About three hours into the Winter Outdoor Retailer and we start to go numb as the countless minutia of the next season’s shoes and boots washes into one gray narrative of heel-toe drops, midsole construction, and new waterproofing materials. So it’s a good thing that we saw Keen’s Durand WP mid and low hikers on the early side of the show. These shoes use a new direct-injection construction technique that fuses a waterpoof Nubuck leather and a breathable mesh liner directly onto the midsole, which they claim will boast the shoes’ durability. They also use a PU-blended midsole, which doesn’t compress over time as quickly as the more common EVA. The footbed locks into the sole via a spherical logo “hub,” while the outside is reinforced with two rubber types, one around the edges to improve edging, and another to max out durability in high-wear areas. Better still, the shoe is entirely constructed in their Portland, OR, factory. Men’s and women’s models will retail for $180 for the mids, $160 for the lows.
—Nathan Borchelt
