Gearblog - Crossover And Proud Of It!

The outdoor industry's dirty secret is that unlike normal people, anyone who works in the business spends around 99 per-cent of their time wearing outdoors gear of various degrees of seriousness. And yes, that includes pjamas - merino wool at bedtime anyone?

The irony of course though, is that casual outdoor gear is widely regarded as simply, well, wrong really. Even an approach shoe that's about as likely to approach anything worth actually climbing as I am to date Jessica Alba, must have a sticky sole, toe-down lacing and rock boot fit. Or hello, you're just a wannabe.

But what's the big deal? Why can't you have outdoor styling, but casual, comfy performance? What brought it all on was the realisation that my fave casual day to day shoe of choice, a pair of Salomon Vertigo Softshell shoes - try saying shoft shell shoes quickly - are actually near useless for any serious outdoor activity.

Sure, they've done the odd dry weather Peak District amble - and I do mean amble - and yes, they have a Contragrip sole, but the inescapable truth is that the comfy softshell upper isn't tough enough to hack it on rocky terrain, the EVA midole unit gets scragged by passing boulders and the sole unit has about as much stiffness as a freshly landed dover sole.

They're really not that good as outdoor shoes, but they're absolutely brilliant for just schelpping around campsites, pubs, shops and, well, wearing. The softshell upper is breathable, as soft and comfy as a pair of slippers and just about water resistant enough that you don't worry about a bit of rain. They dry fast too. And hey, Salomon's uber-technical Quicklace lacing gubbins from their race shoe, makes them a cinch to take on and off.

It's all sort of crossover without the pretence. And the thing is, of course, that their predecessors - also a Salomon approach shoe - which were much more technical with a stiffer sole unit, Gore-Tex liner and tougher materials all round, were also a lot less comfortable for day to day use.

And now my Vertigos are nigh on dead. My heel's worn through the lining of the heel cup exposing shiny polythene innards, they smell, well, frankly quite nasty and the EVA is, as EVA it does, losing its bounce and being chewed up by the world at large.

So what do I replace them with? To my horror the Vertigo - scared of heights eh? - is no more. Instead there's the Fury - 'it's softshell and it's comfortable' - the Fusion Aero ('breathable') and the Fusion Dry (waterproof). They all look a bit, erm, technical... they might even work.

And then, salvation. In the lifestyle section of the Salomon site, the XA Softshell, a sort of combination of Salomon's race running shoes and the softshell uppers. 'The perfect shoe for summer in the city'.

And yes, it's dirty and probably not even remotely functional, but hey it looks comfortable and, erm, sort of cool and hey, I can stand up and shout it from the valley tops - 'I wear outdoors crossover kit and I'm proud of it!'