Downsides
The Cruzer’s snug fit and comfortable canvas construction make it great on rock, but yield some obvious shortcomings; namely, it’s a poor choice for snow or variable conditions. Its canvas upper is made entirely of densely-woven cotton that gets wet fast and stays wet. It’s probably not the best shoe for you if you’re looking to do a late-season run up the Diamond, or if you need approach shoes for all-mountain purposes.
Bottom Line
The Evolv Cruzer is great for scrambling, hiking, and cragging in nice weather. If you need something for snow or really cold weather, check out the Five Ten Guide Tennie, Salewa Mtn Trainer, or La Sportiva Boulder X or Ganda.
And if you’d like your approach shoes to also be great for kicking around town, especially for $75, the Cruzer is very hard to beat.
But will the smell kill your pets and ruin otherwise sound relationships like most Evolv climbing shoes?
Matt-
To my great relief, that was not the case with the Cruzers. The interior is outfitted with some nice fabric that I imagine goes a decent way towards preventing your shoes from wilting all the plants in your house. Even so, I’m not a huge proponent of going sock-less in most shoes. Granted, I’d love to do away with the sock, but not at the price of living in fear that my coworkers can smell my shoes from under my desk…
Does the fit run fairly true to the indicated size?
Tom,
The fit is true to size. It is a little on the snug side which is somewhat helpful for scrambling, but not snug enough that I’d think about going a size larger. Now, my feet are big enough that no one makes half sizes for primates like myself so I don’t have quite the size flexibility of someone with appropriately sized feet. I’d be curious to hear what your experience in sizing them is, though- report back if you wind up trying them on!