The La Sportiva Trango Cube is rapidly becoming one of our best-selling boots, and for good reason. They are light weight ass-kickers that find themselves well suited in a wide range of serious hunting environments stretching from our big Southwest canyons; big uphill Rocky Mountain grinds, and well suited for most sheep and goat hunts where fully automatic crampons aren’t the soup de jour.
Their novel construction is at the very edge of boot building technology and is proving to be truly tough and offer some major improvements in critical areas. As an all-around boot, it stands out for both its loud color and high performance, and does so at a reasonable price point for this performance level.
Construction
The key construction areas on the Trango Cube land in pretty much every critical component of the boot: Lacing, upper construction, outsole, and interior.
The most visible of these is the direct injection lacing. Essentially, the eyelets are injection molded into the boot’s thermoplastic exoskeleton, which in-turn is welded to the boot’s upper.
This serves several purposes for our intended use:
- No more eyelet failures, they are literally encapsulated in the boot
- No rivets passing into the interior of the boot, a classic friction point removed
- Exoskeleton serves to protect the boot’s seamless upper
The only downside we see in this particular set up is the size of the lace lock. In the interest of keeping weight to a minimum, everything on the boot was trimmed to the maximum, and the resulting lace lock size takes some getting used to.
On to the upper.
La Sportiva utilized QB3, a hell-for-stout waterproof textile which in this case is essentially seamless. The magic there is that traditional seams are removed, which removes the abrasion points that typically accompany them. The majority of the foot issues caused by technical mountaineering boots are found in and around the seams and eyelet rivets, while most of the other issues result from poor fitment.
While using a more padded mountaineering sock can reduce friction in these areas, it also tends to make the boot warmer. If you are running this category of boot in warmer climates or in the early season, the idea of wearing a lighter sock can be awfully appealing yet punishing. However, it is reasonable to do so in this particular boot.
Outsole
The outsole on the Cube is Vibram’s “One” which is a La Spo exclusive. It offers killer traction in a wide range of temperatures and material, but gait style may affect tread life. The One outsole is very weight considerate, and sports no excess material. Anywhere. If you find yourself with a smooth, rolling gate, or if your midfoot provides most of your uphill power you will find this to be a long lasting, perspective-changing boot. However, if you have an extremely powerful, toe centric gate, this low-profile offering will show toe wear sooner that it’s deep lugged brethren. For serious work though, I prefer the feel of this type outsole and find any diminished mileage to be worth the trade in performance.
General Performance
The combination of all the components create a boot that barely tips the scale, at 23.5 ounces per boot. In the scheme of mountaineering boots suitable for hunting, this provides a weight savings of close to 10 ounces – per boot- which is truly profound. As a bonus, the boots low profile and sticky rubber provide incredible traction sufficient for 5thclass climbing in the event you’re off to kill a goat, or hunt really gnarly sheep country.
The Trango Cube offers a removable tongue behind a streamlined gaiter – so the little trail debris that can drive you nuts stays at bay and the tongue’s position can be adjusted to accurately fit a larger breadth of foot volumes. In its unadjusted form, we find the boot to quite accurately fit slightly narrower than average feet, with a mildly curved last and medium volume toe box. We find the interior shape of the foot to be quite appropriate for a significant number of our customers, and have had some exceptional reviews from harrowing country.
If you are ever in doubt, or concerned about how a particular boot will address your feet – call or email us, and we can help you get your technical boot needs address right, the first time.