Topo Athletic Trailventure WP - Women's Review

These boots excel in durability, comfort, and weight metrics. They are lightweight and water-resistant with lots of padding, both underfoot and around the ankle.

Performance Comparison

Lacing up at the trailhead. We found these boots to be super comfortable, right out of the box.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Comfort

A few specific design features on the Topo Athletic Trailventure WP make this boot one of the more comfortable models we've tested. They're designed to be a lightweight, minimalist hiker made for long days on rough terrain. With this in mind, the boots have a thick, 5 mm ZipFoam midsole that provides a solid base and an impressive amount of cushioning underfoot. Along with this foam layer, the Trailventures have significant padding around the ankle and tongue, which add to the overall comfort. They kind of feel like your entire foot is encased in soft padding. Our lead tester has fairly wide feet and found these boots to fit a wider forefoot very well. The extra padding, wide toe box, and thick foam midsole make the Trailventure an extremely comfortable boot overall.

Shown above is the extra padding in the ankle. Though the shaft height is low, these boots make up for it in the stability that all this padding provides.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Support

We were surprised by how stiff these boots were underfoot, especially when twisted laterally. The Trailventure WP are lightweight and marketed as a through-hiker/fastpacker's dream shoe, but they actually have a fairly impressive level of stability and stiffness underfoot. They provide a stable base on flat terrain, especially because of the wide toe box. Their stability and solid foundation that their midsole provides make the Trailventures a bit less agile than some of the other boots we've tested. Their overall low weight, which comes from their design and the materials used in their construction, counters their bulky toe box and slightly thicker soles.

The 5mm foam midsole made these boots feel stable on rocky, uneven terrain.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Weight

These hikers are some of the lightest in our current line-up. The Trailventure WP is designed to be a lightweight hiker that is based on a running shoe design, with a bit of ankle protection and a stiff, foam sole. The Trailventure weighs in at 1.52 pounds for a pair in US Women's size 7.5, which ranks them among the lightest in our current fleet. They not only weigh very little, but they also feel super light.

The taped seams, lightweight synthetic uppers, and low shaft height make these boots feel incredibly light.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Traction

Like most boots with a Vibram outsole, the Topo Athletic Trailventure WP received high praise for traction. For slick rock, boulder hopping, and rocky trails, these boots were high performers. Their aggressively patterned soles and fairly substantial lugs also helped us gain traction on loose, gravelly terrain, which is easy to come by in the Utah desert where we did most of our testing. We appreciate how the soles provide stability and traction without being overly designed or aggressive. At first glance, these boots look almost like running shoes with their low-profile design and slightly rockered toe, but in reality, they provide a stable, grippy base much like a substantial hiking boot would.

Vibram soles with fairly deep lugs make for a stable rock hopper - perfect for the desert.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Durability

As far as our three-month test period goes, we had no problems with the durability of the Topo Athletic Trailventure WP. The taped seams saw no signs of fraying or delaminating. We appreciated the heavy-duty laces, but are skeptical that the fabric eyelets they fit through will stand up to considerable abuse. Plastic or metal eyelets tend to last longer in the field, in our experience. Another potential point against is the toe bumper. We've experienced many small toe bumpers like this delaminating prematurely on other footwear we've tested. While there weren't any issues during testing, we see this as a possibility for failure.

The eyelets on the lower half of the boot are made of simple fabric lace, rather than a reinforced eyelet found on many boots.

Photo: Jane Jackson

Value

The price tag lands the Trailventures right in the middle of the pack in terms of value. These boots are a bit more expensive and a bit more substantial than our Best Buy winner, but not nearly as expensive as the top-of-the-line models on the market. For us, these boots present good value, landing between the price and performance of our favorite models overall and our favorite budget options.

We loved the Trailventure for short day hikes, but feel that they'd be great for longer endeavors as well.

Photo: Alexa Flower

Conclusion