Teva Fuse-Ion Review
Teva has always been known as brand that caters to outdoor enthusiasts. From water shoes to sandals that can take a beating, if you’ve ever tried to expose a pair of Teva shoes to the elements, you know these kicks are comfortable in the wild.
Lately though, the whole outdoor performance thing isn’t enough. Teva’s trying to focus on the dual-use factor. We received a pair of Teva Fuse-Ion shoes to review, and it’s clear that the company wants to offer the type of outdoor, elements-be-damned performance that you’d expect from the brand, while also providing a bit of everyday style to go along with the package. As the Teva website puts it, “We designed a shoe that you can wear to the bar, then made it the highest performing water shoe ever built. No big deal.”
So did they succeed in this effort? I think so.
From a performance/wetness-battling standpoint, the Teva Fuse-Ion uses Ion Mask material to keep the shoe extra dry. What’s Ion-Mask, you ask? It’s a nano-coating material that’s a thousand times thinner than human hair and molecularly bonds to a surface to provide extreme liquid repellency while still allowing for maximum breathability. Oh, and it’s also solvent-free and only uses tiny bits of protective monomer so it won’t have a negative impact on the environme Basically, shoe stays dry.
Other outdoorsy features of the shoe include the use of spider rubber technology for crazy grip (even in wet conditions) and a quick heel pop down feature that allows for instant slip on action. The pop down thing is pretty cool. Even if you’re not asking for extreme liquid repellency, and you just want to slip some shoes on real quick to take out the trash or something, you can slide your feet in there, totally stomp on the heel, and the heel part of the shoe will pop back into place, no problem.
As far as the “I can totally where this to the bar” factor, you can see that the shoe is pretty stylish. It doesn’t look like something developed by NASA in a lab or anything like that. They’re kind of form-fitting with a bit of a thin sole. If you have extra wide feet, you might find Fuse-Ion a bit restrictive, but not more restrictive than, say, your average pair of Adidas. Also, neon blue laces aren’t my thing, but the shoe pictured above also came with some light gray laces. I think those are the more subtle, bar-friendly play.
The Teva Fuse-Ion kicks retail for $90 and are available in black (pictured above), bungee cord (nice two-tone throwback action) or duck green (which, to me, has a bit of ninja turtle vibe going on). If you want a breathable shoe that can stay all kinds of dry and not look like some kind of futuristic aqua sock, you’ll find a nice middle ground with the Fuse-Ions.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Chris Stout on March 15, 2012 at 3:13 am, and is filed under Lifestyle. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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