ASICS Men's GEL-Venture 5 Trail Runner

My son just returned from Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Dominican Republic and all Caribbean Islands. The challenge involves different kinds of terrains, plus the unpredictable tropical weather, with temperatures raging between 2 to 0 Celsium degrees (26 degrees in daytime when arriving at the starting point in La Ciénaga town, and 0 degrees at the top of Pico Duarte), Wind,sun, cold, rain, lots and lots of mud, rocky paths slippery with mud and rain, and the beautiful tropical forest everywhere... Going up, then down, all day long. He walked about 60 kilometers, distributed more or less evenly in three days.All that said, now what you need to know is that my son absolutely loves his shoes! He told me they are very light, dried quickly, and were comfortable.He also told me that he is still wondering how these shoes got though all what he did to them, and came out of this rough test almost perfect! (the rubber at a little part of the tip of one shoe will need a bit of glue to be good as new). At one point, when coming down from one of the many mountains, there was a lot of mud in the rocky path. He was more or less ¨skating¨ downwards, because he was tired and he just didn't care what happened to the shoes, as long as he got to the bottom (where the camp was) soon. Afterwards, when washing the mud away, he was surprised to see no damage was done to the shoes!It was raining almost all the time, so he just put his shoes near the fire they built every night, and in no time the shoes were dry again. He had another pair of shoes, just in case, but didn't use them because they were not as comfortable and light as his new shoes.He also told me that he noticed the shoes somehow repelled the huge amounts of mud they were supposed to be caked in. When the shoes were too full of mud inside and everywhere, he just took them in the river and washed away the excess. He was so glad to have these excellent shoes for this trip. Many of his friends had heavier shoes, tenis or boots, and not as comfortable, and they had blisters from day 1. My son told me that he got through the hardest parts of the trip, and had not even one blister (he was using one number up from his normal size, but the strain of the rough paths were enough to damage shoes and feet alike, and my son got away from that with his feet intact!).

Like most Asics sneakers at the $50 ish price point, we got these for casual use a few times a week, and don't put them through the ringer as they are not made for / meant for heavy duty use or work etc. I think some of the issues people have may be from putting them through too vigorous use (other than running) but as long as you understand these are running sneakers and not work shoes or heavy duty shoes, you should get a good amount of use from them. (Note - we don't use these for actually running :) so can't speak to wear with that.For day to day normal use though they have held up wonderfully, lots of walking and light things like moving furniture now and then etc.LOOK: Great colors (we have a few but the favorites are the blue/neon ones that I posted photos of below! A little different and cool looking but not too crazy or loud.) Nicely made, no weird stitching, even, definitely happy with Asic quality at the $50 ish price point.FIT: Easy on/off and a very comfortable fit even from the start before they broke in (which did not take too long) True to size with a nice slight bit of room for a thicker sock like a Thorlo or a work sock and a replacement insole that's usually thicker than the stock one. If you are between sizes I would go up one and not down, though.QUALITY: We for years thought of Asics as middle of the line, so so quality wise brand -- but these and the few others we have gotten seem to be quite well made and have held up great even at the year + mark. Our previous pair only started to really break down at 2+ years - pretty good in this price range. No noticeable wear or issues other than normal wear/tear -- will update as usual if this does change.PRICE: Paid $45 during a sale. The normal price seems to be $55-$65 and still not a bad deal.Overall - cool color options, easy to wear/true fit, nicely priced at around $50 and have held up nicely with normal use.