate of mine has just finished off his review of one of the best climbing approach shoes around, the 5.10 Guide Tennie (http://fatcanyoners.org/bush-guide/five ... de-tennie/). The interesting thing about this is 5.10 now have a water sport (read canyoning) variation of this shoe, which is also one that will be reviewed in coming months (see a preview of the shoe here: http://fatcanyoners.org/bush-guide/five ... er-tennie/)

Any other ideas for canyoning footwear we're still missing?

[nq111]

Also, just received the next lot of canyoning boots that I'm going to review in the post, the Bestard Canyon Guide (see pic below).

Damn you! I was going to steal your thunder and be the first to bring these to Australia!

Really keen to hear your review - how they go on general hiking, approaches, how they work in hot weather, sizing.

[FatCanyoner]

Damn you! I was going to steal your thunder and be the first to bring these to Australia!

Too slow!

Really keen to hear your review - how they go on general hiking, approaches, how they work in hot weather, sizing.

Definitely. I'll cover off all that. Will probably be three or four months before I've given them suitable use. I'll post here when I do.

[FatCanyoner]

i've had my eye on a pair of these for a few weeks.... just maybe a bit narrow for me

http://www.teva.com/mens-fuse-ion-casua ... lt,pd.html

Dan,

I took these on a three day bushwalk over the weekend. It involved a couple river crossings, some creek walking and plenty of rock scrambling, so I thought it would be a good trip to start reviewing them. I obviously need to give them a lot more wear, but my first reactions are that they are not an ideal canyoning shoe. The rubber is not as sticky as more specific canyoning shoes. The rubber around the edges, which should be the grippiest, is actually different to the grippy rubber in the middle of the soles. That means that when you can smear the rock, you get good grip, but when edging they are very poor. On wet rock they are not as grippy as a volley (even the new model has better grip) and certainly not as good as the canyon-specific shoes. They are incredibly light, seem to be relatively hard wearing, drain well and dry quickly. I'll let you know once I've given them some decent canyon use, but at the moment my feeling is save your money for something else.

[FatCanyoner]

Really keen to hear your review

Here you go mate. Finally posted the review - viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13483

Let me know if you have any specific questions about things I didn't cover off.