The last two years I’ve been backpacking in my Luna Sandals more often. My hikes take me across a lot of mud and I often hike in the rain so my footwear is subjected to a lot of abuse. So far this year I’ve put about 600 hiking miles on my feet and of that maybe 100-200 were while wearing my Lunas (The rest with SeeYa FiveFingers).
Meanwhile, I wore the Lunas as my “Urban Footwear” all winter to train my feet for the cold — probably racking up another 100-200 miles in them.
Unfortunately, during my last trip to the Olympic National Park, the left huarache lace on my Lunas broke right where lace goes in between my two biggest toes. Not wanting to stop hiking in them and due to the fact I was a long way from home, I decided to do a little impromptu repair job using some at-hand materials — namely, parachord.
I thought of how I had seen a facebook friend use paracord to attach the laces to the soles. With a brief look at the buckle I figured out a way to tie the cord to the laces, reusing the Luna’s recessed ‘button’ and was able to keep my Lunas functional for the rest of my hike.
After a day with the repair; liked it so much. I cut the other one off to match.
And here’s Jake’s handiwork:
Way to think on your feet, Jake! I’m sure the Luna monkeys appreciate seeing some on-the-spot huaraches ingenuity at play!
Impromptu Luna ATS Sandals Repair
Some of you may be familiar with “Barefoot Jake.” He’s a minimalist hiker based out of Washington who routinely goes off the grid.
Recently, Jake was out hiking in Luna Sandals (with the ATS lace) when disaster struck and one of the laces snapped.…
Some of you may be familiar with “Barefoot Jake.” He’s a minimalist hiker based out of Washington who routinely goes off the grid.
Recently, Jake was out hiking in Luna Sandals (with the ATS lace) when disaster struck and one of the laces snapped. Luna ATS-style sandals (and many other Lunas) have evolved the classic huaraches design in various clever ways making for a more refined sandal.
That said, one of the benefits of a simpler huaraches design is that when the under-toe knot breaks, you just pull through more string, re-tie the knot and you’re done. It’s not so simple with Lunas, so when Jake saw his predicament at foot, he had to get clever with some paracord.
Here’s his account:
One reply on “Impromptu Luna ATS Sandals Repair”
Looks like Jake’s using Ted’s new non-slip top that’s not quite available yet. I was made aware that it should be available within the next week or two.
If Jake’s reading this, can you describe in more detail what ended up ultimately causing the “thong” to break? Funny name, yes, but that’s what it’s called 😉 I know you put them through lots of weather and such, but that recessed “button” system seems pretty tough to me. I even recessed some old Lunas that have the knot exposed and probably lasted at least 150-200 miles before it broke.