Regatta Vendeavour Pro Waterproof Hiking Shoes Review

Pros / Reasons to Buy

• Bargain price
• Well made

Cons / Reasons to Avoid

• Limited color choices
• Not the lightest

Verdict

The Vendeavour Pro is Regatta’s top-end hiking boot /shoe and, we’ve got to say, it’s deeply impressed us. It may not be the lightest or most stylish boot we’ve assessed, but it’s comfortable, is very durable and it’s also by far the least expensive product in this round up. If you need to stick to a budget or simply don’t want to spend a lot of money on your gear, we think the Regatta Vendeavour Pro is well worth a look.

Compare to Similar Products

• Merrell Moab 3 Waterproof Hiking Shoe
• Danner Panorama Mid
• Salomon Cross Hike 2 Mid Gore-Tex
• See our main reviews: 20 Best Waterproof Hiking Shoes
• 28 Best Hiking Shoes

Get a closer look: Regatta Vendeavour in motion

Analysis and Test Results

Regatta are a well-known and long-established UK-based outdoors clothing and equipment brand who’ve always focused on producing budget-friendly gear. Chances are that if you live in the UK and you are into the outdoors, you’ve owned some Regatta equipment at some point as their keenly-priced gear is often seen as a stepping-stone into the outdoors. The Vendeavour Pro are Regatta’s top-end waterproof hiking shoes, but they are still the least expensive boots in this round up by a comfortable margin. Despite their budget friendly price, we’ve found them very impressive, and for some buyers they could easily be the only hiking boots they need.

Performance Comparison

Traction

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro shoes feature a sole with a medium deep thread pattern. The sole is not from a third party – it’s not uncommon to see soles from Vibram on outdoor boots or from major tire manufacturers (Adidas, for instance, has a partnership with Continental to produce soles for their Terrex shoes and boots) – and this is likely necessary for Regatta to be able to keep the price down on these boots. However, the fact that the sole is not from a ‘big name’ has zero impact on the performance of these boots and in the field we were impressed by the grip the soles offered.

Breathability

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots have large mesh sections on their sides. So, they are breathable. They are not as well ventilated as some of the other products in our round up, but we’d say this is a conscious decision on Regatta’s part – they are prioritizing insulation over absolute breathability (which makes sense when you consider they are a British brand designing for British weather!). If you regularly hike in very warm places – let’s say Southern California in Summer – then you may find these boots get a bit too warm on long hikes, but our reviewer wore them on the trail in temperatures around 25C/82F and didn’t find they got uncomfortably warm.

Ankle Support

These shoes have a mid-high design and therefore offer some ankle support. As you might expect, the ankle support is not on par with dedicated mountaineering boots, but it’s still there and will definitely provide some degree of protection if you stumble or trip up on the trail. It’s possible to fine-tune the ankle support via the lacing on the boot, but again, in contrast to a dedicated mountaineering boot, the adjustment possibilities here are relatively limited. That said, the ankle support these boots offer is as good as anything else in our round up.

Arch Support

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots offer a slightly molded inner to provide gentle arch support. In common with all the other products we’ve assessed in this round up, the arch support could be described as ‘neutral’, and we think that the majority of buyers will be perfectly happy with it. However, if you feel you need more arch support, the insoles in these boots are, of course, removable and can easily and inexpensively be replaced with a more heavily shaped insole to offer better arch support. As we mentioned, we think that most buyers won’t feel the need to do this, but if you do, this is a great way to fine-tune and potentially greatly improve the comfort of your hiking boots.

Fit

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro hiking shoes are suitable for normal to wide feet and are available in sizes from US6.5/UK 6/EU 39.3 to US 12.5/UK 12/EU 48. We think it’s a shame that the boots have a relatively limited maximum size, but cutting back on the niche size options probably helps Regatta to keep the price point low on these boots. Our reviewer has slightly narrow feet and found the Vendeavour Pros to be a good, comfortable fit.

Materials

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots are fully synthetic – this is increasingly the case with hiking boots with leather being a much less common sight than it used to be. In the past, buyers may have questioned the long-term durability of fully synthetic footwear, but today we’d say that synthetic boots have long roved their durability. The Regatta Vendeavour Pros also feature Regatta’s own ‘Isotex’ membrane, which is their in-house answer to Gore-Tex. Using an in-house solution is surely a factor in keeping the price point low on these boots. We can’t categorically compare the performance of Isotex vs Gore-Tex, but we can say that we did not have any issues with water resistance in the Vendeavour Pros.

Appearance

The Regatta Vendeavour pro boots have a fairly pedestrian appearance. They just look like regular hiking boots. Regatta offers these boots in a few different color ways, but they are all fairly muted – we personally like the all black option. If you’re after boots that will also be a statement piece of design, then there are better options – the Adidas Terrex Free Hiker 2 and Salomon Cross Hike 2 spring to mind straight away – but both of these boots are also substantially more expensive than these Regattas. However, if you’re more concerned by pure function, then there’s a certain appeal to the Regatta’s utilitarian design. We don’t think they look bad at all, just functional.

Durability

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots feel very solidly built. We can’t comment on very long-term durability as this would require using the boots for years, but we can say that they feel well built and after a lot of intense hikes they show no signs of abnormal wear and tear. The materials used in these boots – thick synthetic leather, rubber and mesh are all hard wearing and we believe that these boots could las you a very long time indeed before regular wear and tear become an issue. When combined with their low price point, this makes them an even more attractive value proposition.

Weight

These boots weigh 1080g/2lb 6oz for a pair. They are certainly not the lightest boots in our round up, but they do compete well with other options costing several times as much. Weight is particularly important when it comes to footwear and the weight of your boots has a disproportionate impact on your fatigue levels when compared to weight carried elsewhere – in fact, the US Army experimentally determined this difference to be a factor of five! So, even if you don’t regularly buy ultra lightweight gear, buying a light pair of shoes or boots definitely makes sense. However, low weight often comes with a price premium and here is where the Regatta boots shine: they are not the absolute lightest, but when you consider their weight alongside their cost, they make a pretty compelling case.

Insoles

The Vendeavour Pro boots come with a fairly generic removable foam insole. There isn’t a great deal to say about it. We think that most buyers will find it perfectly adequate and will see no reason to replace it until it eventually wears out. However, if you want to fine-tune the fit and comfort of your footwear, changing the insole is a great and inexpensive way to do this. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to pick up more heavily cushioned insoles, or insoles with better arch support and for some buyers, this small adjustment could make all the difference.

Break-in Period

In our opinion, no footwear is totally without a breaking in period. The regatta Vendeavour Pro boots come close, though. They were perhaps a little stiff straight out of the box – this is hardly surprising – but we quickly found them very comfortable. We experienced no problems with rubbing or blisters when we first wore them and we were quickly confident enough to wear them out on long hikes. We’d always advise wearing new footwear on a few shorter walks before taking them out on a long trail. You don’t want to discover your new boots cause blisters when you’re miles from your car!

Lacing System

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots use regular laces. It might seem like there isn’t much to say about these, but laces are actually a very versatile system and offer several possibilities for fine-tuning the fit and comfort of your boots. First, you can adjust the tension is different zones to help adjust the fit. It’s also possible to change the way the boots are laced to a different pattern, and this can have an enormous impact on comfort – we wrote a guide to this, so be sure to check it out.

Toe Protection

These Regatta boots have a thick rubber rand and a hardened rubber sole extension that both provide toe protection. This isn’t the same level of protection you’d get on a dedicated mountaineering boot, but it will still come in very helpful if you trip or stub your toes on the trail. The toe protection that the Vendeavour Pros offer is as good as most of the other products in our round up – the exception being the Scarpa Ribelle Lite HD, which is a much more specialized mountaineering boot, so really an unfair comparison.

Hiking Shoes v Hiking Boots

The choice between boots or shoes on the trial is very personal. Whilst some types of hiking – and were thinking about mountaineering and crossing technically demanding terrain – definitely benefit from the extra support and protection offered by rigid boots, most general hiking and nature walking does not fall into this category. Our reviewer happens to prefer boots over shoes and found the ankle support these Regatta boots offered to be very welcome, but another hiker might prefer the increased mobility and lighter weight of trail shoes. This is ultimately a very personal preference.

Conclusion

The Regatta Vendeavour Pro boots have really impressed us. They’d be impressive boots at twice the price, so the fact that Regatta can deliver such a solidly built and well balance product at the price they do is particularly impressive. We think these boots would be a great choice for a number of buyers: if you’re new to hiking and just want to try it out without making a massive financial commitments, then these make perfect sense. Similarly, if can’t or don’t want to spend a lot of money on your gear, then these boots make a lot of sense too. For those who absolutely want the lightest possible gear, or something that makes more of a statement on the trail, there are better (and more expensive) options but, for hikers who simply want a solid, no-nonsense pair of hiking boots then we think these Regatta boots are a great choice.