The men's brasher Supalite Active GTX

brasher Supalite Active GTX boots

Colour: grey/black (men’s); carbon/grey (women’s)
Country of manufacture: China
Weight: 1,048g a pair of (size nine)
Price: £130

Brasher Hillwalker Socks
Colour: grey/dark grey (men’s); lilac/purple (women’s)
Country of manufacture: UK
Price: £11

These new offerings from brasher are firmly aimed at the lightweight end of the walking market. Described by the Sunderland brand as ‘ideal for leisurely walks and kicking around the campsite’, the company also said the boots are as comfortable as a pair of trainers.

And when you slip on the Supalite Active GTXs, they certainly have a feel of a pair of trainers. The combination of 1.4mm to 1.6mm Wolverine pigskin suede and fabric panels give the uppers a very soft feel.

The locking hook is set back a little further than other lace hooks

If the bottom half of the uppers, if that’s not too contradictory a description, have a trainer feel, the top part is a no-compromise boot design. There’s a locking lace hook set further back from the line of the other hooks, in a position designed to hold the foot into the heel box and minimise heel lift, a feature the Supalites look to have inherited from the updated Hillmaster II GTX.

There’s a large amount of padding around the ankle collar, so even though the fabric is soft this provides plenty of protection for knocks to the ankle area from upturned stones and the like.

The Ortholite footbed is a much less technical affair than some of brasher’s higher-range boots, but there’s a good amount of foam padding, supplemented under the arch, and at the heel area there’s an ellipse of raised padding.

The midsole has an EVA layer to increase cushioning and the outsole has brasher’s own rubber unit, with wide-spaced lugs and an extended toe section to protect that area. The heel cup also has an extended rubber area for protection.

The whole sole is very flexible, and the boots are clearly designed to follow brasher’s ‘comfort out of the box’ philosophy.

The original Supalite, when introduced by founder Chris Brasher, was the world’s lightest leather boot. Brasher had asked the simple question: why can’t a boot be as comfortable as a trainer?

Its successor, the Supalite II GTX, is still one of the lightest leather walking boots, but the fabric version provided for us to test by brasher, is 74g a pair lighter.

There are a few rivals to brasher’s Supalite Active GTX, all dancing around that 1kg-a-pair mark.

The Supalites are, as you would expect from brasher, still fairly traditional in looks, a hook for many British walkers not so keen on the aggressive designs and colours of some of the European and American brands.

But it will be the comfort of these boots on which they stand or fall.

You can forget you're wearing the Supalite Actives - almost

The best that can be said for any boot is that the walker is unaware of them after pulling them on, and the Supalite Active GTXs certainly come close to that ideal.

We put them to the test on our regular route, which is possibly a bit more mountainous than they are designed for.

The traction uphill and grip downhill were good, on a mix of wet grass, mud, rocky path and rock. There was no loss of confidence from the outsole, which has a pattern virtually identical these boots’ big brother the Hillmaster II, though the lugs look very slightly less deep.

The lightness of the boot enabled a rapid ascent of our test hill, a great relief after a few weeks spent in heavier winter boots.

We tried them first with a pair of brasher’s Hillwalker Socks which, since September last year have been designed in Britain and made in Nottingham. The socks, like many other brasher offerings recently, are gender specific.

The socks are designated two-season, and are quite thin but with high density padding and a comfort fit cuff helping cushion the pounding and hold the sock in place.

The men’s Hillwalker Socks have a flat toe seam and are 80 per cent Coolmax polyester to wick moisture. Nylon makes up 18 per cent of the fibres with the rest made up of stretchy Elastene and Lycra.

There are ventilation panels on both sides of the sock to combat excess moisture and control temperature and Lycra support bands in the arch prevent slippage and rotation while on the move

The women’s sock uses Thermo° Cool Technology which regulates the body’s natural temperature and acts as a thermal buffer. Other women’s specific features include:

brasher's Hillwalker Socks are made in Nottingham

A soft fit cuff which gently holds the sock in place, a soft knit leg which provides all day comfort and allows the leg to breathe, a ventilation panel on the top of the foot to keep feet cool and dry and high-density padding in the heel, Achilles tendon, toes, ball and top of the foot for enhance comfort.

They would be ideal for summer or warmer spring walking, but on our trip up our test hill, we actually reverted to Hillmaster Socks, as there were still patches of snow on the higher ground and a howling gale whipping the rain at us. Blame the extended British winter!

The Supalite Active GTX is dependent on its Gore-Tex membrane for waterproofing and, as with all fabric boots, care has to be taken not to damage the membrane – make sure those toenails are trimmed.

Anyone more accustomed to leather boots might feel fabric boots are letting the water through. As the fabric wets out, there’s a cool feel but the Gore-Tex Extended Comfort Footwear lining is keeping the rain out.

The boots feel quite roomy at the front end, but firm lacing pulls the front of the boot in and the locking hooks ensure this can be done separately from the ankle section.

At first, there was a tendency for the foot to slip forward, but tightening of the laces cured that problem.

The main gripe came from the footbed with its curious embossed oval in the heel area. As soon as you put the boots on, this can be felt and after a couple of hours this became an annoyance. On a long journey, this could present more than an annoyance.

The fact is, the oval doesn’t cover the full heel area and, while it undoubtedly cushions the impact, it would be much better either enlarged to cover the whole of the heel area, or simply incorporated into the whole footbed as thicker padding at the rear of the insole.

The footbed's raised oval heel area

That niggle apart, the Supalite Actives conformed to brasher’s ‘comfort out of the box’ ethos.

These boots are ideal for anyone wanting a good lightweight fabric boot for those rambles along country paths, with an occasional venture into more serious terrain.

Don’t go scree running in them and expect them to survive unscathed. But the Supalite Active does cope well with different terrain and is quite happy on maintained upland paths. Grip is good and there is protection at heel, toe and ankle for those occasional rocky encounters.

And the lack of weight swinging around at the end of your leg would also make them ideal for a long-distance foray along the trails.

More details are on the brasher website.

We liked:

Weight
Performance
Comfort

We weren’t so keen on:

Footbed (insole)