Review: Tecnica Forge GTX

At Outdoor Retailer in January, surrounded by the hubbub of thousands of people and products, I sat perfectly still.

I couldn’t move. My feet were strapped into Tecnica’s custom heat-molding machine as I endured being fitted for a test pair of the Tecnica Forge GTX hiking boots.

First, Tecnica product manager Federico Sbrissa heated the boot’s insoles to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. When I stepped onto them with socks on, they felt comfortably warm, not hot. He strapped pads around my feet that inflated to apply 160 millibar of pressure to mold the insole to my feet.

While I sat, molding, Sbrissa wrapped heating pads around the boots. He fretted that my feet and ankles might be too narrow.

"I guess we'll have to see!" I said cheerfully. Sbrissa strapped inflatable pads around my feet, placed a brace between my knees, and strapped them together. I started to slouch and he admonished me to sit up. Any adjustment in my posture could affect the fit.

After twenty minutes, he undid all the straps. The pressure was uncomfortable, and I was glad to be allowed to restore blood flow to my lower legs. But the experience was worth it. I was now wearing a pair of the most comfortable hiking boots I’d ever worn.

Before hiking boots became a fashion accessory, breaking them in was a time-honored tradition. After you bought the things—usually heavy and enormous—you tromped around in them for days, or weeks, to soften the leather and mold them to your feet. The ritual could take longer if you, like me, have a weird or narrow foot.

The process of breaking in boots sucks, but the consequences of not doing so are vast and painful. If you go out onto the trail with unbroken boots, your feet hurt and you can’t walk. You might make it a few miles, but then you're in the middle of nowhere and you are screwed.

But if anyone knows how to deal with uncomfortable footwear, it's skiers. For years, skiers have been using customized, thermo-moldable liners to make the stiff, plastic foot casts known as ski boots more comfortable. Best known for their ski footwear and the apres-ski sensation the Moon Boot, the Italian company Tecnica has transitioned its Custom Adaptive Shape molding technology from ski boots to hiking boots.

The boot is available with an upper made of nubuck leather or a proprietary synthetic material that has been treated with thermoplastic urethane. My tester model was in the asphalt-blue nubuck, which was soft and fuzzy and speckled with holes for ventilation.

Rather than a tongue, the boot has an overlap cuff. The top of the boot spirals around your ankle, to reduce chafing where the tongue might slip or slide. The cuff design also makes it easier to equalize pressure across the top of the foot.

The boots have thin, durable Kevlar laces, which run through self-locking Kevlar loops on the lower half of the lacing system. Once those suckers are tightened, they stay tightened, which helps you equalize the pressure as you tighten the laces with the metal hooks on the upper half of the boot.

The boots have a small rubber rand for protecting your toes and scrambling around rocks, and huge Vibram soles with reverse lugs. That is, instead of tiny knobs that stick out, the boot has tiny dents in the inside of the treads to increase the amount of surface area that comes in contact with the ground.

And finally, the boot is available in a women-specific last, with lower foot volume in the heel and forefoot. If drinking protein shakes would beef up my skinny feet, I’d probably do it. But since that won’t work, women-specific lasts are the next best thing.

I wore the boots as my daily shoes for a month, hiking for hours on a variety of surfaces; muddy paths, sand, gravel, and tree scrambles. I wore them to work and while working in the yard, and on my family's daily preschool drop-off.

I also hiked up and down every 20- to 40-degree incline that I could find, since hills always chafe my heels.

The first thing that I noticed was that the boots are pretty light at only 1.14 pounds per foot. That's a full pound lighter than each of my Danner boots.

The overlap cuff was comfortable to step into and saved me from many a mid-hike tongue adjustment. I have high arches, which means that the top of my foot is usually a painful pressure point. Not so in this case. The self-locking laces made it easy to dial in and keep a secure fit.

I did find the exceptionally thin laces to be difficult to tighten around my ankle, especially with gloves on. But once they were tied, they stayed tied. The breathable Gore-Tex waterproof liners kept my feet dry even while wading in a river, and the only time my feet got sweaty was while wearing wool socks on a 68-degree day.

The sole is huge. It has three separate EVA layers for maximum cushioning: A soft-density EVA on the bottom to conform to the terrain; a hard-density layer to protect the foot from sharp, pointy things; and a cushioned mid-density layer on top for flexibility and comfort. I found the sole comfortable to walk on, but pretty stiff over uneven ground.

The fit was exceptional. When you have Bambi ankles, you learn to accept that your heels will be rubbed raw. It’s so common, and happens with every kind of shoe, that I keep skin-protecting moleskin in my bag and in my car's glove compartment. With the Forge, I didn't have to break out the moleskin once. I did notice a tiny bit of heel rubbing when going up the steepest inclines, but it was remarkably less than anything I’ve experienced before.

I'd also like to note that Sbrissa fitted me true to size. I’m used to buying hiking boots a half-size or a size larger to accommodate swelling, but he explained that wasn't necessary with the Forge. I had my doubts, but after a full day of walking, I found I still had plenty of room in the toe box when walking down steep slopes.

Sbrissa noted that he intended the shoe to be versatile, comfortable and stylish enough to use as an everyday shoe. I wouldn’t go quite that far. The sole is unmistakably technical.

Also, after a month of wearing the boots all day, every day, my ankle tendons started to feel irritated. The boots fit so well that it can feel like an ankle brace is clamped to your leg. That’s fine if you live in Banff and your work commute involves scree scrambles, but I need to be able to flex my ankles a little more often.

However, if you have a hard-to-fit foot and are in the market for some rugged footwear, the Forge would be a great choice. At $250 for the nubuck upper and $270 for the synthetic, they are not cheap, but they are competitively priced for this category. The one major downside is that you can't buy them online. They require Tecnica's custom heat-molding machine, which is currently only available at 37 authorized Tecnica dealers.

But the inconvenience of an in-store fitting is a small pain compared to the nonstop battle against constant foot mutilation. The fact that I’ve long accepted oozy blisters as inevitable now seems ridiculous. We have the technology! Let the blisters cease! They work, Federico!