Hello how are you? My name is Hayley and welcome back to set to hike. This is a channel that is all
about hiking and in today's video i have a gear review for you. We're going to be talking about
the zero shoes z trail sandals, so here they are here. In terms of hiking i use these specifically
as my camp shoes i also use them in my non-hiking life as a regular sandal as well. i've been using
these for about two three years now and i'm super happy with them so i thought i would share
what they are all about. So the xero shoes company are all about being barefoot having light and low
profile shoes so that you can walk and run the way that your feet and your legs were intended to.
So they have a whole bunch of different styles depending on your needs for me i was just after a
sandal that i could wear at camp that wasn't going to weigh a lot. and the reason i wanted sandals as
opposed to using my thongs is because sandals are not going to slip off your feet helpful for
something like river crossings. I also feel like sandals are a little bit more comfortable after
a big long day of hiking so for me the z trail sandal was the answer to that. weight being one
of the most important things to me how much do they weigh? i have a size 7 here and it weighs
about 120 grams each which is actually slightly lighter than the pair of thongs that i own.
xero shoes have a 5 000 mile warranty or 8 046 kilometers which means if you wear your sandals
down to thinner than one millimeter before 5 000 miles then you can pay for postage send them back
and they will replace them. which i think says something about the quality because as australians
i'm sure we've all been there where we've worn the heel of our thongs right down to the ground.
So over my two three years of using these nothing is falling apart nothing is worn down the velcro
is still sticky they are still kicking. Now this is where the z trail sandal gets interesting,
bringing you back to that notion of barefoot zero shoes claim that you can walk and run in
these on the trail and on the road because they are designed to have just the right amount of
protection so they are essentially saying that you can hike in these sandals. That gives me a
little bit of peace of mind that if something were to happen to your hiking boots while out on a trip
then you could technically wear these sandals as back up until you got your hiking boots back up
and running again. obviously hiking in sandals is not something i would personally be too keen on as
there are snakes, there are twigs, there are sharp rocks there are ants but the option is there.
and funnily enough on one of my recent hiking trips the cape to cape track in western australia,
i had to hike the remaining 23 kilometers in my socks and sandals. Something happened for
the back of my achilles and i could not put any pressure on the back of my foot like wearing boots
so i had two options and that was to either quit or continue the track in my sandals. So of course
i'm not someone that likes to give up so sandals it was. today i'm walking with
socks and sandals. without these sandals i would not have been able to finish the track
so i can confirm that it is possible to hike in these sandals in an emergency. they come in
three different colour combinations they are 100 vegan if that's something that's
important to you when buying shoes, they have a size chart that you can print out and put your
foot down to measure your foot. the only thing to do in terms of care is they say not to leave them
exposed in direct intense sunlight so maybe leaving them hanging on the outside of your
pack is not the best thing to do. so depending on your style of camp shoe that you like some
people still might prefer thongs some people might prefer something with a closed in toe like crocs,
but if you do like the style of a sandal i would highly recommend these it's honestly pretty hard
to think of anything negative about these when my pair do eventually break i will be getting another
pair the exact same unless i find something that does the same job for lighter so i hope this video
has been helpful to you in some way thank you for watching and i will see you in the next one