Waldies Camp Shoes
As an Ultralight hiker, I have a real love hate relationship with camp shoes. Often, I just can't justify the extra weight. For example, a pair of men's Crocs in size 9 weights 11.5 oz! And so, I rarely bring my Crocs along on weekend section hikes.
Enter Waldies, shown here. These shoes are just as comfortable as Crocs but lighter! A size 9 mens, only weights 9.4 oz. That's still a lot of weight in my mind, but more easily justifiable in moments of weakness.
Waldies were first introduced to the market before Crocs in 2001 by Walden Kayaks but Crocs has enjoyed far more commercial success. I read somewhere that Crocs and Waldies shared the same material supplier, but that Crocs went and bought them out, denying Waldies access to raw material amd setting them back a year or more. In that interval Crocs did a huge marketing push and I believe they are now a billion dollar company. I might be wrong about this. I read it someplace on the internet so please correct me.
Waldies come in a number of different styles. The style that comes with a strap is called Waldies AT because of their popularity of the Appalachian Trail. There are also strapless versions, which I imagine weigh even less.
Try them. Support the underdog.
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I also hate carrying the extra ounces of camp shoes/flip flops. What I’ve done is once I get to camp I take out the insoles of my shoes, change into dry socks and then wear my shoes (without the insoles). This allows my insoles to dry out and the insole-less shoes gives my feet space (and protection). And the best part I don’t have to carry anything extra. My hiking shoe now has double use.
I’ve been obsessing about this, because the crocs are busting my base weight budget.
I was going to leave them home as Lonnie suggests, but I also want a non-absorbent backup shoe for stream crossing and soupy Vermont trails. Maybe I’ll take the shears to my crocs and trim off enough of the tops to save a few ounces.
The stream crossings on the LT or AT in Vermont don’t require fords. What you need to worry about are mud puddles. Unless, you plan on wearing crocs 100% of the time, I’d leave them behind because your feet will be wet regardless of what your primary boot/shoe will be. I guess what I’m saying is get a shoe that can be wet and dry quickly. After my leather boots would get wet on the LT, it would take them 5 days to dry.