We check out Asolo's suede / Cordura lightweight alternative to traditional leather-uppered three-season boots.
|
Asolo Fugitive GTX
Tested
|
 
|
|
Price:
£110.00
|
|
Weight: 1404 grammes (pair size
43)
|
|
Features:
water-repellant suede and Cordura upper, Gore-Tex waterproof
liner, Duo Asoflex lasting, Asolo Synchro rubber outsole
with PU cushioining, reinforced toe-cap ,mens's, women's and
wide men's fits available.
|
|
Light, comfortable, cushioned and roomy.
Contental look you'll either love or loath.
|
The Concept In the 90s, Asolo were perhaps best known for
their plastic mountaineering boots in the UK, then, during a period
when they were owned by Beneton, they produced a slightly unreliable
range of boots which soured their reputation in this country.
Since then though, things have changed markedly. The company is
now owned by the same Italian outdoor group who bought Lowe Alpine a
few years back and have made big commitment to using the latest
technologies across their range of walking, trekking and
mountaineering boots.
The Fugitive is their top-selling model in the UK. so we reckoned
it would be an interesting starting point. It's a lightweight suede
and Cordura boot with a distinctly continental look and intended as a
durable alternative to leather. It's effectively a 3-season boot and
we'd happily use it for walking pretty much anywhere below the
snowline.
Features The Fugitive uses Asolo's Duo Asoflex lasting system.
It's called Duo because the system consists of a stiffer unit to give
stability and anti-pronation qualities bonded to a softer,
shock-absorbing material to increase comfort.
You also get a Gore-Tex liner - Asolo is one of Gore's oldest
partners in the footwear area - lightweight lace hardware and an
Asolo-branded outsole with PU cushioning for, erm, cushioning.
In Action As an Italian boot, we half expected the Fugitive to
have a narrow, low-volume fit. In fact it's surprisingly voluminous,
which should make it a viable option for a lot of us broad-footed
Brits. The lacing system with its pivoting rings worked well and we
found the boot comfortable straight out of the box.
We found the Fugitive's Duo Asoflex construction gave decent
torsional rigidity but with enough flex for comfortable walking and
worked well on both grassy low-level terain and on rockier paths. The sole seemed fine too.
They're not stff enough to edge with on scrambles, but then that's
not what three-season boots are intended for. Cushioning was adequate
too with dual-density PU mid-sole material doing its job. If you lift
the lightweight footbed you can feel the give in the mid-sole.
Where the Fugitive does score over most leather equivalents is in
its relative lightness. That makes it feel nimble on broken ground
and, over the course of a long day, ultimately less tiring. We can't
really tell you about durability, but you get tough reinforced toe
and heel sections plus Cordura, which makes up much of the upper is
known for its toughness and abrasion resistance, so we don't see why
it shouldn't continue to do the business, but only time will
tell.
Two aspects of the Fugitive are either love or hate. The Gore-Tex
liner is becoming almost ubiquitous these days, particularly in
fabric boots. It will keep the water out, but in hotter conditions
and particularly if you're a sweaty-footed person, you can end up
with hot, wet feet as the liner is unable to cope.
The other like or loath feature is the styling. It's terribly
continental, darling, and will either boil your beans or not. We
rather liked it.
Light, comfortable and so far, tough with it, the best thing
about the Fugitives is that most of the time we didn't really think
about them at all, they just got on with the job of providing grip,
comfort and protection for our feet, which is pretty much all you can
ask for.
We reckon they're a good, lightweight alternative to a leather
three-season boot for use below the snowline. Some people will prefer
a torsionally stiffer boot for heavy pack use, but we found the
Fugitives fine and enjoyed the lightweight nimbleness of the
boot.
The Gore-Tex liner is down to personal preference, as are the
looks. Finally, even though we like the Fugitives a lot, bear in mind
that unless they fit your feet, they're useless to you and we'd
always suggest that you try and range of boots with the aid of an
experienced boot fitter before deciding. That said, the Fugitive's
shape should suit many UK feet.
|
Performance
|
|
|
Value
|
|
|
Pushed for time
Light, comfortable and decently stiff Cordura / suede
boot that cocks a lightweight toe at the traditional
leather alternatives. We like the nimbleness and the styling
though that's a personal decision. Reasonable UK-friendly
fit too.
|
Know more or want to?
If you'd like to add your own experiences of this
product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
the world. If you have questions you can mail
us direct, ask
Richard Gear or try a posting to our
gear
forum.
