Just received a new pair of hiking shoes, just in time for our Yellowstone trip. Yellow shoes for Yellowstone. Nice.

Experience shows that the last pair I ordered turned out to be 2 sizes too small. I tried ordering a different model, but I didn’t like neither the fit nor the look. So I got¹ exactly the same model as the one I currently have, only the right size this time.

A couple of words about cycling shoes and clipless pedals for those wondering.

There are advantages to using clipless pedals over normal square platforms or those with toe clips. The name might be confusing since it was originally used to differentiate these from the older pedals with nylon straps that would clip your toe in. In reality you actually get your foot locked into the pedal, and you get out of it by twisting your foot outwards.

The benefits are the fact that your foot is safely attached to the pedal and will not get loose during gear shifts, bad patches of road, and so on. Also it allows you to transfer the power to the bike more efficiently. In addition the shoes have very hard soles with no flex, which means you don’t waste energy on compressing your shoes. These special shoes have cleats attached to the bottom and these cleats allow you to lock into the pedal.

Of course the biggest problem for me is that you have to get used to them and remember that you’re attached to your bike and you can’t just jump off. So generally you end up paying for minor mistakes with blood and bruises, which I know, oh, too well. At least I come with a self-healing features, which can’t be said of my bike.

I don’t get excited about shoes. I also hate shoe shopping with passion. That’s the reason I have 2 pairs of shoes total including a pair of sleepers. Lately, however, I started to realize that probably I should wear something more comfortable than my dress shoes for times when we go hiking, be it either long walks around the city or exploring the trails of some national park. We decided to buy me a pair of sneakers, something that I didn’t have since high school.

That’s where Zappos.com makes its entrance. The selection is huge, the shipping is free, including return shipping and they have all the sizes and a bunch of reviews. We settled on two pairs of hiking shoes near the top of the list when sorted by popularity. Turns out Eldar has ones of those, so that’s what we ordered¹ based on his recommendation — The North Face Hedgehog GTX XCR.

We got two pairs still, since I wasn’t sure on the size, and looks like one of the two pairs is a good fit. First real life test of these will be the upcoming weekend in Pocono Mountains. Either way it’s going to be better then running around the mountains in dress shoes.

P.S. Shipping was extra fast too. Zappos upgraded us to the next level (they probably do this for everyone), so we basically got them 1 day after we ordered.