American footwear brand Merrell is known for producing very high-performing hiking boots and walking shoes (such as the Moab, a perennial favourite, seen on feet and trails all over the planet) and top-notch trail-running shoes, including the Skyfire, a pair of which did me proud during my biggest and toughest outing last year, the Lakeland 50 Ultra.
As fantastically functional and reliable as these shoes are, however, they’re pretty ordinary looking, with no especially funky features. This is one reason why the recent launch of the SpeedArc Surge Boa walking shoes made everyone sit up and gawp. Merrell is genuinely not prone to gimmicky garnishing on their footwear, but with these shoes, the brand appears to have torn the traditional stylebook up and lobbed the pages right out of the window.
