Merrell Men's Barefoot Embark Glove Gore-Tex

I use this shoe for cross-training. Lots of cardio and heavy lifting, including crossfit-style workouts. They are holding together very well. Very stable and ZERO-Drop. Only negative is that they a re a bit narrow. I'm a D (medium with) and they fit me well. I bought a second pair = highly recommended.

I'm using Merrell Trail Glove shoes, sized 8, like always, and buying these Embark Glove, I feel they are too different. Embark shoes are nice, warm, but too stiff to run. I'll use it more, and update this review accordingly.

I originally bought this shoe as it was rated as a great winter running minimalist shoe. It has held up to the winter running part fantastically. It is perfectly water proof, warm, and rugged. However, calling this a minimal running shoe doesn't really work. The sole on it is far too hard to really provide many of the benefits compared to lighterweight minimal shoes. I get horrible shin splints when not in minimals, and these caused them just like any other standard running shoe.

I use to own a pair of Embark Glove's and I loved them. I unfortunately had the displeasure of misplacing them, and having to replace them with this pair. The shoes fits well, but the heel of the shoe gave me some intense blisters. I am still trying to wear them in, but it is so far proving useless. Hopefully it gets better.

I enjoy minimalist shoes, and Merrells tend to fit and work the best for my feet. I own the Road Glove 2 and 3, the Trail Glove 1 and 2, the Access 2, the Ascend Gore-Tex version, and these. All those shoes fit well and work great, with the exception of these, the Embark.I originally bought these for winter/spring when the trails can have some slush or be overly muddy. Anyone who has tried the other minimalist shoes by Merrell have probably gotten their feet wet by even the smallest puddle. In keeping out the water, the shoes worked great; my feet were nice and dry the whole time. The problems I ran into is with the sole and upper.The sole and upper are stiff, similar to ski boots. Although the sizing is very similar to the Trail Glove, since the materials are so stiff and don't give at all they end up feeling narrow in the toe box. I normally do 5-8 miles on my runs, but while wearing these I was only able to go about 2 miles before walking back because they were just that painful to run in. I also had the shoelaces as loose as they could go, in fact they even had slack in them, but the shoes still would not give. I gave the shoes about 20 miles to break in, but they didn't, and I gave up. People with narrow feet might not run into this problem.I recommend looking into the Merrell Ascend Gore-Tex shoe. It is a bit more shoe compared to the Trail Glove and Road Glove, but it is much more flexible and comfortable than the Embark, and keeps my feet just as dry. As for sizing, I wear a size 10 in all my Merrell and a size 10.5 in New Balance. I usually wear very thin socks.

After trying several of the newer varieties of Vib Five Fingers hoping to keep my feet dry on wet muddy trails, and I really have liked my Five Fingers over the years, I gave these Merrell Embark Glove GTX (Goretex) shoes a try. New snow on the ground, wet and very muddy, and I am so impressed and very, very pleased with these shoes. They do not rub the back of my feet, or anywhere else for that matter with wool socks, and are very warm and dry. My last run included Gaiters and even in deeper water crossings where I thought for sure my feet would get wet...dryness prevailed. Several of other things that I really love about these shoes are that you naturally stay on the front part of your feet when on the run so the 'barefoot' experience is maintained quite well while the added protection in the toe box has these now my first choice n shoes for my mountain runs on the AT and Catoctin NP. I've found them to be very sure footed in snow/ice packed conditions. Frankly, these will be my first choice in foot wear for all sorts of conditions and even for just walking around on rainy days. Well made they appear to be durable. One of the piss-offs I've had with my Vibrams have been quality, especially where sole meets uppers around the inside step of the big toe. No such problems with these shoes! They are tough runners and clean up in a jiff.

Not what I expected, more like a bicycle racing sneaker. My mistake though resold on Ebay.

I purchased those for rainy winters in Israel, since I got very accustomed to Merrel Sonic Glove, but those weren't water resistant.Those shoes are. I tested them under shower, and although your feet feel cold from the water, they stay absolutely dry.The downside of those is that the sole is the same as in Sonic Gloves, meaning it's slippery on wet asphalt. I did manage to run in them in those conditions, but you need to place your feet carefully.

I've been wearing Trail Gloves for the last couple of years - my favourite shoes and excellent all rounders. Bought these as all my running is off road and finally had enough of sodden feet on every run in the winter months. As noted by another reviewer, some chaffing at the heel but this subsided after a few runs. Was happy with them after this, did the job of keeping out water well and warm. However, I'm very disappointed at the build quality as the sole is now parting from the upper after only 100ish miles of pretty tame trail running. Will be seeking a refund from the seller/contacting Merrell.Not much choice out there for the barefoot trail runner wanting dry feet in the winter unfortunately. I also wear Vivo neo trail which does a decent enough job of keeping feet dry, not waterproof though.

super confortable et on est bien protégé avec le gore-tex aussi..vraiment léger, j aime plus des chaussures lourdes, merci Marelle bare-foot

Mein zweiter Barefoot Schuh. Nachdem sich anfangs der "Einstieg" etwas weiten musste, sodass man nicht jedes Mal die Schnürung extrem weit entlasten musste, ist auch das Ein- und Aussteigen leichter geworden.Beim eigentlichen Tragen nehme ich den Schuh kaum war. Gerade beim Sitzen am Arbeitsplatz stützt er lediglich den Fuß, sodass beim schrägen Aufsetzen des Fußes keine Zehen verdreht werden. Nur merken tue ich den Schuh eben nicht.Da ich ihn nicht als Trail-Running Schuh nutze sondern zu 99% als Freizeit- und Alltagsschuh, kann ich zur eigentlich gedachten Verwendung des Schuhs nichts sagen. Als Schuh für meinen Zweck kann ich ihn voll und ganz empfehlen. Gerade die Wasserdichtigkeit finde ich sehr praktisch, da ich mir auch bei schlechtem Wetter keinerlei Gedanken um meine Füße machen muss.

I’m going to have to give the Merrell Embark glove 2 stars overall. They look fantastic and I’m sure they are a capable waterproof shoe, but I didn’t get chance to test this out as I had to send them back.I already had the Merrell barefoot Olympia glove in size 9. These fit perfectly, my toes being very close to the end of the shoe. They are light and perform brilliantly as a barefoot running trainer and are my favoured pair of trainers for almost all the training I do.I bought my first Embark glove in a size 9.5 thinking they would be only marginally bigger than the size 9 Olympia’s, thus allowing for a thick pair of socks while running. I was utterly shocked at just how much bigger they were than the size 9 Olympia’s. I sent these back in favour of a size 9. The size 9’s arrived and were also considerably bigger than the size 9 Olympia’s. They seemed very loose around the back of the foot area. I ended up selling these to a friend (who is very happy with them for the record).Roll on buying a pair of size 8.5 Embarks. The size seemed alright, my toes were in the right place! It became apparent, though, that the left one was a much better fit than the right. The right trainer still didn’t hold the back of my foot in place properly. There was too much movement regardless of how I laced up the shoe. I can imagine that running in them would cause too much rubbing on my heel.On further inspection, the right trainer looked slightly longer than the left and there was definitely more material running round the back of the right trainer than the left (measuring from top lace hole round the back to the top lace hole on the other side of the shoe). I could notice this when the trainer was on my foot and a large amount of ‘void’ space was created from the excessive material bunch up.I also noticed that the sole at the back of the right shoe looked like it was ready to start breaking off. Overall, I’m very disappointed with Merrell’s build quality, or lack of it, in the Embark glove.

The shoe was incredibly light and a very good all around shoe. The shoe grips very well in both wet and dry conditions. The only down point is the shoe size is normally too small. Definitely get the shoe larger. I had read previous reviews and because I'm more of a 12.5 UK I bought the 13 thinking it would be big enough but it made my foot feel uncomfortable so definitely recommend go for the size up.