The agile and durable Vasque Men’s and Women's Taku GTX is a mid-weight, waterproof hiking boot suitable for day hiking or multi-day backcountry trips on a variety of terrain from maintained trails to rugged and rocky surfaces.
We are taking a look at the men’s and women’s Taku Gortex boots by Vasque. This is first and foremost a hiking boot, but I can see it performing well for shorter, multi day trips and under the weight of a lighter weight backpack. So you have got enough stability and enough support, but it is still a pretty light weight shoe.
The men’s and women’s have a shared feature set. So we are going to look at both, but I am actually holding the women’s here.
Like I said, it is a Gortex shoe. So you have that waterproof protection all the way around. And the tongue is attached most of the way up to the top of the collar of the boot. So you have got confidence there with stream crossings and just in wet conditions in general.
Talking about the upper part of the boot, it is mostly leather. So if you are going to go on multi day trips with this boot, I would definitely suggest breaking it in, allowing enough break in time as with another leather boot. And looking at the leather you have got some overlays in here that give added durability in, you know, key areas that tend to have nor-mal wear and tear.
Other than that, with the upper, you have got a nice toe cap in the front so that is a nice rubber toe cap. It protects your foot there. And then you have got seven all metal eyelets on there so you can really cinch down the boot.
You do have a little bit of air mesh so you have more breathability, you know, in the top section and in some key areas where the boot does need to breathe.
The mid sole is a molded EVA. So you have a lot of cushioning throughout the mid sole of the boot, but there also is a TPU plate in there that is just going to give more stability and, you know, a little bit more rigidity on the boot. But in my opinion, for how light weight this boot is, it does give a lot of support and it does give enough rigidity for under the weight of a backpack.
The out sole is made of Vibram’s neo day hiker rubber. So you do have that high quality Vibram rubber. And looking at the lugs, you don’t have super aggressive lugs or deep lugs that you would see on an aggressive backpacking boot, but certainly give you enough traction for day hikes and, again, like I said, in... under the weight of a light backpack.
Starting down here you have some breaking lugs here at the heel. You have a moderately sized heel. It is pretty low profile, but you do have a little bit of traction there. And then moving up through the top of the boot, you know, the same sort of lugs, but you do have some breaking lugs there in the toe as well.
As far as fit and feel of these boots and just my initial first impression I found them to be quite big. I wear and eight and a half in pretty much every backpacking, hiking, running shoe and I tried on an eight and a half with these just with a lightweight wool sock and I found them to be at least half a size big, especially in the toe box and in the volume, the actual volume of the shoe. I had a lot of room right in here and felt like I could go down at least half of a size. So if you have a higher volume foot or if you have a wider foot, they might fit really well. But other than that, I would actually suggest sizing down a lit-tle bit.
All in all it is a really great value boot. You have got your Gortex liner, so waterproof pro-tection there, a mostly full leather upper and that high quality Vibram sole. You are going to have confidence in your next hiking or backpacking adventure.
It is the men’s and women’s Taku Gortex by Vasque.
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