Five Ten Canyoneer 3 shoes

[sonnylawrence]

Five Ten was quite generous and gave us 20 pair of the new Canyoneer 3 shoes for last month's 30 day long Grand Canyon rafting and canyoning trip. These shoes were first off the production line and were sent special order to us since our trip started in early February. Hence we were first to test the official production shoes (as opposed to prototype shoes). There were some problems with the shoes. Five Ten designers are working on this as I write. They are optimistic they have solved the problems. Once the new shoes are made, a number of us will be testing them out to verify.

Here is the list of problems and solutions. 1) The mesh over the toe tears after a few days. As the tear progresses, it allows sand into the shoe. Five Ten is redesigning the type of mesh and changing the size and shape of the rubber toe cap. 2) The rubber on top of the shoe (my words-toe cap) may tear at the flex point. Five Ten is changing the flex points and shape of the rubber to redistribute forces and prevent the tear. 3) Delamination of outsole: no obvious cause was found. Hypothesis is it has to do with the initial production run. Five Ten increased the number of shoes tested from the production line by 10 times in order to catch this if it is still occurring. 4) Delamination of the midsole: Five Ten discovered three production processes that may have contributed to this. They altered the process and are monitoring more shoes as mentioned in #3. 5) One soft lace eyelet tore out on the Grand Canyon shoes. Five Ten double checked how they are sewn at the factory.

Once we have tested the newest shoes. I will be glad to give more feedback. For me, the prototype Canyoneer 3 is one of the best shoes I have ever used. It has more toe box room. It is sticky and climbs well. I have been using it for SAR as well as week long off trail hiking with a heavy pack in the Wind River range.

[Slot Machine]

Wow! I used to own a 1991 Camaro with 150,000 miles that broke down less than those shoes. That sucks that you guys 'got' to test them.

Glad I've got a couple of pairs of C2s to get me by while the bugs are being worked out.

I did read that the C3s are 20% lighter than the C2s, sure am looking forward to that.

[jman]

Interesting...

Thanks Sonny for the update and it sounds like an epic month-long trip too!

I'm sure most of us will be a little less anxious to buy these from the get-go now that they have been put through the ringer.