Gear Review - Tundra ESC

by Jeff Marsh

Thanks to our friends at Vivobarefoot Canada, I got a chance to test out their new Tundra ESC Boots at the tail end of our Sudbury winter this year. I’ve been aware of the Tundras for a while, as the Vivo development team came out here a few years ago to test them out on a mid-winter Lure of the North backcountry expedition. So it was really awesome to get the chance to see how the final product turned out, and give them a go myself.

First Impressions: First off this is a really unique, and attractive boot. You're not going to see anything else like it walking around town. The Tundras combine a rugged, Michelin-made molded rubber sole with a leather foot section and a thick, canvas-like, fabric upper. They have a high-quality felted wool insole, and are secured with a ~4mm accessory cord lacing system and boot-top drawstring. So the first thing that comes to mind is that, the Tundras have many of the same highly-functional design elements as our traditional canvas-upper winter moccasins, but with some modern enhancements in some key places. In other words, they’ve found a way to combine the breathability, flexibility, form fitting cozy comfort of traditional moccasins with rugged durability and traction of a molded sole. Awesome!

With the open fabric top and thick wool liner, the boots hold their shape well and are easy to step into, leaving plenty of room for the thick wool pants I live in all winter. Snugging the top drawstring, holds the uppers in place while snugging up the rest of the lacing, and keeps snow out of your boot, of course. The lacing system is robust and works well, but did take a little practice to get them snugged up just how I wanted them. Even with a little experimenting, I still had them laced up and ready for action within a minute or so. In just the first few steps, walking around outside my house, you can really feel that signature Vivo lightness, flexibility, and comfort. *See the ergonomic philosophy of the VivoBarefoot design here.

Ok…. now to the forest.

Outdoor performance: Since the Tundras clearly give off the vibe of all-around backcountry winter boot, I was eager to test them out in a range of conditions. Late March and early April were the perfect time for an all-conditions field trial, with a thick base of snow still present in most places, but with plenty of opportunity to get into some icy surfaces and slush on the trails as well. My dogs needed a walk, so I hit the well-trodden trails we’ve made through our back forest first.

As expected, normal walking is super comfortable and the boots needed no breaking in. The light and flexible feel is similar to our winter moccasins, but the stiffness underfoot of the molded sole still gave me the sense of wearing a more rugged, all-terrain boot. The traction was great on icy surfaces and my feet stayed dry on a few tromps through shallow slush puddles. Ok, so that was all to be expected for a high-quality winter boot like the Tundra. My real question was, how will they feel in the traditional snowshoes I wear off trail.

Person wearing black snowshoes on a snowy surface

I was worried that the stiffness and tread of the molded rubber sole would feel awkward in my snowshoe binding (I tried both the Faber bindings and lampwick), but that wasn’t the case at all. It’s not quite the same as the cloud-like comfort and natural synergy I feel when snowshoeing in my soft-soled moccasins, but it definitely felt better than shoeing in my clunky Baffin boots. The flexibility in the ankle and toe area of the Tundra made it easy to find my form in the unpacked snow, so there’s no doubt that they’ll work just fine for multiday backcountry snowshoe treks. We didn’t get any large dumps of fresh snow for the rest of the winter, but I will be eager to try the Tundras out again in the deep, soft snow this coming winter.

Final Word: The Tundras are an incredibly well-designed winter boot, blending elements of traditional winter footwear (i.e. flexibility and breathability that will keep your feet dry, warm, and comfortable) with a few modern upgrades and a well-constructed, molded sole that provides that rugged, all-terrain versatility. While I will continue to wear my hand-made, traditional winter moccasins in the cold, snow-covered conditions of mid-winter, the Vivo Tundras will be my go-to boot for wet or icy winter conditions or backcountry treks over more variable terrain.