Review: Men’s KEEN Versacore Shoe

Something comfortable and colourful, with a great fit and decent sole. Living by the mountains, I blaze through about one pair of trail shoes every year. For the mountain, I always choose a shoe over a boot, unless there’s snow around, when obviously boots are best.

Cabrera is one of our local mountains here in sub-Pyrenean Cataluña. It’s got the lot really: a loop route with a steep ascent on wet, dry and loose rockm, then soft earthy trails through forest with exposed tree roots eroding slippery paths before topping out through the tree line.

On the top we follow a long, exposed ridge with a steep drop over a wall plunging down its south western side. The views of the plain of Vic on one side and the Pyrenees on the other are almost 360. The descent, once past the beautiful Sancturi of Camarera – an old church now a day refuge – is also steep and on the same kind of terrain as the ascent. Having had a lot of rain this spring, after a very dry summer, the ground under foot went from slippery rock to damp forest paths with fairly deep mud in places. And so, with all of those conditions combined, I felt that this was going to be the perfect testing ground for the Versacores.

The brand-new soles went to work straight away as we scrambled over the poor-quality crumbly rock at the base of the trail. The heel that pokes out at the back was pretty noticeable too – in a positive way. I felt like it gave my feet some extra cushioning and a little extra support also. The back of the heel is cut fairly low too – which felt comfy. I find that a high- backed heel on a pair of new shoes will eventually give me blisters. These didn’t rub at all, even wearing low cut socks.

Putting them on before the trail, I pulled the laces in quite tightly, which took out a bit of that extra room I’m not used to in the toe.

In early 2023 I tested the KEEN NXIS hiking boot for BASE and found the soles of those to be a little too soft, feeling every stone under foot. The Versacores are not like this at all, with the sole providing me a balance of both give and the right kind of rigidity. Powering up the trail, these shoes stuck to the ever-changing terrain with every step, with a pleasing bounce to each one. They’re so flipping light that you feel like they want you to just run, with that little bounce pushing you forward. They’re advertised as being waterproof and yes, they are. There is no stitching as such in the main body of the shoe and so the water just runs off them.

We were expecting a bit of rain and so made a reasonably rapid descent back down to the van, not trail running, but more like trail cantering. The multi directional grippy sole, helped me as much on the way down, as it did on the way up. Those protruding heels were noticeable once again, probably more so on the descent than on the ascent.