ihatepickles
Par Member
I've been wearing this shoe for about a month and I thought I'd write this up. A note about my socks, I always wear merino wool in the winter and coolmax in the summer. I care way more about my socks than my shoes!
Merrell Allout Blaze
For the impatient, I like this shoe a great deal. I consider them a 9 of 10.
The sole grips well in the grass. I'm a fan of semi-cleated designs, lightweight hiking shoes, etc... The grip on the concrete pads I've played is good as well, which is to say they rotate well without being so sticky that my knee feels tweaked when driving. The tread sheds mud well enough in all but the heaviest of clay.
The fit is... interesting. It's a neoprene inner boot that encompasses the entire foot. Frankly when I first put it on it didn't feel quite right. The liner material felt overly slick and it was hard to find a lacing that didn't allow the foot to either move around inside or pinch my forefoot.
I stuck it out for a couple of days and the liner material was less slick with some moderate indoor wear around the house. After my second round of golf I loved the feel. They hold my entire foot snuggly. They grip my ankle well and feel secure when on bad ground.
My feet are wide in the forefoot and standard width in the heel. I tried my usual 10.5 and found them too snug to bear. The 11s I went with felt great, so I'm wearing a half-size up from the usual. They are not made in wide sizes. Weird shaped foot owners know the pain of finding a good fit. These shoes only require 2 attempts to find the right size, which is about as painless as shoe buying gets for me.
Also regarding the fit, these shoes tend to provide a neutral stance. My ankles slightly supinate, rolling outward. I followed my standard protocol of gluing support into the shoe to restore a more neutral stance. It's not a gripe about the shoes, just something I'm used to doing on nearly every pair of athletic shoes I've owned. The issue with these shoes and adding an orthotic is they're a one piece liner, there's no insert, etc... Since they're designed this way, you pretty much need to glue an orthotic in (if you need one).
These shoes move well with my foot. They're reasonably light at 20oz but with a sole that I believe will hold up over time. My hope is that these will last 4 months, but due to the foot drag that most golfers have while driving, it's hard to guess. I'll consider these shoes a great bargain if they last 6 months. It's hard to find lightweight shoes that have great grip on grass, dirt, and rock. I've played about 20 rounds of golf in these shoes, there's no sign of the breakdown on the inside toe of the trailing foot.
I have a gripe about the design. The lacing has a couple of points where the laces move through webbing instead of an eyelet. My experience with outdoor shoes is this is a weak point. The laces and dirt will saw through the webbing at some point. Usually, this happens somewhere around 6 months. There is some functionality though in the webbing design on these particular shoes. The upper webbing is threaded through the outer shoe and across the tongue. This is part of the snug fit of the shoe, so at least I can perceive some benefit to this design, even if it means less durability over time.
So if anyone is still reading, I like these shoes. I think they're built well and have the qualities needed to stay right-side up while playing disc golf.
A last thought, the foot liner is anti-microbial. Hopefully as the summer months tick by they don't smell like sheep (which is pretty normal for me since I'm wearing merino wool a lot).
Merrell Allout Blaze
For the impatient, I like this shoe a great deal. I consider them a 9 of 10.
The sole grips well in the grass. I'm a fan of semi-cleated designs, lightweight hiking shoes, etc... The grip on the concrete pads I've played is good as well, which is to say they rotate well without being so sticky that my knee feels tweaked when driving. The tread sheds mud well enough in all but the heaviest of clay.
The fit is... interesting. It's a neoprene inner boot that encompasses the entire foot. Frankly when I first put it on it didn't feel quite right. The liner material felt overly slick and it was hard to find a lacing that didn't allow the foot to either move around inside or pinch my forefoot.
I stuck it out for a couple of days and the liner material was less slick with some moderate indoor wear around the house. After my second round of golf I loved the feel. They hold my entire foot snuggly. They grip my ankle well and feel secure when on bad ground.
My feet are wide in the forefoot and standard width in the heel. I tried my usual 10.5 and found them too snug to bear. The 11s I went with felt great, so I'm wearing a half-size up from the usual. They are not made in wide sizes. Weird shaped foot owners know the pain of finding a good fit. These shoes only require 2 attempts to find the right size, which is about as painless as shoe buying gets for me.
Also regarding the fit, these shoes tend to provide a neutral stance. My ankles slightly supinate, rolling outward. I followed my standard protocol of gluing support into the shoe to restore a more neutral stance. It's not a gripe about the shoes, just something I'm used to doing on nearly every pair of athletic shoes I've owned. The issue with these shoes and adding an orthotic is they're a one piece liner, there's no insert, etc... Since they're designed this way, you pretty much need to glue an orthotic in (if you need one).
These shoes move well with my foot. They're reasonably light at 20oz but with a sole that I believe will hold up over time. My hope is that these will last 4 months, but due to the foot drag that most golfers have while driving, it's hard to guess. I'll consider these shoes a great bargain if they last 6 months. It's hard to find lightweight shoes that have great grip on grass, dirt, and rock. I've played about 20 rounds of golf in these shoes, there's no sign of the breakdown on the inside toe of the trailing foot.
I have a gripe about the design. The lacing has a couple of points where the laces move through webbing instead of an eyelet. My experience with outdoor shoes is this is a weak point. The laces and dirt will saw through the webbing at some point. Usually, this happens somewhere around 6 months. There is some functionality though in the webbing design on these particular shoes. The upper webbing is threaded through the outer shoe and across the tongue. This is part of the snug fit of the shoe, so at least I can perceive some benefit to this design, even if it means less durability over time.
So if anyone is still reading, I like these shoes. I think they're built well and have the qualities needed to stay right-side up while playing disc golf.
A last thought, the foot liner is anti-microbial. Hopefully as the summer months tick by they don't smell like sheep (which is pretty normal for me since I'm wearing merino wool a lot).
