Trip Reports, Campsites & More
Columbia Konos TRS OutDry Shoe
Gear Review
Last season Columbia reached out and asked if I’d like to try their Facet 75 Alpha OutDry Shoe. I gave it a shot and ended up being really happy with the Facet 75 for both hiking and shorter canoe trips (I haven’t had a chance to try them on a longer trip yet). I was pleasantly surprised because I’ve always thought of Columbia in terms of jackets and other outerwear, not hiking shoes. But the Facet 75 really stood up to the task, and it worked its way into my regular outdoors rotation over the past (relatively mild) winter. Why is this important? Well, it explains why I was pretty excited when Columbia reached out to me again recently and asked if I’d like to test out their newest hiking shoe, the Konos TRS OutDry Shoe. I jumped at the chance, hoping that lightning might strike twice (figuratively, not literally. Lighting and hiking aren’t an ideal combo) and I’d end up with another great option for hiking and canoe tripping*. While I can’t speak to the canoe tripping aspect just yet (it’s hard to get any paddling in when the Park is still buried under a few inches of ice) they’ve certainly lived up to my hopes on the hiking side of things.
Overview
Unlike the Facet 75 Alpha, which is something of a hybrid between a trail runner and a lightweight boot, the Konos TRS OutDry is very much designed as a running shoe. It’s low cut like a runner and doesn’t look all that different from my regular road runners in terms of style and design. However, when you start to get into the details you can see how these shoes were designed for the trails, rather than pavement. These are OutDry shoes, which means they’re designed to be waterproof (more on that in a bit). They feature the Columbia Adapt Trax outsole system, designed to provide better traction in wet or slippery conditions (more on that later as well). And they’re comfortable to wear in a way that I haven’t found with even the cushion-iest of my road runners. In fact, let’s start there.
Comfort
These are very comfortable shoes. I’m a size 10.5 and my foot is probably a bit wider than average. While the shoes don’t come in a specific “wide” sizing, I found the fit to be true from the heel to the toe box. Between the Ortholite EcoLT insole and Techlite+ midsole, there’s a lot of cushioning here. I felt like I was slipping into a favourite pair of well broken-in runners the first time I put them on, which was awesome. I find with new shoes there’s sometimes an adjustment period, not with the Konos (at least, not for me).
But what is an Ortholite EcoLT insole and a Techlite+ midsole? Basically, Ortholite is a third party insole maker who specialize in light, breathable insoles that still offer decent cushioning. Their goal is to provide a good balance of cushion and comfort without making your foot overheat, and so far I’ve found that to hold true with both the Konos Shoe and the Facet 75 Alpha hybrid.
The Techlite+ midsole is Columbia designed and provides a mid layer of foam between the insole and the outersole. There are multiple variations of the Techlite technology in Columbia’s shoes, the Techlite+ is specifically geared towards hiking and trail running and is somewhat lighter than other versions.
Combine these two technologies together, and you’re left with a fairly comfortable boot that feels like it’s well cushioned while still being somewhat breathable.
Support
While comfort is certainly a top consideration in a hiking shoe, I’d argue that support is even more important. All the cushioning in the world won’t be much help if you roll an ankle a day’s hike from the trailhead. So how does the Konos stack up from this perspective?
So far, so good.
As I mentioned off the top, this is a low cut shoe. The support structure stops below the ankle, meaning you’re not going to get the support you’d see in high ankle boots. That said, I found the fit around the foot to be very supportive. The shoe fit well and seemed to provide stability for all the parts of the foot that it did touch. I tried the shoes out on a couple of different hikes, with a mix of terrains and ground conditions. At no point did it feel like my ankle wanted to roll over, but I have to acknowledge that this will probably happen at some point given the design.
Traction
I tried the Konos out in wet, muddy and icy conditions on a range of terrain types and I can confirm that these shoes provide good traction. The shoe uses Columbia’s Adapt Trax traction technology. According to Columbia, this their best traction technology for keeping grip in wet conditions. While I haven’t tried the shoes out in a downpour yet, I did get a chance to take them out immediately after a rain and I found they handled wet rocks and slick, leaf-strewn paths just fine. Overall, the Adapt Trax system seems to provide excellent grip over all kinds of terrain. I found this to be the case with the Facet 75 shoe and it seems to be continuing with the Konos.
Waterproofing
These shoes are made with Columbia’s OutDry technology that Columbia bills as being “absolutely waterproof” before qualifying that as meaning in medium to heavy rain and snow and further qualifying it to mean “moderate conditions”. In other words, nothing is perfectly waterproof and, honestly, I wouldn’t want it to be. If you’ve ever worn any gear that is truly 100% waterproof you’ve likely also realized that that usually means 0% breathable. I’ll take increased breathability as a trade off, for a little dampness.
As I mentioned, I didn’t get to hike in a rain storm, but I did get out immediately after one. This provided me with all manner of puddles to splash through and I found the shoe stayed dry throughout. If you’ve read my Facet 75 review you might remember that I drenched that shoe with a hose to check its waterproof-ness. This time around I put the Konos under the kitchen tap and let it run for three minutes. At the end of those three minutes the interior was still nice and dry. This was actually an even better result than what I had with the Facet hose test. That time around, I found the interior of the shoe felt maybe a bit damp. With the Konos it felt completely dry. So either the technology has gotten a bit better over the past few months or I did a more thorough job with the soaking the first time around. Either way, I’m quite comfortable with these shoes for all weather hikes. Just remember, they’re a sneaker design, so all the waterproofing in the world isn’t going to help if you splash above the ankles.
Features, Bugs and Canoe Tripping
One thing I really like about these shoes that I didn’t talk about elsewhere is the lacing system. The Facet 75 used an elastic lace system with a lock that tightened across the top of the foot. That was my biggest complaint about those shoes, and it’s nowhere to be found with the Konos. The Konos uses Columbia’s Navic Fit foot protection system, which basically means a lacing system designed to lock your heel into place and keep the shoe from shifting while you’re in motion. Most importantly, they’ve gone with traditional laces that you tie just like you did when you were learning how to do up your shoes in Grade 1, not the elasticized cinch and lock system from the Facet 75. I find this old school way of lacing lets me get the fit just right, and the end result was a shoe that performed as advertised.
From a canoe tripping perspective, I have not yet had a chance to get them out. That will come some time in April. I don’t expect any surprises when you replace hiking trails with portages, but as with the Facet 75 shoes, I am curious as to what the Konos will be like following a full submersion. How will the shoes feel post-soaking? How will they dry out? They dried pretty quickly after my puddle walk and kitchen sink experiment, but those were exterior drenchings. What happens when the interior gets wet as well? I guess we’ll have to wait for April to find out.
The Verdict
I’m swiftly becoming a fan of Columbia’s hiking shoes. First the Facet 75 and now the Konos TRS OutDry. The Konos are comfortable, lightweight and stable. They handled the trails I’ve thrown at them so far with no problem. They’re great in wet conditions and they provide good traction and breathability. From a design perspective, I went with the black and white with red accent version, but you can get them in a black/gray combo or a white/blue combo. (Personally, I’d skip the white/blue option. I feel like those are going to look pretty dirty pretty quickly).
Long story short, I like the Konos TRS OutDry hiking shoe. I think it’s going to be great for day hikes and trail runs. It’s also a very comfortable shoe for just walking around in the shoulder seasons (which I can happily attest to; it’s been my go-to outside shoe for the past couple of weeks as Ottawa shifts from winter to spring and, apparently, back again).
For more information on the Columbia Konos TRS OutDry Shoe, check them out here!
** Just to be absolutely clear, Columbia provided these shoes for me to try out. However, I have not received monetary compensation to write this review and these are my actual impressions of the shoe, not a paid advertisement.
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