Mammut Heavy On The Tech With T Aernergy GTX

Boots used to be so simple - there was a leather upper made from a cow, a Vibram sole unit made from a slab of the hardest rubber in the world and stiffness courtesy of a large steel girder. Not these days though, something I was reminded of when a press release about the Mammut T Aenergy GTX - above in all its green and yellow splendidness - arrived.

Based on the Mammut Teton GTX, it's a thoroughly modern, oddly-named, hiking boot from Mammut - who's boot division used to be Raichle - with lots of technology crammed into it. It has, it says here, 'high quality hybrid shell material' with a combination of robust exterior materials and soft interior ones, rather than the other way round...

... it means that the boot is only hard where it needs to be. The sort of thing that would have ancient boot makers turning in their full-grain leather coffins, back in the day, boots were simply hard, full stop. Underfoot there's an EVA wedge for cushioning and something called Mammut Rolling Concept, which apparently makes for 'a controlled and gentle stepping motion of the foot'.

And then there's Memo Foam (memory foam padding) to you and me, a special Vibram Scale sole unit and a Gore-Tex liner. Weight is 1216g for men's version and 1034 for the women's one with both priced at £160.

One thing hasn't changed though, regardless of how fiendlishly advanced a boot is, it's no use whatsoever unless it fits your foot. But if your foot is Mammut shaped and you want a modern, lightweight walking boot with lots of technology, here it is , And it looks kind of neat in Kermit green, we think.

More Mammut information at www.mammut.ch.