Review – Shoes – Inov8 Rocklite 295 (review Feb 15)

Shoes – Innov8 Rocklite 295

Left is new pair with only 200 km and the Comparison of soles,
righ with 1200 km Top 200 km, bottom 1200 km

Rating: 9/10

Good: Light, comfortable

Bad: Not much cushioning, wearspots need protection

Description: Lightweight trail shoes. Footbed: 6mm, Drop: 6mm, Stack: Heel 13mm / Forefoot 7mm,

Comments:

Inov8 Rocklite 295. On the tracks I love these shoes. They are light and have excellent grip in all conditions; mud, long grass, wet rocks etc. I found them comfortable right from the start and survived 90 Mile Beach with only a tiny pre blister which I got on the last day when I didn’t empty the sand from my socks after a river crossing.

I wore them for the first 600km to Auckland but made the decision to swap them as they did not have much cushioning and I knew there was a lot of roads coming up. They developed small holes as seen in this photograph.

In Palmerston North I went back to these shoes as there was less road walking. I was now using the SIDAS Innersoles and found them fine for road walking now with this increased cushioning. On arrival in Wellington 200km later there was slight holes in the same place so I took them to Bivouac and they would not replace them saying it was not normal use on TA but would send them to Innov8 for decision if I wanted full replacement. They did offer 50% discount on a new pair so I decided to use a new pair for South Island and have these as my back up. I reinforced the new and old ones in the wear spots with shoe glue and this solved their durability issues. The new pair lasted 1200 km, with some minor repairs.

Shoes in dry conditions Shoes in mud