Salomon Vertigo Softshell

Feb 15, 2008  ·  01:54 AM  ·  permalink

The other day at REI, these Salomon Vertigo X-Mountain shoes caught my eye—I’d seen them earlier in the season for about $95, they looked “wintery,” and the quick lace system was interesting when I saw it in action on other people’s feet. They are good-looking in a urban-alpine-functionalist kind of way, and they say “Soft Shell” on them so they totally played on my warm spider-roll and cadbury-creme-egg associations. I was intrigued and on sale for $53, I had to bite.

As it turns out, these aren’t really winter shoes but are all-season cross trainers or something. Salomon puts them in the “X-Mountain” category which, I guess, means that these are rated for crossing mountains. That’ll come in handy if I ever crash land in the Andes and need to walk out.

Apropos crash landing, the quick lace system intrigued me partly because it looks like it could make for an excellent airplane shoe—easy on, easy off. In fact the quick lace system is only marginally easier than shoe laces. For airplane shoes, stick with loafers. The quick lace system is nice for getting the shoes evenly snug because the thin nylon lace glides through the grommets in a way that normal shoe laces cannot.

When I first tried the shoes on, I was wearing thin socks and the toe box was disconcertingly capacious. But, since I experienced no sliding or heel slippage, I decided it wouldn’t be a problem. When I finally put these shoes to the snow test yesterday, I found an advantage to the roomy toe box: more room for heavy socks.

The somewhat aggressive sole seems to be fine on ice and snow, but not remarkable. In addition to being warm, snug, and comfy, the Vertigos do get special winter performance points in one particular area: wearing Salomon Vertigos on your feet absolutely eliminates the possiblity of wearing Salomon Snowclogs, which are the most ghastly shoes ever foisted upon the public.

Verdict: Definitely a worthwhile shoe combining comfort, utility, and warmth. Don’t buy it purely for easy in-and-out or snow performance.