Patagonia Activist

This is a review of the second of two pairs of Patagonia shoes I won in a contest here at Trailspace. These are some really cool looking shoes and they are comfortable for lounging around in (around the campsite or house). They are not designed for much long-term walking as they have very little structure.

If you're looking for a closed shoe to take along on your camping trip to use for end of day chores or to just lounge around in, these are great shoes. I historically have always strapped my Tevas to my backpack for this purpose, but these shoes are much lighter so I'm going to use these this spring when I get back on the trail.

When I first received these from Trailspace/Patagonia, I wore them quite a bit while out and about, but after a few days of this, my feet were really hurting. The lack of structure in these shoes were causing the bones/joints to move around too much and after a few hours I was ready to change into some other shoes.

Knowing that now, I use them around my house while I'm working and I'll plan to use them as I mentioned above when camping. These are some really cool looking shoes and I like the color contrast between the grey shoe body and the red interior/laces.

My one knock on these shoes are the length of the laces. They are much too long and even when you double knot them, there's too much excess.  I'm not sure what the thought process was when choosing this length but Patagonia should shorten them by 4"-6".

I'd consider these shoes somewhat of a luxury purchase if I'd bought them myself.  The Activists were one of two pairs of Patagonia shoes I won from Trailspace a few months back (the other pair, the Patagonia Everlong is reviewed here).  

Their utility is somewhat limited, but since I do have them, I'm going to try them out as a replacement to my Tevas when backpacking. They probably weigh half the weight of my size 11.5 Tevas, so I know I'll appreciate that weight savings.