Men's Salomon X-Over

I should start by saying I bought these shoes mostly for commuting, walking around the city and lunchtime hiking on the trials by my workplace. For hiking, these shoes are absolutely 5 stars, great fit, supportive and durable. For casual wear I had to knock off a star. The laces go all the way down to the toes (like a ski boot?) which is great for hiking but it squeezes my toes when I'm sitting or not moving around. I had to follow the advice of another reviewer and cut the Kevlar laces and re-string the laces to skip the lowest two eyelets. Now I enjoy more room in the toe box but they look a little funny. The Kevlar lacing system is kinda cool but ends up squeezing the toes pretty badly with the extra eyelets. Also, I'm not a fan of the heavily padded tongue, but it seems necessary with the lacing to keep it from cutting into the top of the foot. The traction is great on loose, sandy trails, city sidewalks or smooth lobby floors. If you're going to use these just for hiking, then I would absolutely recommend them. For casual wear I would get a different pair of Salomon's.

everything about this shoe is nice for a light hiker/approach shoe. The lacing system makes for a snug comfortable fit for my slightly narrow, low volume foot. I think they would fit almost anyone except the most wide of feet. The overall feel is plush and cushy. However they don't have much lateral rigidity which I need for stability on technical rocky trails and for edging on technical scrambles and that's why I won't be keeping them. If I ever need an easy going dayhiker or local crag approach shoe I may come back to these. I never got to see how sticky the sole is.

Nervous about these shoes at first because of the lack of information online about the X-over. However, I was really excited about the idea of blending an approach and a trail running/hiking shoe. I've had a chance to climb the maroon bells and simply wear them around town. I wanted something to hike a steep and fairly technical 14'ers like capital peak and the bells but I also require 3D chasis due to ankle surgeries and ruptured ligaments. This shoe gives excellent support, strong rubber, and the most comfortable salomon that I have owned so far. The deep lace allows you to snug the toes when you really need to get steep or long descents. I think this would also make a great trail running shoe if you are staying out of water. Killer shoe, highly worth the dough.

Really liked this shoe. Unfortunately 6 month later and pretty much only wearing them around town, i.e. no hiking, its already worn through the liner and padding in the heel pocket... I should also mention that I always loosened them to put them on and off so I don't think I was particularly hard on them. Otherwise I found them to be a very comfy street or light hiking shoe. I don't think they offer enough support for trail-running or backpacking.

I've been wearing Solomons for about 5 years now. I really love the lacing system design, provides simple tight fit every time and no fuss with laces going loose over time. Note I do not hike in these shoes, I just wear them for day to day use. This model they improved the lacing system where the lace runs thru the tongue, this avoids the issue with the older models where the laces used to cut through the top loops over time. So an improvement for me (I had 3 pairs in past where the laces issue I reported to Salomon and they gave me a free pair to replace). So this is a good improvement in design, should avoid the lace cutting the loops issue. The shoes look great and are very comfortable. Note I do hike and use Salomon boots (not shoes) as I like more ankle support. I wish Salomon had boots with this lacing system! The boots use normal laces and I'm constantly having to mess with the shoe laces while hiking.