OluKai Kohana
Color: Coffee / Coffee
Size Reviewed: 10 US
Stated Weight per Boot: 595 grams
Blister’s Measured Weight: 563 & 582 grams
UPPER: Oiled and waxed full-grain leather with a heavy-grain texture combined with high character waxed crushed suede.
FOOTBED: EverFit, long lasting anatomical contoured footbed with merino wool blend cover.
OUTSOLE: All weather non-marking rubber outsole with natural crepe rubber foxing.
FEATURES: Hand-sewn fold-over vamp stitch, side pull loops, unique scalop leather edge on shaft, and merino wool lining color inspired by the Moloka‘i channel.
MEASUREMENTS (size 10): Shaft Height: 9 3/4″
MSRP: $190
Reviewer’s Feet:
• Left foot: 270mm long; Right foot: 275mm long
• C-width, narrow heel. High arch, high instep
I’ve become a huge fan of these this winter, for five main reasons:
1) After wearing very tight ski boots all day, these are like putting on a pair of extremely comfortable yet functional slippers.
2) You can rock them sockless. This is supremely important if, say, you happen to have two huge akita-timberwolves that too often feel like waking you up in the middle of the night in the dead of winter to have you let them outside…. The Kohanas are super fast on, super fast off, no socks required.
3) I probably have around 50 days in these things, and because they are so comfortable, I’ve just been treating them as if they were a full-on, burlier winter boot. So that’s meant taking the aforementioned akita-timberwolves on repeat winter hikes around Taos where I’m often postholing up to my shins the whole time. I’m not saying this is the best or intended use of these boots, and you might want to treat yours a bit more kindly, but the Kohanas have held up wonderfully.
4) For being an extremely comfortable, not-tight-fitting, unstructured slipper with a taller upper, the traction on these has proven to be quite good. And I’m talking traction on black ice and pulverized parking-lot snow.
5) The construction is really beautiful. So go ahead and tuck your pants into these if you like (you’ll get compliments), or don’t, and you’ll have a low-profile look while your feet are very happy, warm, and comfortable.
Having said all that, I would not recommend slopping around in these in very muddy, dirty snow. I’ve had these on ice and in a lot of deep, clean snow, but I haven’t been looking to get mud and grime all over the soft oil and waxed full grain leather upper.
Fit / Sizing
OluKai footwear has a tendency to run rather roomy, and the Kohana is no exception.
I typically wear a size 10.5 US / 44 EU, and I dropped down to a size 10 / 43 EU in the Kohana. And it is still a roomy, relaxed, unstructured fit that (did I mention?) is incredibly comfortable.
So I would definitely recommend dropping down 1/2 a size, and if for some reason you dislike roomy & relaxed, you could probably even drop down a full size.
Bottom Line
If somebody steals these, I’m ordering another pair immediately.
OluKai positions these as a boot for autumn, but these have become one of my new favorite winter boots that I’ll continue to break out so long as temperatures are cold or there is snow on the ground.
NEXT: Keen Briggs Mid WP