User Review: END Footwear Stumptown

Above: The current Stumptown, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed August 27, 2008 by Hayes

Rating:
Materials: nylon ripstop, synthetic leather, mesh
Use: Trail runs-hardpack dirt, gravel and loose ground & rock
Break-in Period: none
Weight: 12.5 oz claimed, 11 oz tested
Price Paid: $80 USD +S&H


First off, this is an excellent example of the direction new and old shoe manufacturers need to start taking. The "green" way END Footwear is using and developing brings not a new but a positive outlook for sustainability in outdoor wear industries.

The Men's Stumptown 12.5oz from END are wonderful shoes. Right out of the recycled materials content box and wrapping, the shoes feel solid, light, well made and designed. These shoes are true to sized and close examination of stitching and material joins shows sound construction.
I really like the smooth, rubber toe covering rather than textured like other trial shoes I have used. Do other manufactures expect their shoe users to grip with the top of their feet, while collecting mud and grit at the same time?

The rip stop nylon shell of the shoes feels very much like dyneema ripstop used in finer back packs and the zero foam in the side walls and heel give the shoes flexible and form-fitting comfort.

I love the thick, mesh tough and side tongue gussets. These materials are light and effective. Even this laces are light and seem to contain a tightly woven core for durability on the trail. The lacing system is smooth and pulls nicely while at the same time being adjustable and well designed for supporting the synthetic leather bands the cradle the sides of my feet.

Traction on the Stumptown is a nice blend of aggressive, grippy, and low profile. The EVA middle support cradles the heel and braces the arc really well. Some claim the ball of the foot EVA is too squishy but I found it eating up the rocks and bumps I encountered on the trail.

On the trail, the Stumptowns were leaf light and VERY true to size (fit my low arch, wider, 10.5Ds as well as ANY shoe I have worn). They glided of grass, gravel, hard pack, and loose earth. Impact on pavement was minimal and what is to be expected from trail runners.
Running, jog and sprint; the shoes cupped my heel, did not shift and were so light my legs and feet were less fatigued that normal.
Summary: Great shoes for all levels of skill, true to size, excellen
t construction and use of light materials of superior quality. Awesome price (I'd would have paid $100) and wonderful application of 'green' production and minimalist earth impact practices. Sorry, 4.5 not 5 because of color choices, but who really cares about color while training?

I cannot wait to try the End 8.5oz Mens's for racing!

LOAB has been given the opportunity to be a part of an upcoming reality show on MTV. We were chosen from several other brands. The stylist saw LOAB displayed in Mitch & Eric Jenner's showroom at the LA Apparel Mart. She saw LOAB as a new & exciting line that is different from the ordinary. With outstanding designs and a fresh new look, she has chosen the LOAB brand to be worn by the stars on her upcoming MTV series, Bromance. The new show is intended to be the male counter part to the popular show The Hills. Produced by Ryan Seacrest and staring Brody Jenner, it has begun filming and will be completed by the middle of next month.

The two stars of the show, Brody Jenner & Frankie, will be wearing our clothes throughout the series. There will be several beach scenes that should include great shots of our gear. We have supplied a complete wardrobe for the entire 8 week shoot. There is a good chance that the stars will be wearing our gear in public as well. Keep your eyes on those goofy magazines at the check out counter!

We know you will be very happy with this line in your store!! Email today for information!!

Hi Everyone!

I may not have spoken to all of you about Fontana’s exciting news, but we were asked to support Wisconsin’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition! The home that was chosen was in Richland Center, WI – about 1.5 hours from Madison. Fontana donated $10,000.00 of product for the family (a mother and 4 children), which will be featured in the theme room on the episode. We went to the reveal in Richland Center earlier this month, but were not allowed to see inside the house; so we are pretty excited to see the episode! The episode will air Sunday, October 12th at 7 pm on ABC.Check it out!!!

Elizabeth Hutchinson

Howdy Ben,

I just got back from my trip sorry I didn’t have time to call. I did manage to get a pair of the high top shoes just in time through REI, I hiked on Mt.
Hood, climbed St. Helens, and hiked a few days on the PCT with them, all told about 6 days worth. The shoes were great, I put my orthotics in them and
never looked back, no break in or anything. St Helens is rocky, gravelly, ash laden so it was a good test. My only question now is durability and time will
tell. Best light hikers I’ve used for quite some time, hats off.

Grant

Whew, OR is over and we had an extremely successful show from a PR perspective! Over the course of three days, we had about 20 media come to the Lorpen booth and learn about Tri Layer. They all seemed to be impressed with the display that shows how the water is absorbed by the Coolmax layer and held by the Tencel layer. In terms of actual media coverage, the Lorpen socks were featured in the New Products Picks section of the OR Show Daily, as well as in the show issue of Textile Insight. DNR included Lorpen in their post-show feature (middle of page 2) and a few bloggers also included Tri Layer Socks in their blogs during the show. All of these articles are attached so you can see them and share them with your buyers/retailers.

The Sock-sa Party was so much fun – it was supposed to end at 6:00 p.m. when the show was over for the day, but we still had people in the booth enjoying the Spanish wine, sangria, tapas and pintxos at 6:45 p.m., even after the salsa dancers left with their music! Still not carrying Lorpen in your store? Email Vanessa today for more info!

SCARPA FEROCE
Price: $145.00
Issue 172

The Feroce is one of the best sport-climbing shoes I’ve ever worn. It is an all-around workhorse that excels on steep routes requiring toe power, and technical slabs where spot-on precision is a must. When you first put the Feroce on, you’ll notice a little “hump” that sits comfortably, if differently, beneath the crease of your big toe. The result is that the shoe points your toe down for you, creating an angle that results in high-performance edging.

Many shoes, however, point the big toe down. The Feroce differs in how the whole toe box flexes on smears. In fact, to use the Feroce I had to change the way I stand on footholds—I was able to use parts of my foot that I never knew existed: the whole section between my forefoot and the tip of my toes.

(go to web address below for full review)
- Andrew Bisharat

Editor's rating:
• 5 out of 5 stars


http://rockandice.com/inthemag.php?id=49&type=fieldtested

Premiering tonight on NBC is America’s Toughest Jobs -- a seven-part series by reality television pioneer Tom Beers, the Executive Producer of Deadliest Catch, Axe Men and Ice Road Truckers. Beers describes “ATJ” as “the culmination of all three (aforementioned) shows, and more.” Last spring Jordan Campbell, Marmot's PR director, provided an extensive wardrobe for the host, cast and crew of the show, which is filmed in numerous outdoor settings. Jaan Childs, the show’s producer emailed last Friday to say, “Get ready for one hell of a Marmot commercial!”

Please take a peek at the NBC.com website to get a feel for the show: http://www.nbc.com/Americas_Toughest_Jobs/index.shtml. Click on the contestants (cast) and quickly scroll through their headshots; you’ll see at least five of them are visibly wearing Marmot.

"I spent the summer of 07 in Pakistan attempting K2 via the Cesen Route with 9 other American climbers. It is an intense and "full on" mountain experience. No one goes there with the intent of dying-yet climbers are oftentimes surprised to find out they are in fact REPORTED dead.

Like it or not one of the great things about K2 and the majority of the Karakoram region is that it is in fact remote. Something that is very difficult to find in such an "overpopulated" world. Even the most hightech SAT phones can have less than average success rates when trying to reach loved ones back home.

During our American expedition last year we went very Low Tech to say the least. No lap tops, digital messaging equipment, generators, or even the expected SAT phone in the group. To some degree this was because the remoteness of K2 is part of the appeal.

This year I was again supposed to be participating in another K2 expedition with a much smaller but more Tech Savvy group. www.k2tallmountain.com New work obligations caused me to cancel my reservation with the team at the last minute, and I wish them luck as they are now headed to K2 Basecamp from the neighboring Broad Peak Basecamp. Even the more advanced team with their hightech gadgets hasn't been able to email anything out since the start of their expedition in June.

All that being said, one of the few constants in my expedition to K2 last season-aside from the avalanches(a couple pictured)- was the amount of "disinformation" that floated around Basecamp on a daily basis.

Often the "disinformation" originated from LO's-(Liason Officers from the Pakistani Military that each expedition is required to have accompany them)-who would regularly visit with one another's camp for tea or meals oftentimes travelling back and forth between both expedition parties and K2/Broad Peak Basecamps.

This also needs to be prefaced with the oft overlooked fact that communication between expedition parties is sometimes limited to the communication between it's LO's due to language barriers. So, "Lost in Translation" takes on a whole new meaning in these instances.

Never was there any mal intent in the reporting of "yet another climber having died" on this route or that. In fact, sometimes the vagaries of the reports would lead to not one, but two climbers missing and assumed dead from a particular partly when if fact no one was dead. It was instead a case of frozen or dead radio batteries not allowing that climber to communicate with their team.

After having taken numerous calls today wondering if I was in fact on any expeditions in the Karakoram as planned, I started searching the net. In four different articles I found four different accounts of "how many" and "who was confirmed", none of which with definitive details and all of which rimed with "suspect" info due to the mixture of teams and nationalities involved.
Last season on the hike to K2 Basecamp we were resting at Camp Joula when we heard the bustle of an Italian girl needing a rescue. Only to have an Italian team member rush into our cook tent to tell us "we have a dead girl" and that "she needs meds". Obviously those two are mutually exclusive as no dead person needs meds. It was a simple miscommunication and admittedly if I needed to rush into the Italian tent and tell them in their native tongue that we needed particular medical help-well it really wouldn't happen and I've been to Italy twice. Panic has a way of making the simple complex.

In the end the girl survived after an emergency Helicopter evac to Skardu. Probably only her team actually knows what necessitated the evac as we heard that it was everything from Heat Stroke to Appendicitis.

The language barrier between teams however was/is never really overcome in these arenas of international climbing. It is a great place to partner with other great climbers and religious and political differences are checked at the tent door as everyone is struggling to survive, much less climb one of the toughest mountains in the world.

In closing on the likelihood of "disinformation" I'll say what I told the loved ones that I left behind, and am even more emphatic about after having spent the time at Basecamp and high on K2, nothing is the case until it is the case. Meaning that even though it might potentially be the case that I'm reported dead or missing, don't start planning any funerals until everyone packs it up for the season. There are many different routes that one could find themselves struggling down-none of which are close to any civilization.

That being said, for those concerned about the potential rescue of those climbers reported trapped above the Bottleneck on K2. If the climbers cannot make it down to at least Camp 3 under their own power it is unlikely that they will make it down at all. For those on oxygen the race is even more intense as the effects of altitude will be even more compounded on their ability to keep their extremeties warm and their minds clear in order to make that charge.

I wish everyone involved in the rescue efforts the best of luck, I wish that I could be there to help. For those of you praying for loved ones my thoughts are with you, but don't pray for their survival alone, they MUST make their way down to come home."