This shoe weighs 3.5 ounces in a men’s size 12. That’s 7 ounces for a pair of backpacking shoes!
You may think this shoe doesn’t look like a backpacking shoe. That’s our problem in modern society; we think everything has to be specialized. We think we need a different shoe for everything: basketball shoes, cross-fit shoes, walking shoes, jogging shoes, running shoes, trail running shoes, bicycle shoes, casual shoes, dress shoes, etc. That’s crazy and expensive.
When I was a kid it was possible to do, and we did, all these activities with a single pair of shoes. Yep, the canvas Chuck Taylor Allstar by Converse. Nike didn’t exist when I was a kid. I did everything in these shoes (when the adults made me wear shoes) to include going to church and backpacking.
In 1964 University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman started a shoe company they named Nike. They told us we needed special shoes for each and every activity in life, and the public bought into the concept. Today Phil Knight is the 28th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $30 billion.
The Purpose of Shoes
As a kid, and to an extent today, I usually went without shoes. That, for you youngins’ is called going barefoot. Shoes protect the bottom of your feet from sharp and protruding objects. All that other stuff, like pronation control and support, that shoes are marketed to do is a bunch of hooey. It is just a ruse to separate you and your money and make people like Nike’s Phil Knight rich. Humans have been walking without shoes for a couple hundred thousand years.
Backpacking Boots or Shoes?
When I started backpacking as a teenager I just wore my Converse canvas shoes. Then in the 70’s I bought into the idea that one needed specialized leather backpacking boots with heavy lug soles.
The good thing about leather boots is they can be repaired and the soles replaced (if you can find a good shoemaker these days). In the 70’s I wore the Pivetta boots and in the 80’s I replaced them with a pair of Danner Mountain Lights that I used for nearly twenty years (replaced the soles several times). I bought my last pair of leather (Lowa brand) boots, about 15 years ago. But all of these boots were heavy. How heavy is heavy? Years ago the US Army did a study and determined that one pound on the foot was equivalent to five pounds in a pack in energy expended. So a pair of 4lb boots is equivalent to hauling and additional 20lbs in your pack. No thanks, I’m no longer willing to do that.
Given the fact that shoes only need to protect the bottom of the foot and the weight of a shoe was equal to 5 times its weight in carried gear, I switched to “trail running” shoes. See my post on the Salomon XA Pro 3D trail running shoes. Not only did they work just fine, but I found that I was more sure-footed when hiking compared walking in big clumsy boots. Not long after buying the Salomon shoes, I took things to the extreme and switched to cross country racing flats for most of my backpacking and when I need a more robust shoe I wear the Salomon. These racing flats are designed for cross-country competitions. Most distance runners practice in heavier shoes, and go with the lighter racing flat shoe for race day. I wrote about this in the minimalist shoe craze almost six years ago.
I cannot recommend racing flats for most people. You have to get your feet into shape first. I have been backpacking in racing flats for over ten years without any problems… other than they don’t last as long as boots or trail running shoes. However they are light, light, light.
But for some people, racing flats work well as backpacking shoes, or any kind of shoe one might want to call them, or any type of activity they want to wear them for.
For me, the Mizuno Wave Universe 4 were perfect and they only weighed 4.9 ounces each (9.8 ounces for a pair of men’s size 12). Knowing Mizuno would eventually discontinue them I bought several pairs… well maybe more than several. I bought a bunch. The shoes were discontinued a few years ago and last December I broke out my very last new pair. What I didn’t know is Mizuno had come out with a Wave Universe 5 racing flat way back in 2013 and they no longer make any kind of cross-country flat.
Mizuno Wave Universe 5
But I now have a pair of these. You see, I have a wonderful wife who doesn’t read this blog. So she grabbed one of my old Wave Universe 4 shoes, did a Google search and bought (and surprised) me with a pair for Christmas! Gotta love a woman like that!
They fit just like the 4’s but are an over ounce lighter! At only 3.5 ounces per shoe the pair weighs only 7 ounces! That’s almost 30% lighter than the Wave 4’s assuming my math is correct.
You might be able to find a pair on Amazon.
Okay, they’re not for everyone. I can’t really recommend them unless you’ve done a lot of running or hiking in minimal shoes. Plus they’re really, really ugly. But I like them. A lot. If you can’t find the Mizunos, then search for “cross-country flats” in the search box below and it will search Amazon. . . just make sure you get spike-less shoes.
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