Tropicfeel Monsoon Sneakers Review

We look for versatility in our travel gear. If a face scrubber works for body-washing needs, we’re forgoing bringing the larger body scrubber (as we did with the Tooletries Face & Body Scrubber). It’s all about packing efficiency, getting as much as possible out of allowable carry-on weight restrictions, and making travel less burdensome on the shoulders. With the Tropicfeel Monsoon Sneakers, the versatility comes from having outdoor shoes that are not too hardcore in either bulk or heft.

No, these aren’t “endgame” travel shoes by any means, as the pros come with a healthy dose of cons. For example, while drainage holes and mesh uppers are great at draining water out, they also let breezes in on cold days. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s check out exactly what these shoes have to offer and how they might fit your travel needs.

The Rundown

From the Monsoon’s looks alone, these can be your everyday shoes without looking out of place in most situations. A multitude of other colorways are available. If you’re into more of a sportier look, Orion Blue and Lava are good bets. On the other hand, Sky Blue and Sage Khaki have that everyday coffee-run casual vibe going for them. If you ask us, the overall aesthetic is skewed more towards running shoes than skate shoes. And if you ask us if the Almond White colorway we’re sampling is a smudge magnet, we’d understand.

To be fair, while this light colorway bears smudges, it’s also not that hard to get rid of them. It was easy to wash off most of the stains on our pair (mostly from river crossings) when we soaked the fabric in water and did some mild scrubbing. We didn’t even have to use any detergents most of the time, though it does help with stickier stains. On the whole, the upkeep of these shoes is fairly easy, even for a pair that’s white and has a mesh upper (which is an outstanding stain catcher of a combo, if we’re being honest).

The Monsoons are notably light since they’re mostly made of polyester and EVA foam. Tropicfeel gives a specific breakdown of how much of it is recycled, in case you’re wondering about that. But to give you an idea of how minimal these shoes feel, we can faintly see through the mesh upper if we stick a hand inside. Mind you, that’s not to say that the Monsoon are flimsy or insubstantial; they’re simply lightweight by design.

A key feature of the Monsoons is how water-friendly they are (and yes, that’s the exact language they use on their website). More specifically, the mesh uppers (AirTech Mesh) and drainage holes of the insoles (Drainsole) are designed to help water flow so they dry out more easily. Does it work? Surprisingly, yes. When wading through streams and rivers, the water seeped out as soon as we hit dry land. Of course, there’s inevitably some leftover water, and we still had to dry out the shoes after. This takes a couple of hours, so expect to walk around in soggy shoes for the rest of the day if you take a dunk in these.

It’s an interesting approach to shoes designed to get wet. For context, a pair like the Vessi Everyday Shoes are instead waterproof, so they try not to let water in as much as possible. Consequently, though, they’re also not breathable and feel hot, especially on warm days. The Monsoons, on the other hand, are breathable enough that we can genuinely feel cold breezes through the materials, which is quite the sensation you simply don’t expect from closed shoes. As you can imagine, this also comes with the caveat that when the weather turns cold, you’ll also feel that on your feet.

Another aspect of the Monsoon’s design is that you can wear them without socks, or so they say. They’re treated with Lava XL anti-bacteria, which should prevent odors. We’re always skeptical of such claims, or at the very least, of how long such treatment lasts. Nonetheless, it’s a moot point because we still opted to test these with socks for the most part. Why? Because there’s a rough patch of stitching on one shoe that bothered us too much. This may just be an isolated manufacturing anomaly, but it’s there nonetheless.

It would’ve been nice to use these without socks since the Monsoons are also designed to be very easy to slip into. Firstly, instead of conventional shoelaces, they have so-called Sprint Laces. They still crisscross over the Monsoons’ tongues but terminate on each end with knots. These knots aren’t part of the laces themselves, but are separate anchors where the laces thread through and allow them to be tightened. Unfortunately, the knots don’t seem to be secure enough to stay in place. In fact, we’ve already lost one of the knots. Another one is even falling off at the time of writing, and trying to pull what little of the lace is still poking through is too finicky; it’s like trying to push toothpaste back into the tube.

Fit Notes

All of that said, the shoes stay on even if we only do the minimum to adjust the Sprint Laces. They don’t feel particularly loose or tight, and that’s probably because we got the proper size for testing. That said, some guesswork is involved. For example, if you’re a U.S. women’s size 8, a size 7.5 is a good fit, as was the case for our primary tester.

Fit and comfort were generally good, so long as you stick to light outdoor activities. As the relatively simple sole design suggests, these aren’t trail shoes that can take on loose gravel and rocky terrain. However, they can get you through the woods and streams just fine. Really, the only part that bothered us was the aforementioned rough patch of stitching that’s otherwise side-stepped by simply wearing socks.

Packability

The benefits of the Monsoons for travel are a particular bright spot of these shoes. There are pull tabs at the back to help you slip in and out them more easily. However, we never really needed to use them most of the time. It was easy enough to simply wiggle feet into them, even under the pressure of TSA agents and other travelers waiting for us to move out of the way after security checks.

But if you’re traveling with the Monsoons as your secondary pair of shoes, you’ll be pleased to know they are fairly compressible. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since they’re so light and minimal, but you can stack them, put them into a shoe pouch, and your other gear will be able to keep them pressed down (assuming that you’re keeping them alongside other items) without any issues.