The Teva Arrowood Lux on the trail. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

Price: £100
Country of manufacture: Vietnam
Weight: 732g/pair
Colour: brown
Sizes: men’s 6-13; women’s 3-9

The Arrowood Lux shoes are the latest development from Teva based on its Float-Lite midsole and outsole combination.

They’re smart enough to wear if you’re going out for a meal or a drink, but technical enough to cope with easy trail walking.

The Arrowood Lux has full-grain water-resistant leather uppers and the shoes benefit from an overall waterproof construction. The Arrowood comes in two versions: the Lux Mid is a boot version retailing at £120. We tested the low £100 shoe version.

The simple lacing system worked well. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

The Arrowood was instantly comfortable. The uppers leather is soft, though there’s some additional stiffening at the heel cup, which holds the foot well. There’s foam padding around the ankle cuff and the tongue also has a little cushioning, including a ribbed design on the upper face.

Lacing is simple: there are three pairs of webbing loops plus a final pair of metal hooks.

The Arrowood Lux shoes are pleasingly light: not much more than 700g a pair. This is thanks in part to the Float-Lite sole construction. This also enhances comfort as the soles give a good amount of underfoot cushioning, augmented by a PU insole.

The sole provided both cushioning and grip. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

We took the Arrowood shoes on the trail we normally use for more technical approach and trail shoes and were surprised by how much grip the soles offered. On gravel, wet rock and grass, traction and braking were all very good. The outsole has a couple of rubber inserts and the shoes held well on rock.

The lugs are not as deep as a full-on technical trail shoe, so don’t expect performance on mud to be as assured as a model with an aggressive outsole pattern. But that’s not what these shoes are designed for.

Teva says, when describing the Arrowood range: “It’s all about having fun in the outdoors and going away on casual trips with friends instead of doing extreme solo excursions.

“The Arrowood collection meets all the requirements that today’s ‘outside’ consumer demands of his or her shoes. A modern look with just enough technology.”

And that’s a fair description. There is technology in the Arrowood Lux, and they were very comfortable and also provided very good grip. The waterproofing construction did, however, mean they were quite warm on days when the UK temperature rose.

Teva Arrowood Lux. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

But they’re stylish enough to be the everyday shoe for someone who wants the versatility of being able to step off the pavement and on to the trail when the call comes.

Quality of the Teva shoes was good. Our test shoes are described as Cognac colour, a sort of reddish pale brown. They are also available in mahogany and olive colours and, for women, dusk and vintage blue.

Sizing was about standard.

The Arrowood Lux bridges that gap between technical and everyday. They look like a stylish, fairly standard shoe but will cope with maintained trails. Don’t expect them to take you over Crib Goch, but for day-to-day use with enough performance for some trail walking, they have become our footwear of choice.

Performance 22/30
Comfort 38/40
Style 8/10
Quality 8/10
Value for money 6/10
Total score: 82/100

• The Arrowood Lux shoes were supplied to grough by Teva.