This thing:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/mens-advocate-lace-smooth?p=79048-0
What I was looking for was a genuine midsole-less, ordinary looking comfortable shoe for wearing around town, and for a decent price. This ruled out garish colors, athletic shoes, sandals, and vivo too.
I will rate the shoes on several categories using a scale from 0 to 10. 0 means "Nike Air Max" and 10 means "Tarzan." As of this post I have worn them for 19 days.
toe box: 9
About as roomy as possible without a Ronald McDonald look
ground feel: 3. Fails the wet pavement test.
the outsole is nice and thin, and there's no midsole, but it's spoiled by a thin layer of plush fabric sewn into the bottom of the upper. The layer is only a couple mm thick but it contains some kind of foam rubber which makes every step like, well, walking on soft foam rubber. I can't feel wet pavement even in cool weather. The outsole is also covered with unnecessarily thick treads.
flexibility: 9
can't complain. Outsole bends easily. Could be a bit stretchier.
durability: 5
holding up better than expected but the outsole does not wrap around the heel higher than ground level, so that the heel leather strikes the ground, and that will require patching. It also peels slightly in front on the big toe side on both shoes, a sign of shoddy assembly. The peeled portions are areas about 20mmx5mm which apparently never had cement on them, because there is no residue at all. The uppers on the other hand are well constructed. There is one stray thread on one seam, everything else is in good shape, and I haven't been going easy on them.
appearance: 8
They look normal and have no gimmicks. There are no bright colors or snazzy logos. Even the trade mark is on the bottom of the sole where nobody can see it. Only downside is that the only available colors are black, not good in summer, and a dorky-looking coffee color with pink laces. Now I have to find some thin, low-cut dark quarter socks, not an easy task.
fit: 7
my feet are exactly 11 inches long, which makes me US size 11 on the dot. A well-manufactured shoe should be within 1/2 size of standard. I had to send back the size 11's and the size 10's are still roomy in front. Other than that, they are comfortable and snug, and they don't slip. But the laces are elastic, and tying them evenly cuts off my circulation after a while, so I can only tighten them on the top. Normal laces might work better.
price: 3
they were the best price I could find, but that doesn't change the fact that the $70 I paid, and the $90 listed on their site, is sheer robbery considering the amount of material and labor involved. A fair price would be about $40. I will judge every shoe I wear against the best I've ever owned, the Firefly Influence, a high-top made in Germany with a 4mm walled outsole and $59 retail price that did not come with a cushy insole inside and whose manufacturer tells me they don't recall ever having produced it.
cushy insole: -1
Any minshoe that ships with a cushy insole has failed the Trials and is not a Jedi yet. Of course I throw the insole away, but its inclusion allows them to sacrifice durability on the bottom of the shoe. In this case there are exposed stitches which they figured their cushy insole would cover.
overall: 5.5 leans Tarzan
A decent shoe that is better than just about everything else on the market, which is unfortunately not all that high praise because the market sucks.
Without the cushy insole it would have been 45/7 for a 6.4. Its inclusion revealed that the designer didn't approach this shoe with a serious attitude.
That's about all I have to say for now. I may add to this review over time.
http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/mens-advocate-lace-smooth?p=79048-0
What I was looking for was a genuine midsole-less, ordinary looking comfortable shoe for wearing around town, and for a decent price. This ruled out garish colors, athletic shoes, sandals, and vivo too.
I will rate the shoes on several categories using a scale from 0 to 10. 0 means "Nike Air Max" and 10 means "Tarzan." As of this post I have worn them for 19 days.
toe box: 9
About as roomy as possible without a Ronald McDonald look
ground feel: 3. Fails the wet pavement test.
the outsole is nice and thin, and there's no midsole, but it's spoiled by a thin layer of plush fabric sewn into the bottom of the upper. The layer is only a couple mm thick but it contains some kind of foam rubber which makes every step like, well, walking on soft foam rubber. I can't feel wet pavement even in cool weather. The outsole is also covered with unnecessarily thick treads.
flexibility: 9
can't complain. Outsole bends easily. Could be a bit stretchier.
durability: 5
holding up better than expected but the outsole does not wrap around the heel higher than ground level, so that the heel leather strikes the ground, and that will require patching. It also peels slightly in front on the big toe side on both shoes, a sign of shoddy assembly. The peeled portions are areas about 20mmx5mm which apparently never had cement on them, because there is no residue at all. The uppers on the other hand are well constructed. There is one stray thread on one seam, everything else is in good shape, and I haven't been going easy on them.
appearance: 8
They look normal and have no gimmicks. There are no bright colors or snazzy logos. Even the trade mark is on the bottom of the sole where nobody can see it. Only downside is that the only available colors are black, not good in summer, and a dorky-looking coffee color with pink laces. Now I have to find some thin, low-cut dark quarter socks, not an easy task.
fit: 7
my feet are exactly 11 inches long, which makes me US size 11 on the dot. A well-manufactured shoe should be within 1/2 size of standard. I had to send back the size 11's and the size 10's are still roomy in front. Other than that, they are comfortable and snug, and they don't slip. But the laces are elastic, and tying them evenly cuts off my circulation after a while, so I can only tighten them on the top. Normal laces might work better.
price: 3
they were the best price I could find, but that doesn't change the fact that the $70 I paid, and the $90 listed on their site, is sheer robbery considering the amount of material and labor involved. A fair price would be about $40. I will judge every shoe I wear against the best I've ever owned, the Firefly Influence, a high-top made in Germany with a 4mm walled outsole and $59 retail price that did not come with a cushy insole inside and whose manufacturer tells me they don't recall ever having produced it.
cushy insole: -1
Any minshoe that ships with a cushy insole has failed the Trials and is not a Jedi yet. Of course I throw the insole away, but its inclusion allows them to sacrifice durability on the bottom of the shoe. In this case there are exposed stitches which they figured their cushy insole would cover.
overall: 5.5 leans Tarzan
A decent shoe that is better than just about everything else on the market, which is unfortunately not all that high praise because the market sucks.
Without the cushy insole it would have been 45/7 for a 6.4. Its inclusion revealed that the designer didn't approach this shoe with a serious attitude.
That's about all I have to say for now. I may add to this review over time.
