User Review: Vasque Sundowner

Vasque Sundowner
Above: The current Sundowner, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed October 13, 1997 by an anonymous hiker

Rating:
Materials: Leather
Use: Ballroom dancing?
Break-in Period: outa the box
Weight: about 3 lbs.
Price Paid: about $200

WATER RESISTANT? HA!!! Gore be d****d. The Sundowners would make better buckets than they do hiking boots. As long as you're only gonna step in a puddle every now and then, I suppose they'll keep your feet dry. But if you have to hike in the rain (and who doesn't?) expect to feel the seep begin after about half an hour. Then expect your feet to stay wet from then on. Not only does the Goretex not keep out the water, but after it allows the water in, it doesn't let it out.

On top of the poor waterproofing, the pretty maroon leather scuffs like crazy. I've treated my Sundowners with NatureSeal so many times I'm sure there's absolutely no porosity left to the leather, yet one trip in the rain and I'm looking at wet feet AND furry toes.

Finally, the Skywalk soles are totally ineffective. They're just downright slippery. I've even slipped on dry rock, so you can imagine how they perform on wet rock.

For the money and all the hype, I expected a lot more. I'm sure the blurb I read about them touted them for their relatively light weight and water resistance. Or maybe it said lightweight water resistance. At any rate, for my two hundred bucks I'll go back to One Sport Moraines. They don't have Goretex, but that 2.8 Nubuck leather provides big-time water resistance. The Moraines weigh a little more, but then again, a Sundowner full of water weighs a lot too.