A few weeks back I mentioned buying some new trail shoes. They’re a mostly mesh design from Salomon (XA Pro 3D is the model).

If you’re on the fence about mesh-intensive shoes, here are some things to think about:

Your feet get really dirty. Take off your shoes and your socks will be caked with dust; take off your socks and your toes will be filthy. If you’re hiking sandy trails, you’re apt to wear out your socks a lot more quickly.

Your feet get really wet. Which is odd, because the point of mesh is to keep your feet dry. They will if you’re hiking across the desert, but if you have to cross a stream, the tiniest splash that would bounce off a regular shoe will get your socks all damp. Granted, they’ll dry out fairly quickly, but it’s still a bit of annoyance.

Little burrs get stuck in the mesh. This means quite a few stops to brush them off. They come out easily enough, but they do force you to stop.

Overall, my Salomons are fine shoes — well built with lots of arch support — but there are times when they make me pine for a boring old pair of hiking boots, though not when I’m going uphill in 90-degrees sun. Just goes to show that inevitably, to get one thing (light weight and ventilation in this case) you have to give something else up.