Astral Men's Loyak Shoes - Barefoot, Quick-Drying, Minimalist Sneaker for Casual Wear, Water Sports, Travel, & Hiking

These shoes amaze me. In summer all good fly fishers sets aside waders and cleated boots and wade in as little gear as sun and insects allow. I took them fly fishing and wet waded 5 hours (see gif of typical riffles). I came home, and in the process of cleaning them, found front and rear drains. I also noticed tiny manufactured cuts on the soles called "siping". Siping makes Blizzak and X-Ice winter tires super grippy on ice, so grippy that when the light turns green, and you pull away responsibly on snow and ice, 3/4 of the way down the street, when you check your rearview mirror, everyone is still at the light playing bumper cars. Yes, significant insurance savings.My knees and ankles aren't great due to abuse and age. I'm a nervous and newbie wader on slippery, bowling ball sized (or larger) rocks. I use a wading staff but things get awkward when it floats away. These wading shoes inspire confidence in me. I found a 100' long string of large, dark, white spotted boulders down the center of a side channel. I walked their spine like I was on a side walk, ignoring the 2' deep water on either side.Anyway, when I got home, fearing eventual damage to my super shoes, I found a backup pair at a local white water shop. They were only $90, but they weren't the AC model. They're lined with a robust mesh and lack the side panels of the AC model. I put both in my car, and the next time I went wading for 4 hours, I grabbed two. I left my wading socks in the car and wore just the shoes. Simms UPF50 bugstopper pants, shirt, gloves, and super shoes. No bugs, no burns, no socks and no slipping. Liberating. They make me feel like a wader 1/3 my age.When I got home, and grabbed the shoes to clean them, I paused. One had blue laces, and the other brown. One was the model AC, and the other wasn't. My actual wading age was showing. I waded for hours and didn't know I used a primary and a backup shoe.I took it up notch, fly fishing and wading two days in northern WY wearing just the ACs. I waded three rivers and a creek. Two rivers had softball sized rocks with loose gravel that got in the shoes. When I emptied them out they still rattled. It turns out the insoles come out (and go back easily) and a dozen pebbles were hiding under there. This is a useful bit of info, because when you clean them, remove the insoles, wash and dry them separately, and all's good.All in, I waded 11 hours. They rubbed some skin off the top of two toes on my left foot (I'll spare you that pic). They're brand new shoes and my feet were wet 11 hours over two days.Getting to the creek involved walking through a late summer WY desert several times: no shades, no vest, thunderstorm, etc. The mesh insteps gathered loads of deep penetrating weed seeds and some fine sand. I spent a half hour with my tiny Swiss Army knife tweezers getting that out of the mesh.These are now my whole summer "wading kit", or until the water gets cold enough for waders with neoprene booties, and studded wading boots. Seven months in heavy gear, five months bare foot in super shoes. These things are reasonably priced, siped, durable, grippy, light, easy to clean, quick drying, and convenient. You don't drive in waders and wading boots! You have to remove your regular gear, pull on the waders, and boots, and undo all that each time you plan to drive a while. With these, you put them on at home, drive to parking "near" the river, hike to it, wade and fish it, hike back, drive to your next venue, get dinner at Los Cabana Del Tequila, you name it. Wade, fish, drive, wine and dine confidently. These things are great.Please excuse spelling and grammar errors, the shoes aren't responsible.

Like others have said before... just buy them! This review is long past due. If you like minimalist shoes without paying an arm and a leg like for Vivobarefoot (although they are quality). Other reviewers have taken off points because they make their feet hurt...well duh! these are minimalist shoes and have no super thick padding or arch support. So when you are new to walking more natural your feet will be sore, but will eventually get stronger from really using your foot muscles and soon foot, leg and even back pains while walking start to get better. Please look up all the info about the barefoot/minimalist movement and its benefits.Size is spot on. Ordered a size 10 and they fit just right.It has that nice wide toebox just like Vivobarefoot.The grip is other worldly. I thought they were exaggerating, but these shoes have to be tried to believe them. I use them for the city/urban areas and they just grip in such a nice way without getting stuck/tripping up, if you know what I mean.Oh and they are made of hemp. Look up all the great qualities of hemp for yourselves. You will be amazed. Hemp is many times stronger than steel. It keeps odor down. Also helps the environment by cleaning up toxins from the earth(even radiation) and is super sustainable.Ok so the only down side, which, isn't even so bad is the opening. It does not have a tongue. It just had an elastic type opening, which, frustrated me at first, but soon it loosens up or you could use a shoe horn.Tip* you want to grab the front part of the opening with one hand and the back, slide your foot in and gently bring up the back over your heel. Something like that.Also the quality is superb. You know when you open a new product and you can just tell its gonna be good. There are no loose threads, everything is clean, the cuts are precise...its just quality.PS the website fake spot has ratings for product reviews like this shoe on amazon. This shoes gets an A! (they rejected my first review of this product for referring that site...I wonder why?In summary try the shoe its a great quality, fits great, has a great grip and has a better price value than other more expensive minimalist brands.Enjoy!

These are my go to everyday shoes. They are just awesome. I had the previous version of the Loyak and they were good too, but the redesign in this version is even better! The toe box is wide, not the widest, has zero-drop and just the right sole thickness (I don't know how many mm). What I really love about these shoes is they are very versatile and good for travel. You can where socks or go without socks due to the fantastic breathable design and inner material. Also these can get wet and dry quickly. A phenomenal shoe

Astral has two rubber compounds and this model of shoe has the less gripper G.15 rubber. Their G.ss rubber is far more grippy. Regardless of the lack of grip, they fit great and are extremely comfortable considering how thin the midsole is. It’s very soft. I have not tried these on wet rocks yet but I think these will become my light weight approach shoes and water shoes.Astral, if you’re reading this, put your G.ss rubber on all shoes. No one will complain about having more grip and any loss in durability will be moot as I am sure I’ll wear out the upper long before the outsole. Also your available colorways straight suck and or blow… I’ve already emailed your team with my offer to do some free design work for you to improve your designs and colorways. Stop with the gray and navy shoes. You’re a sports brand. Black is always gonna sell, but make some fun sports colors. Reference what adidas has been doing in their trail running shoes. Adidas used to be my go to as for a time you could get stealth rubber on many of their sports shoes. Adidas destroyed stealth and the brand five ten. Very sad, but Astral you have a chance to take over the serious outdoor sport shoe market. Climbing Approach shoes, canyon shoes, scrambling shoes, you can do this and it can be done with style.