A review mode post about hiking shoes.

I bought a new pair of shoes for our three-month New Zealand and Japan trip in 2023. My requirements for these were:

• Comfortable for long days of walking
• Suitable for the warm February in New Zealand
• Suitable for the colder March and April months in Japan
• Nice-to-have: low shoes, not too expensive.

In January of 2023, I did some research and eventually bought these Meindl Laredo’s. They were pretty expensive, but considering their durability, they were cheap.

Further benefits:

• Great, comfortable fit.
• Very durable.

Main drawback:

• Ugly. Which, of course, is subjective.

I walked about 2 million steps on these shoes in February, March, and April. Flawless. The only problem was that a crack in the rubber between the sole and the shoe began to appear in one of them. I returned to Bever to get this fixed, but they replaced the boots for free.

With the new pair, I walked another 3 million steps during the rest of the year and a few months in 2024 until the Vibram sole wore out. Unfortunately, the sole can not be replaced in this model, so I had to trash the pair.