La Sportiva

Bushido II Trail Running Shoe - Men's

Great mountain shoes held back by a couple frustra

A great product with a couple notable deficiencies. First, I bought my first pair of these, significantly discounted, from another retailer. I liked them enough I bought another pair here direct. Second, sizing with La Sportiva is wonky. I do appreciate that they can accommodate my wide, hobbit-y feet, but I wear a size 44.5 in these, 43.5 in low-top TX4, and 44 in mid-top TX4. Be aware. Third, let's deal with the downsides. Of which there are a handful. Those include: A) The laces. Please, for the love of whatever deity is currently in vogue in Italy, supply better laces with all La Sportiva shoes. Laces breaking is ubiquitous to the point that you'll be able to tell your own pair of TX4's apart from the others not by color or style but by what color of laces. I didn't do harsh canyon-y things with the Bushidos, but yep, still broke laces. Which brings me to: B) The lacing system/"grommets". This is also a problem across all the La Sportiva system. As soon as you replace the laces with something tougher (I used Kevlar laces), now you're going to chew through the lace holders / grommets. And this is a shoe-killer when it happens. La Sportiva: Please just make a "Southwest" version of your most popular shoes that has metal grommets and proper laces and you'd fix about 90% of the complaints people have about these. C) The smell. Get these shoes wet and it's like you'll always have a damp dog with bad breath on a run with you. D) The wear. Note that the front of these shoes, particularly, wears fast - mine have holes in them from doing fairly limited maneuvering on sandstone. Okay, now that we have those complaints out of the way, these shoes are great for moderate-mileage days on rocks or heavy-mileage days on uneven terrain. I've taken mine on a variety of Wasatch scrambles, including Olympus and Pfeifferhorn; they're also the shoes I ran R2R2R in, a 42-mile day, as well as Buckskin Gulch, a 23-mile day in water, mud, rock, and sand. The soles are not as grippy as TX4/TX3's (which is fine; I don't know that I'd want them to be). They're good trail running shoes in that they're moderate in all things- grippiness is somewhere between Altra LP's and TX4's; comfort is less than a padded track shoe (What's all the rage these days) and a flat shoe. My first outing with these was an 11-mile run + scramble and it left the soles of my feet a little achey (which was a surprise; I run barefoot plenty and it takes a lot for my feet to feel something). Since then, though, I've reached for these for anything that didn't require Class 5 scrambling or walking on slickrock. What should you buy these shoes for? What it says on the box. Non-technical, uneven terrain outside. For more technical terrain, use a TX4 or TX3. For a regular track, use a regular shoe. I liked 'em enough that I bought another pair. I think I've got something like 400 or 500 miles on these (probably more)

Good shoes - but small

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

Size Bought:

43.5

Weight:

165

Good quality shoes - comfortable, light, strong. But very small. I can often get away with 10s (43) from La Sportiva, but I ordered 10.5s just to be sure, and I wish I had ordered 11s.

Almost Perfect

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Size Bought:

46

Weight:

195

Definitely another great La Sportiva shoe for my narrow, low volume foot. Has some heel slip where the Helios doesn’t. If you’re not use to Sportiva definitely size up. I wear a 12 in Adidas and wear a 46 in La Sportiva. Could possibly go 46.5 but I like a snug fit. Hope that helps.

Run a FULL size small, not a half size

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

Size Bought:

46

Height:

6' 3"

Weight:

215

I haven't done a full hike in them yet but I ordered a half size up and I'm not sure they'll work for me. I will wear them in a bit since my toe isn't hitting the front but they're very narrow so we'll see how it goes. Will update my review if they do well on the trail.

Great shoes! 900km in 30 days!

I purchased these shoes to hike the Camino de Santiago. I hiked all the way across Spain from France to the west coast, almost 900km across a variety of terrain, and these shoes were awesome. No blisters, held their structural integrity well, no toe problems. They are pretty well worn with almost no tread left but they exceeded my expectations.

Be careful when choosing the size

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

Size Bought:

41.5

The shoes are very stylish and curvy... But.. Although I ordered one size larger, At least it was much smaller ( I wear 40.5, and buy 41.5) The sides are quite tight, which makes it impossible to move. Pay attention to the correct size selection. I only wore it once and it was so impossible to move I had to buy new shoes at the nearest store :D

Trail runners

Familiarity:

I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions

Size Bought:

10.5

Waaay too narrow in the toebox. In all fairness, I was warned. But I thought I might be able to stretch em out - not a chance. I think they were compressing my tarsal bones so much it felt like an impending injury. The construction looks La Sportiva great though. I have a son with skinny feet - hope he can squeeze in.

Runs 1 1/2 US sizes small!

Familiarity:

I returned this product before using it

Size Bought:

45, 46, 47

Height:

5' 11"

Weight:

167

Great grippy shoe but runs WAY too small. I wear an 11 1/2 mens US size. On the flawed size chart it says this corresponds to 45 EU size so that’s what I ordered. Way too small so I exchanged it for a 46. Still too small so exchanged for a 47 which fits well. The chart says this is a size 13 US. Nonsense. After all of the sizing complaints in these reviews, why don’t you correct your sizing chart?!

So great if they fit your foot

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Size Bought:

46

I've owned several pairs of Busido II's and love them. They are the perfect combination of lightweight and breathable while offering good support and underfoot rock protection. Soles are grippy on rock as well as loose stuff. BUT I have a low-volume, long foot and doubt a more full-footed person will be as pleased. My foot measures a 11.75-12 B.

Great shoe for trail running

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Size Bought:

8.5

Height:

5' 7"

Weight:

160

Ordered these in 8.5 as that’s my typical size. 8.5 was very small, 9’s are still small but after a few weeks of running in them they have stretched nicely. I have to say the back country returns were great and I couldn’t be happier with my customer service experience.