adidas Men’s Terrex Free Hiker 2.0 Hiking Shoe

The Best Hiking Boots I’ve Ever Had I’ve gone through a lot of hiking boots over the years and most have done their job just fine. As I’m getting older, I’m finding what used to work for me is no longer good enough. This is kind of a longwinded review with lots of extra detail that many of you will find irrelevant, but for those people with similar experiences to me, I hope this will be helpful.I first noticed hiking boots being a problem about 4 years ago on a backpacking trip when my old leather HiTec boots started feeling like bricks about 6 miles into the hike. That was a new experience for me. It felt like just lifting my feet was taking all my energy. So I went on a quest to find some better boots and decided not to restrict myself to the clearance section at Walmart as I usually did when boot shopping.After lots of research, reading reviews and comparisons and trying on a number of boots, I decided to splurge and by some expensive boots- the Solomon X-Ultra 4s. They were super comfortable and incredibly lightweight. The light weight was awesome, but I found a new problem. After a few hours on the trail, I was starting to feel every rock and root through the sole of the shoe. Most of my hiking and backpacking is in rocky New England Terrain plus lots of mud. I did a trek to Alaska in them with a heavy pack that really exposed the lack of cushioning in the foot bed. To make things worse, after a year and a half and several hundred miles of hiking, they developed a leak at one of the seams and were no longer waterproof. I was hugely disappointed with expensive boots and was ready to go back to something less expensive.Enter the Terrex Free Hiker 2.0. I first saw it at Sierra Tradingpost and tried it on. It felt comfortable and was on clearance for a relatively inexpensive price of $80. It was kind of an ugly blue color, so I didn’t buy it then and went home to research it. The research seemed mostly good. Unfortunately, only that blue color was available at that clearance price, so I went ahead and bought it. The fit of these shoes is good. I like my boots a little looser around the toes and heels to prevent blisters and these gave plenty of room in those areas. I have never had a blister in them. The weight is decent. They aren’t as light as the Salomons, but they have been fine wearing on hikes up to 10 miles and I haven’t felt like I had heavy bricks on my feet at the end of any hikes. The comfort and footbed on these has been very good so far. 8 and 10 mile backpacking trips on rocky terrain with 40lb pack were no problem. There are no stitched seams, so I hope they stay waterproof for many miles. My only complaint is the lacing is very tight and you have to spend a lot of time loosening a section at a time to get them off and re-tightening it all when you put them on. Grip has been excellent with them. In my experience, the Continental rubber outsole has better grip on wet granite rocks than Vibram outsoles. That’s very important on the steep, wet New England trails around me.I was so impressed with these boots, that after I got back from my last trip, I went looking to get another pair to keep on hand for when these wear out. Shoe manufacturers are always changing their lineup and now that I have found a pair that I love, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get it again in the future. This time, Amazon had the best closeout price, and again, only on the ugly blue ones. So, I have a second identical set now sitting in the closet ready to go.Overall, I highly recommend these boots for hiking and backpacking for me. For you, I don’t know- if your hiking needs are like mine, I say give them a shot.