Alpine 83 Recraft Waterproof Mid Sneaker (Men)

I was very excited to get these shoes and really wanted to like them. I've bought a half dozen pairs of Merrell shoes over the years and previously had a pair of the Merrell low cut Alpine sneaker and they were so comfortable that I wore them until they practically fell off my feet. Unfortunately I can't endorse these shoes. They have two fatal flaws. The first and least is that the waterproofing is such that my feet sweat like crazy, even in cold weather. The stench when I take them off causes my wife to complain. That could be because I'm wearing too thin of a sock, but that leads me to the second problem: the construction of the shoe. I've loved the padding of the insole and the EVA foam outsole with no plastic shank that Merrell builds. The problem here, contrary to what others might say, is not the sizing. These are true to size, but the toe-box is built way too tight to accommodate the insole. Wearing anything except a light, non-hiking sock puts extreme pressure on my big toes. Sadly, I cannot recommend this shoe and I don't think my next pair of hiking shoes will come from Merrell. I can't return them as I got them from Amazon and my trying to break them in makes them unreturnable anyway. I'm thinking about trying the Ridgemont Scapes next.

These shoes are amazingly comfortable. I love them and would love to have given 5 stars. However, the loop on the back ripped while putting them on in just the first week of having them. I thought about contacting customer service but decided against it. The shoes are still comfortable and function and I wasn’t sure what would happen to them if I was able to exchange them. I really love these shoes.