- Mid-cut hiking shoe
- Fabric exterior
- Weight: 445g
- Heel-toe height: 7 mm
- RRP: £180
As someone who hikes a mix of paved trails and hiking trails, the ON Cloudrock was an interesting boot to consider. ON is a well-known brand among the running community, who appreciate its cushioned sole and comfort when running on mixed terrain.
Given the travel limitations experienced throughout 2020, I spent most of this year testing this hypothesis, combining paved greenway hikes with hikes at Mount Morne.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the Cloudrock boot is the sole. The bottom legs are hollow, which gives them a certain spring. Travel restrictions in early and mid-2020 prevented me from visiting the Mournes, so I spent a lot of time walking the local green trails around Belfast.
While certainly scenic, these routes are paved and therefore tend to be very hard on the knees and ankles when using more minimalist footwear. Fortunately, this is an area where Cloudrock’s brand pedigree pays off. A typical training walk on Belfast’s greenways sees me cover a minimum of 12 miles, sometimes more than 20. In minimalist shoes like the Merrell Grassbow, this almost always results in a day or two of knee pain and ankle.
The Cloudrock’s cushioned lugs saved a lot of that impact and I found the rough, paved roads to be much easier on the joints. This is reassuring for marked routes which include a mixture of hill sections and roads. On many of our long trips, I found running sneakers to be too unstable for mountain use, and hiking shoes to be too punishing for road sections. These boots will be excellent for dual use.
At first, the hollow horns concerned me. How long would it take to wear them? They seem to be holding up well. After a full year of use and over 1,500 miles of walking, the white outer layer of the lug has worn away to reveal a brown inner layer – but there are at least 1,500 more miles left. Even more so if I stick to hiking and use my sneakers to hit the city greenways.
The generously padded ankle cuff is very comfortable, even when laced properly. It offers plenty of support while still allowing reasonable flexibility. The presence of a pull tab on the heel is useful for quickly getting out of your bivouac bag and putting on your boots.
The boots feature a Goretex lining for waterproofing. It’s a welcome addition to a mid-height boot and it hasn’t let me down yet. I wouldn’t bother with Goretex in anything with a lower ankle, as water will just soak over the top (and stay in) for the rest of your walk.
I’m pretty hard on Goretex liners, as I wear orthotic insoles in all my shoes. This tends to put a bit of strain on the side wall of the boat (and therefore the liner), but the Cloudrock liner has held up well so far.
The Cloudrock is a reasonably lightweight boot (445 grams), which I appreciated on long walks.
Grip is good, but not as strong as with the Merrell Crestbound which is admittedly a much heavier boot.
The laces tighten the boot tightly, with the hooks at the ankle allowing variable tightening at the forefoot and ankle. Given the outer fabric used in the Cloudrock, this is a good thing, as you will need thinner socks in the spring/summer and thicker socks in the winter.
Overall, my impressions of this boot are excellent. Comfort, weight, grip and waterproofing are all highly valued criteria.
The only potential area of concern will be the level of long-term wear on the hollow sole studs. So far, after a year of use (>1,500 miles), they seem to be holding up decently. Expect a longer-term update in 2021.
Conclusion
At £180, the On Cloudrock is certainly at the higher end of the price scale.
It offers excellent grip, waterproofing and exceptional comfort, in a lightweight package. It comes into its own on mixed routes, where high-impact road sections connect hill routes.
To really get the best value and longevity from this shoe, limit any exposure to paved surfaces to mixed routes, using trainers/runners for purely paved routes.
Long-term update (April 2023)
After three years of use/abuse, including excessive miles on paved greenways, I eventually wore these boots to the point where they needed to be replaced.
This is something I have experienced many times in the past. The softer compound of hiking shoes, which gives them excellent grip on hills, makes them poorly suited in terms of durability to long miles on pavement. If living as many years as possible in a pair of boots was a priority for me, I would have saved them for the hills and probably used them for many years.
Personally, I prefer to wear the boots I like best, even on paved walks, accepting the fact that I will wear them out prematurely and need a new pair of boots every few years.
My replacement boots were purchased from Taunton Leisure at my expense.
I opted for another pair of identical boots, this time in black. There have been some very subtle design changes, a more padded tongue, a slightly wider lace, some changes to the logos. Everything else remains more or less the same.
The black color has a discreet enough design that the boots can really pull double duty. They don’t scream “I’VE WENT HIKING,” so you can wear them comfortably with jeans and a shirt.
This is important to me because I only have one set of orthotics (which I really don’t like to be without) and moving them between different pairs of shoes is a hassle.
I will continue to walk both on the hills and in town/greenways. I am very happy with these boots and they have remained my go-to for three years.