Occupying a space between fashion and tech-heavy outdoor gear, one of the things that have made Italian hiking brand ROA so popular is that while its footwear boasts outdoor-ready performance, it's all disguised within a relatively minimal sneaker design.
With its latest release, however, the brand has taken things to another level by producing a full leather loafer through its utilitarian lens.
Crafted from a luxurious Tuscan vachetta leather that's been treated with a traditional vegetable tanning technique, the top of the shoe looks almost identical to the classic loafers that were made popular by preppy college students, only with ROA's mountain-shaped logo cut into the vamp.
But then, once you start to inspect lower down, the shoe appears to have the bottom half from its climbing-inspired Katharina model. Complete with a rubber toe cap, mudguard that runs the length of the shoe, and a custom Vibram® Megagrip sole, the lower portion of the model goes all-out on functionality.
While it might seem like an odd choice for a hiking label that shares its name with the mountain peak of Forcella della Roa to design, pivoting to loafers makes sense. We've long been witness to a post-sneaker society taking shape and search data in February found that interest in chunky loafers grew 85% over the past year.
Going toe-to-toe with the likes of Prada's dummy thick loafers and Martine Rose's clown-shoe-esque loafer mules — ROA's bulky loafers take the style to new, trail-ready terrain.
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