Great traction and stability. These things take a beating, I absolutely love these shoes!

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but just a little. The previous year's version was too narrow. I read somewhere that these were redesigned for 2015 with a wider toebox. Yup, they definitely improved that. They fit my foot now. Salewa also redesigned the tongue and this is where things start to head downhill. They dropped the leather for a mix of mesh and I think synthetic leather. Now the tongue won't stay in place. It keeps sliding down. I tried every scheme but to no avail. And then the top of the tongue digs into to the top of the foot. I kept thinking this is typical new shoe breakin stuff, but it wouldn't go away. I mean it really is uncomfortable. The last straw... I was wearing at the office to break them in and at lunch walking on pavement stepped on an acorn and nearly broke my ankle. They just twisted in a very weird way. Right now I cannot even give them away on eBay. Like a knucklehead pushed the breakin period past BCs generous window. Live and learn. Sent a nastygram off to Salewa, hopefully they'll fix it next year.

After reading some bad reviews of this shoe I was skeptical. Decided to give them a try and I'm quite happy that I did! Very comfortable out of the box with minimal break in time. I normally wear a wide and was pleased with width of them. I did have an issue with the tongue slipping down but I did as someone here suggested and moved it up a lace and it works great! Only complaint I could mention is that the laces are WAY too long! I just tuck the excess under one of the laces and off I go!

These are
The best "looking" hikers out there,..umm yet..they have ZERO padding up through the fronts of them,so thay feel like your walking on the pavement it self...have sore/blisters on my feet Ive had on no other hikers,..strange and disappointing...im trying for another week to see if they break in?...let ya know,..ewwch ouch out.

This is my second pair of Salewa shoes (also have the Wildfire GTX). I was so impressed with the 1st pair, I ordered these Wildfire Vents for a non-goretex shoe. I have now worn these for as long as I can stand it almost daily for over two weeks and the tongue makes the shoe uncomfortable. I kept hoping it would "break in" but it didn't.

There are two issues, 1: the tongue is too rigid and almost feels like a jab in the top of my foot; and 2: the tongue will not stay in place. It slides down below the laces causing me to untie the shoe, pull up the tongue, and retie the shoe very often. This is not optimal.

I have tried different socks that are thicker/thinner with no difference noted. I have used these shoes for short distance light hiking and casual wear but would not use them on any distance hiking because the issues with the tongue would drive me crazy.

Again, this is a very good looking and well made shoe that gets a lot of compliments from others but it simply isn't comfortable for any length of time due to the tongue.