Vertex Alpine Sko Herre

I *wanted* to love these shoes. As a long time fan of the Norvan & Kopec line of shoes, these had me grinning with excitement to try out. Day 1, horrible pain during break in. Day 3, still no difference, day 4 I started to comparing what climbing shoes I've owned that hurt this much breaking in... never found an answer. Day 5, the pain instilled on my heels was permanent, not 1, but 2 blisters on each side of my heel. Why? The heel retention "pads" are so violent in keeping your heel locked in that they created a blister on *both sides* of my achilles. Took some time away from them, let the blisters heal. Gave these things another shot, day 6, 7, 8 all the most pain I've ever felt on my foot. These shoes had me in tears, literally. Unfortunately that was not the end of my complaints, I thought why not warm these up, twist and bend them with my hands in the apartment. Why bother I thought.... the upper is so light that the shank inside seems to be working double duty on keeping the shoes structure, these things take purposeful effort to flex. The outsole, even worse... It may be vibram rubber but these are not sticky or tacky in any sense of the word. It feels like you're walking with Tupperware outsoles, these days *feel* like a plastic shoe. And the cherry on top, if they're properly sized they're a nightmare to get into. Carry a small shoe-horn with you on the trail because the "debris retention sock" really makes these a challenge to slip your foot in. Despite them being in perfect condition, and well within the return window, Arc retail stores refused a return. Complaints were valid, they even put me on a shoe size rig to tell me I bought the wrong size and that was the cause of pain (it wasn't/I didn't). A pair of bleeding heels didn't even help my case, as there was nothing functionally wrong with the shoe. I wanted to throw these away 3 times over with how bad of a product these are. Given that would be impossible to do, I left them outside of the store, sitting on the sidewalk with a little note saying "Free, SZ8, sorry for your heels". And you know what, I hate these so much I still hope those pieces of junk are still out there waiting for someone to take them home. Jackets being re-sized was a notch against Arcteryx that didn't bother me much, but the fact these made it to market is astonishing. I would easily consider these to be the worst product Arcteryx has ever made... and with having friends inside, I've tried a lot of their gear. But these, these are special. I've started clearing out the gear closet, giving away and selling Arc gear. I haven't liked what the company has been doing for a while, and this is the last straw. Vertex Alpine shoes are the last Arcteryx product I will ever buy. Good Riddance,

Durable but decent amount of time before they break in. Tough upper and rugged sole that is not as responsive as I would like. Would have liked to get half a size bigger due to the shoe being very form fitting. Prefer the Kopecs.

I've owned several other pairs of Arcteryx shoes, and I like them. These shoes... are the single worst purchase I've ever made with regards to footwear. The shoes look good. The concept is great - a thin rigid shell and a grippy sole. The problem is both the footbed and the insole. It was apparent after a week that the shoes weren't breaking in. I talked to a rep at the local Arcteryx store and he told me I was probably out of luck. I contacted support and they confirmed - doesn't matter if the shoe is a piece of junk, they're shoes, and they hadn't experienced a "failure." I spent $150 on different insoles trying to get the shoes to work. One insole helped a little bit, but honestly, my heels go numb after a day of wearing these. The cant is off, forcing my feet to flex inward awkwardly. In short - don't buy these. Arcteryx won't warranty them so my only recourse is to warn others away from their shoes. (For the record, I probably own four Arcteryx jackets, six pairs of pants, a vest, ski pants, rain pants, four pairs of shorts, many gloves, multiple base layers, two pairs of running pants, several pairs of shoes... and I've fully kitted my wife out as well. I'm a fan of the company, but this product interaction and the response of the support folks has left me deeply disappointed).

Chaussures très ajustées par rapport aux FL2. La chaussette de protection pour éviter d'avoir des petits cailloux ou autre entre dans la chaussure est perfectible. Je galère comme c'est pas possible pour rentrer le pied dans cette chaussure tellement c'est serré. Même en utilisation les brides à l'avant et à l'arrière qui me paraissent d'ailleurs fragile. L'avenir me le dira ... De plus, l'intervalle entre la chaussure et la languette est propice à ramasser tout ce qui traine. Donc, le fait qu'elle soit très ajustée (pour moi) permet une meilleure tenue sur des terrains escarpés et mise à part le problème de chaussettes ca reste pour moi une honnête chaussure de montagne certainement pas pour porter en ville.

I got this shoe mostly for guiding in the Tetons where we do a lot of hiking and scrambling and a little bit of climbing on the average day. I couldn’t believe how comfortable these shoes are. Usually on multi day trips I bring trail runners to hike in and change into approach shoes for the climbing. This summer I found myself only bringing one shoe, the vertex alpine, and leaving the trail runners behind because of how comfortable my feet were at the end of each day. I also found them to climb really well after guiding trips to the Wind River Range and the Cathedral Traverse in the Tetons. I felt comfortable and secure in 5.8 terrain and occasionally up to 5.10, which is the most I’ll usually wear an approach shoes on. They’re also quite durable yet lightweight. Like I said I’ve worn them on almost every day of guiding this year and they’re still going strong. I’ve used them everywhere from the Tetons to Red Rock to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I love the material the upper is made of. I’ll definitely be getting another pair.

These things are great! Love the precision fit and stiffness for someone with narrow, low volume feet. I was worried about heel issues based on other reviews but it hasn't been an issue for me. Thinking about getting a pair of the GTX version too.