User Review: Koflach Viva Soft

Reviewed December 11, 1998 by Erwin Woutersen

Rating: rated 2 of 5 stars
Materials: plastic
Use: glacier/heavy pack
Break-in Period: none
Weight: ?
Price Paid: < $180 US (?)

Unlike the other comments on these shoes, I had some negative experiences with these shoes. Especially the robustness of the shoes did not meet my expectations.

But to start, first the positive side of the shoes. They are warm, stiff enough for crampons and due to their double structure, they dry fast (at least much faster than leather shoes). And to conclude, they are relatively cheap.

Due to the soft inner shoes, the break in period passed without a single blister. However, I did have some problems with my instep. Due to the pressure and the stiffness of the shoes, they started to ache after a few days of walking. I could solve this by tying my shoe laces somewhat different (loosely around the ankles).

The most serious problem, however, was the robustness of the shoes. After only five weeks of using the shoes on mixed terrain, not only the soles were gone, but also the nose of one of my shoes broke into two halves. It was simply cut from the little toe to the shoe laces. Probably I had hit a stone, but in my opinion, that should never be a problem for a mountain boot. Fortunately, I was able to reach the normal hiking trails (by keeping the shoe together with a crampon). There I had to throw them away and continued my holidays on some old "crampon-friendly" leather shoes.

My brother had also bought such Koflachs. His outer shoes also suffered from severe wear of the soles. Further, the laces of the inner shoes got detached from the shoes. The stitches simply got loose.

All together, the shoes turn out to be not such a bargain as I initially thought...

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