My first foray into the realm of The North Face shoes were the Momentum hiking shoes. At a glance, these shoes look great and seem to have all the features anyone could want in a lightweight hiker/kicking around the house shoe. I liked the looks and felt like they would be a good buy for the money at $75 retail.
I popped into my local store to try some one before placing the order through Backcountry.com. The size 9.5 seemed like the trick. A quick shopping experience on Backcountry.com and my North Face Momentum hiking shoes were on their way. I happened to be in Minnesota on a family trip at the time and they arrived just in time for some trekking around Mt. Rushmore and in the Seattle-area.
Overall Construction
The Momentum shoes have a proprietary ultraTAC sole that does a good job gripping terra firma on all the hikes and urban assaults I’ve taken them. The uppers are a combination of bomber vented nylon and synthetic materials. Eyelets are a hard nylon and the laces are of the thin nylon variety which pulls things tight from top to bottom very quickly and easily. They are a nice looking shoe and are built to handle general lightweight day hiking, approach situations and urban assaults.
The Bottom Line
To put it bluntly, these are some of the worst-fitting shoes I’ve ever owned. Like I said before, I tried on the 9.5’s and thought they would do the trick because they had the best overall fit in the volume area. The only problem was that my toes were just barely touching the front of the shoes. So, I had to make sure that my toenails were cut nice and short, otherwise, I might have experience some toenail separation.
Thanks to Backcountry.com’s no hassle return policy, I was able to swap them out for some size 10’s. Well, I’ve now got a shoe that is the right length, but is huge everywhere else. The forefoot area absolutely can not be cinched down enough to cradle my foot properly. Even though the laces and nylon eyelets are nice and smooth, it does nothing to help cinch down the forefoot area. With every step I take, the ball of my foot pulls away from the insole and by the end of the day, the balls of my feet ache. Yeah, I could potentially cinch the laces down far enough, but if I do, it puts way too much pressure on the top of my foot for all-day comfort. Maybe I just need to cinch them down and hope that my feet get used to it.
What Don’t I Like:
- Weird in between fit for my typical size 10 feet
- Laces don’t cinch down the forefoot at all
- Laces get caught on the triangular-shaped tongue thingy at the top of the tongue
- Too much space in the forefoot area
What I Do Like:
- The laces do pull evenly (though not enough in the forefoot) with one quick pull
- The soles are grippy
I’m at a loss with these shoes. Either The North Face has really, really weird sizing, or these shoes are just plain built wrong for my feet. But, that seems odd because I’ve never once experienced these kinds of fit issues.
For my feet, I can’t recommend The North Face Momentum hiking shoes one bit. I’ve never owned a more uncomfortable and odd-fitting shoe in my life. Maybe there are other shoes in the line that are superior fitting, but these shoes just don’t fit well and are super uncomfortable for my feet.
Buy Now: Search for North Face Hiking Shoes
11.15.2009 at 2:37 pm - by Philippe
Well, I can’t rave enough about the Momentum II trail shoes – they fit my feet perfectly, although I do have broader-then-usual soles, and I always buy 1.5 sizes over (45.5 vs my foot size 44) – in fact I own Salomons, Asics, Adidas and Mizuno trail shoes, and run >50 miles a week, and these Momentum suit me best of all! Their water-shedding capability is perfect for the tropical mountain running I do, and the soles grip the mud, the shale and the dry trails equally well. The only, minor, criticism I have is that unless laced-tight, on descent the foot slips forward which allows the toes to tap the front. Overall, a 4.5 star shoe for me. Shows how different folks are!
11.17.2009 at 9:45 am - by Jason Mitchell
Indeed… shoes are some of the most difficult items to review since everyone’s feet are so vastly different. Glad they work well for you, but it seems like you’ve still got some lacing issues, which is something I griped about.
Cheers and thanks for chiming in!
12.29.2009 at 2:07 am - by graybags
Hi, I’ve just had a present of a pair of TNF Hedgehogs that I thought were going to be great. Unfortunately, they’re about one size too big, despite being my normal size 11 and the store doesn’t have any 10 or 10.5’s in stock so I’m going for the Momentum. I’m really surprised Jason that you didn’t experiment with different insole combinations to reduce the volume of the shoe where needed. I’ve had to do this with most shoes I buy to get the fit just how I want it eve cutting up insoles to reduce volume in the forefoot section and not the heel cup, and vice versa. Just a thought and I’ll try and let you know how I get on with the Momentum’s.