You have an epic new day hike planned, but it requires a lengthy approach over a labyrinth of demanding landscape. If that’s the case, you may want to lace up the lightweight KEEN Tryon Shoe and scramble your way to the mountain top.
These fast and furious adventure shoes are loaded with features that will give you a much needed assist in tearing up the trail.
KEEN.DRY™ waterproof breathable membrane keeps your feet dry even when you’re forced to slog through mountain streams. An abrasion resistant and breathable textile mesh upper helps keep your feet cool while trekking or celebrating your impressive conquest of the trail back at the lodge.
The KEEN.ZORB insole readily absorbs shock so that your knees don’t have to while a stone bruising protection plate guards feet against nasty rocks and roots on your expedition. Tough rubber outsoles provide ultra-sticky tread that grips like a climbing shoe ensuring you have a solid foot to stand on from the urban jungle to John Muir’s favorite forests.
Initial Impressions…
Open up the KEEN box and the first thing that you’ll notice is the aesthetic awesomeness (a very technical term) of the KEEN Tryons. In the humble opinion of our field team, these might be some of the best looking kicks in the KEEN Trailhead series. Following is a round up of our crew’s initial impressions:
Quality: From the KEEN.ZORB to the patented rubber toe guards, KEEN’s commitment to quality construction and innovation are readily evident in the Tryon shoes. Another job well done by the KEEN design team.
Fit and Feel: The Tryon delivers the lightweight, flexible and protective feel you want in a rugged off-road performance shoe. A removable metatomical, dual-density EVA footbed aids in a comfortable fit while a built-in S3 (shock, suspension, stability) support structure effectively supports the feet on impact and dissipates shock.
On initial field tests the shoes keep your heel locked securely and comfortably providing greater stability and overall traction. Out of the box the Tryon’s felt a little snug across the top of the toe line, but time will tell if that is merely a feature of the “break-in” process.
Sizing: While not as wide in the toe box as the KEEN Targhee II, the Tryon fits true to size in terms of both length and width. That being said, if your excursions have you blitzing steep downhill terrain you may consider going up 1/2 size.
As advertised, the Tryon’s have thus far proven to be fast and aggressive without sacrificing the responsive feel you want out on the trail. Over the coming weeks our field team will continue putting the KEEN Tryons to the test to let you know if they have the gumption you need, not simply to tackle the trails, but to conquer your escapades!