Designed in conjunction with wilderness experts from Wild Human and the Independent Adventurer, Vivo Barefoot’s Tracker Forest ESC is a rather unconventional hiking boot.
Their Wildhide leather is naturally scarred and comes from free-roaming cattle sourced from small scale farmers.
Above you can see the Michelin Esc Sole. Sausage laces are paired with barrel eyelets.
Additionally, these do not incorporate a waterproof membrane. Instead, they rely on construction and the use of Renapur Leather Balsam (included with boots) to keep the leather water resistant, yet facilitate breathability.
As you can see, this simple construction offers a great deal of flexibility.
Made in Vietnam.
www.vivobarefoot.com/us/tracker-forest-esc-mens
Hopefully they hold up a little better than the original trackers…
I thought we tried this “barefoot” craze a while back with those fugly toe shoes and found out it ends up destroying your feet.
Are we doing round 2?
barefoot shoes do not destroy your feel.
running heel/toe in barefoot shoes destroys your feet.
running a PT test the first time you wear them destroys your feet.
running with massive weight and on hard surfaces for long distance destroys your feet.
running on the balls of your feet is not for everyone, especially fatties, but it is the way to run in barefoot shoes.
moreover these are for hiking not running. I hike in all sorts of INOV8 mids and Altama Maritime Assaults. Zero shoes are my preference for long distance, especially when I’m in and out of water. I’m looking forward to picking up a pair of these.
Yes a lot of people who blindly followed the trend without reading into it hurt themselves. Mike below here is spot-on.
Now as for the shoes: It’s sad and a big gap in the market that currently there’s no proper oriented barefootstyle combat boot.
I’m currently wearing meindl bernina2’s (insole removed) which are pretty roomy and reasonable flexible after breaking them in.
The trackers are pretty good shoes and I’m curious how much these soles offer compared to the original soles which are pretty good. That said, I replaced the laces on the originals with 550 cord after the orginal laces cut themselves after 2 months.
Agree with you two, but you say there’s no barefootstyle combat boot…
What about the Belleville Mini-Mil?
I’ve never tried them myself but curious; they purport to be zero-drop minimalist boot.
I have the Belleville Mini-Mils. I’m 6’4″ with size 13 feet, and if I travel, a normal pair of boots takes up about half of my rollaboard. I got the Mini-Mils to have a compact pair of boots for TDY.
For walking from the hotel to the rental car to the meeting, they’re fine. But when I attended a conference at PACOM a couple of years ago they were pretty unpleasant. Zero parking near the building, so I ended up parking at the bottom of a hill and had to hike up ~20 minutes each morning. Aggravated some plantar fasciitis I was experiencing at the time. If I had a do-over I would have sucked it up, packed my Rocky S2Vs and checked a bag.
The Vivobarefoot Tracker Style Boots are available since 8 years! I owned 2 generations of them, but they broke quite fast – like every Vivobarefoot shoe. Great company, great materials, quality worksmanship – yet, its still to fragile constructed somehow. I use ZAQQ Exped at the moment: Hand sewn leather zero drop barefoot shoes from Germany. Zero Drop != Barefoot shoes! Barefoot Shoes = thin sole, Zero Drop only means the height difference from heel (that is lifted with many shoes) compared to the toes. No matter what any ligger claims, it is THE way to go! It is THE way to go with alot of weight and without – I use them in service since 8 years and was a Mountain Ranger, and never needed a protecting sole against poking even in rough terrain, not even when carriny 80lbs backpacks. You do not need ankle protection too, if you have strong ankles. In the meantime, when hiking a day trip, 2000m in altitude, with a some 25lbs packpack, I use XeroShoes Z-Trek Zero Drop Barefoot Sandals… Its all just a matter of good supporting muscular strength, and than you can enjoy the benefits of the energy saving walking style and enhance your pace and total distance!
How do you like your Zaqqs? Is there sizing correct?
Good god, I couldn’t agree more! Barefoot is one thing, why is zero drop so hard to find!! I could deal with a stiffer shank and padding for heavier, more technical marches. Keep the crazy flexible for lighter road moves/”tactical” operations.
Best I’ve found, drop-wise, is Danner Tachyons. I’ve never tried the Belleville Mini Mils. Neither are true zero drop. I believe Bellevilles are 2mm.
I love my zero drop and minimalist shoes, but you do need proper technique to use them. Not very difficult. I need a wide foot box, and finding a wide foot box and zero drop is hard. Minimal is good for somethings, but ideally two lines, one wide and zero and the other wide zero and minimal.
Wrong website, its http://www.independentAdventurer.com
I tried Altra Lone Peak (4.5 low cuts) last summer. If you have wide feet, they’re great! Backpacking with a mid weight on longer treks, they’re my new favorites. Go for the non-gore tex models.