 Novice and seasoned hikers alike want to be able to walk further in their kit without compromising on weight. So that's why we're here at the Innovate headquarters in Stavely to see if they've managed to find the golden ratio with their Rocklight V2 series. Let's go and find out. So I've heard you got a bit of a nickname as Dr. Grip. Could you tell us what your actual name is and how you came about that nickname and what you do here at Innovate? Yeah so my name is Bodeo Outshorn and I started at Innovate about four and a half years ago and I actually have a PhD in sport engineering specifically around studded footwear. Okay. And when one of our athletes Damien Hall heard about this he kept on calling me Dr. Grip and like the nickname kind of stuck with my colleagues I guess. So the people watching haven't had a chance to get these shoes on their feet yet and might want to know a little bit more about how it feels and importantly how it's different. What will feel different compared to you know your average other type of hiking boot is that it will feel a bit more flexible and if you look at the heel have a squeeze there. So all of our heel cups are actually soft so what that means is less kind of pressure or blisters around the heel and that's also why we focus so much on giving you a good heel lock and without creating a hard edge there so avoiding blisters but keeping you well secure in the shoes. So can you tell me what exactly has changed on for instance the Rocklight Pro 400? Yeah of course so if we get the boot out so what we did is we focused really on protection and on comfort and so in terms of protection we changed the material here to be like really rough and durable and what that does is it actually protects the Gore-Tex sort of waterproof membrane that sits underneath it protects that even better. We also changed the heel lock system that basically the bits here around your heel that's where you pull your laces and you really kind of lock your heel in and that's important because you don't want your heel to move around in the shoe it'll cause you blisters but also feels unstable on uneven terrain so we've really focused on giving that an improvement. We kept the outsole the same because people really liked it so it's a graphing grip which means it's both sticky and durable and on the midsole we improved the material so it's power flow max now it's one of our favorite running compounds but it's also really durable and so that's now is an amazing update really. So it just feel like there is quite a lot of influences from like a trail running shoe that you've taken into a hiking boot? I think that's basically what you could say about the hiking range of Innovate in general and we come from a trail running heritage and what we found was actually that a lot of people liked hiking and running shoes but wanted that waterproof protection a little bit of a higher angle and that's our philosophy around designing. Take everything that people love about running shoes and make it into a hiking package but make it suitable for the hikers. The kind of idea and the generation of it that started with that running in DNA but it's become way bigger than that and we get now a lot of people coming into the store who have worn the traditional leather boots for many many years and they put their feet into one of our hiking boots and they're like this is a revolution I am never gonna go back and this is across all age categories you know it's people in mountaineering clubs and university it's people who have recently retired and we see this trend across across like the whole spectrum of hiking ages really. Is it fair to say that it's there's always going to be a slight compromise with durability when you're aiming to make a boot really lightweight? I think that's always to say about outdoor gear you know if we're making things lighter we're usually going for like thinner fabrics but that's actually where innovation comes in yeah and something I'm personally really really passionate about yeah because having something that you need a compromise for is actually an opportunity to overcome that compromise. We did originally with graphing in the outsole because we used to have just a sticky rubber but it wore down really quickly or a really durable rubber but it wasn't very grippy yeah and so that's when we introduced graphing and make sure that we could have both stickiness and durability and we're doing the same with midsole materials now and we're also looking for the same kind of solutions in upper materials. Now at Ellis Brigham it's really important for us to get our stuff out on the hill trying the products so I'm really excited to go and chat to our testers and see what they've got to say about it. So that's our on the hill testing done all the feedback seemed really positive now the staff are back in the store the boots are in the store we want to hear a little bit more detail about what they think. So James was one of 15 members of staff that was out on the hill in the Lake District trying out the Rocklight series now James you were in the Rocklight 345 V2 and we'll hear about the Rocklight Pro in a second. So I was using the 345 I found that this was good for a narrow fit even though it was a little bit too wide for me personally again very narrow foot but even though it was too wide I loved the the heel and the ankle support I did also love the feel of the grip underneath gave you a lot of ground feel a lot of confidence over technical terrain and nice and lightweight and supportive. And where can you see yourself using this boot in the future? So I can you see myself using this boot in the future where it's light and fast where I may want to use a trail running shoe but want a little bit more support and a little bit more comfort around the ankle and through the heel even though it is a boot it does give you a lot of confidence to be able to run and have a bit of fun on the way down as well. Was there anything that really impressed you about the boot that was kind of your stand out? Yeah so again really impressed with the ankle and heel sort of comfort and grip particularly because it was a little bit wide through the forefoot but still gave me confidence and confidence to go over the ground but really loved the grip on the the wet rocks and wet grip it was something that I've found has failed me in the past but had a lot of confidence with this boot. So me and Ross are both wearing the Rocklight Pro G400 on the hill can you tell me a little bit about what you thought about it? So I didn't think I needed a lightweight boot but after trying them I've completely changed my mind. I would completely agree I'm the same I often would hike in a running shoe because I like having that lightweight feel and maybe feeling like I could take the down a little bit of a truck if I wanted to but this gave me that and I had dry feet at the end of the day after we were going through rivers it was really soggy ground and it was really nice to have that Gore-Tex lining and have really dry comfortable feet at the end and for me the other thing that really stood out is that straight out of the box they were really comfortable and we we tried them on and then we got straight out on the hill pretty much and didn't have any issues I forgot they were there. I think yeah straight out of the box was was great the one thing I mentioned was getting a good fit was really easy there was I just laced them up once and I was good to go and I didn't adjust them during those four hours where my old boots I might over tighten them or under tighten them get a bit of hill slip and need to change them later yeah I didn't have that at all yeah because I was slightly worried because I do have fairly narrow feet and they're a quite wide fit in the forefoot but I found that because the heel lock was so secure that wasn't a problem and if anything if I was doing a longer walk and my feet got a little bit swollen there'd be like plenty of space for that and I think you'd be comfortable in a really long day in them. So as a fell runner how do you get on with the grip? I thought it was fantastic and yeah we went over a lot of wet rock quite technical ground and I didn't have any any trouble at all and I wasn't worried I felt really secure in my feet and I was really impressed what about you? Yeah definitely the best grip I've experienced in a boot well yeah which sometimes you compromise on that with you know heavier things or if they're designed to take crampons and that sort of stuff so yeah definitely a fan now. So hopefully we've covered everything you need to know about the Rocklight series in this video if you've got any questions do hit us up in the comments now we're really keen to keep on wearing these and test the durability out on the hill but be great for you to give us some feedback too so get yourself into a store get a pair on your feet and tell us what you think.