Ninja Gear Review: Merrell Trail Glove 4

My wife and I planned a trip to Kauai to do some of the things that we wanted to do on our Honeymoon but just didn’t have time for.  Namely hike the Kalalau Trail to the Na Pali coast, one of the most inaccessible coast lines in our country. Since our gear was going to be relatively light we decided to try out a “minimalist” trail shoe.  I have been wearing different minimalist type shoes for working out for a long time, but most of my hiking style footwear is the standard hiking boot or aggressively tread outdoor runner/hiking shoes.

I tried on a couple of different options at our local REI and settled on the Merrell Trail Glove 4 over the New Balance Minimus based on more how the Minimus felt (not wide enough) than how the Trail Gloves felt.  The trail gloves felt fine, they just were only at the store in an odd color (green and orange). I got over the color and started wearing them right away so that I was very used to them prior to our hikes. I really liked them as an everyday shoe.  I wore them for the entire time up to and even en route to Hawaii.

We picked this type of shoe because again we were going to be carrying very minimal lightweight gear and we wanted to be able to move fairly quickly.  The trail was known for being steep especially in the beginning sections so we wanted lightweight shoes. Merrell states that the shoe weighs 8 oz and I can say that it felt very light. We also wanted a shoe that wasn’t waterproof because the trail called for several stream crossings and we needed something that would drain quickly. The trail wound up being closed because of flooding damage, so we were forced to find other hikes.  None of the other hikes that we did had a stream crossing that required me to submerge my feet, but we did hike through some very heavy rain. The rain ran down into my shoes but they felt like they drained very well to me and I never had the feeling that I was walking in a bucket of water like you can have if your waterproof footwear goes all the way in. I did use some really cool socks called WrightSocks that had a built in liner sock and carried a “no blister” guarantee.  They also seemed to handle the water really well as well as my sweaty feet hiking in them all day.  

The Trail gloves have a Vibram TC5plus  outsole. In all of my routine usage of the shoe the sole was great.  It felt grippy and responsive. But on Kauai’s notoriously slick trails I might as well have been wearing slick bottom dress shoes.  In the mud and clay I slipped all over the place. The climbs were made difficult because of how much I was slipping backwards as I was trying to make forward progress.  The soles of the Trail Gloves have little teeth that look like they would grip most surfaces fairly well but if the trail is muddy I am going to go with some more aggressive tread pattern on my next hikers.

I’m going to give the Merrell Trail Glove 4’s one thumb up.  As a all around everyday type of shoe I look forward to wearing these and would purchase them again.  They are comfortable, light, responsive, and an overall minimalist shoe. I love the zero drop sole and the wide toe box.  For a hiking shoe or boot I am going to go with something more aggressive. If Merrell could combine all of their Trail Glove features with a slightly more grippy Vibram sole I think that they have found a winner, but until we get some more traction my Trail Gloves will be confined to less wild environments.