A derby review we've all been waiting for
Are the Cricle Cage Mountain Derby worth your money?
This one is long overdue! As many of you might already know, I love discovering brands nobody seems to know about yet. Being able to put people on cool stuff is what it’s all about here at SNL. Anyway, I was browsing the web as I usually do when I ended up discovering the Mountain Derby from Cricle Cage — which I just knew was going to get the people hyped.
The Cricle Cage Mountain Derby took the internet by storm a few weeks ago after I found out about them through [REDACTED]. No surprise though, because the recent low-top hiking boot craze is everywhere, and it’s not stopping anytime soon. After the instant success of the IG post, I connected with the person behind the brand to learn more and to hopefully figure out how I can get a pair of them myself for a further review — the price of these is too good to ignore, and that raised some questions.
THE BRAND
The story of Cricle Cage is kinda silly, and I love it. The brand was originally supposed to be called Circle Cage, but a misspelling that happened during trademarking has now forced the brand to go by Cricle — kind of absolutely hilarious, but I respect that they just went with it anyway.
Before we dive into the review though, I need to curb some annoying rumors that I’ve seen online about the brand. There have been talks around these being on Taobao and Alibaba — what you see there is fake and has no affiliation with Cricle Cage. If you do end up getting them though, you can expect much lower quality, so I would avoid it.
With so many factories scattered across China, it’s pretty easy to replicate designs and pump out different versions quickly. Where this fails is in the quality. I was obviously skeptical about Cricle when I first discovered it, but after connecting and chatting with the owner, I wanted to give these a proper chance — most of our favorite shoes are made over in Asia already, and there’s a reason for that. Sure, costs might be lower, but in reality, they’ve been creating goods forever now and have the proper equipment to do it quickly while still maintaining that quality. The truth is, while there might be some garbage quality coming out of China, a lot of stuff is much higher quality than you might think. I think that we as consumers just need to keep an open mind to these things or simply not complain about the higher-priced alternatives.
THE REVIEW
The brand operates out of China, where the designer can focus on the manufacturing process live at the factory. This allows for easy alterations on the go to ensure better quality assurance for the final product. The main question that everyone has though, how is the quality? Listen, these are $150, so you shouldn’t be comparing these to Paraboot for example. There’s a reason why Paraboots are priced at a very hefty price, and that’s because they use the highest quality leathers, use the Norwegian welt method for their soles, and employ many people to operate the business while paying them a proper living wage — all of these things add up, and with the rising prices of raw materials, it makes sense why things cost what they cost.
Cricle Cage is a new brand, doesn’t have as much overhead, and having constant access to the factory helps keep those prices low. Now, they don’t use the same quality materials as some of the premium brands out there, but they still manage to create a very solid product that is well worth the price you pay. The upper is made using a very soft hairy suede that feels instantly broken into the moment you step foot into them.
They come with two different lace types — pink are pretty thick, while the other ones are slightly thinner. The hardware feels solid that isn’t going to break on you. Overall weight of the shoe is on the lighter side when talking about boots, which makes for a much easier day-to-day wear experience.
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These days we are used to Vibram being the leader of the sole game, and while these don’t have them the quality of the sole is still great. Offering good grip that is very comfortable. If you really wanted to go the extra mile you could just get these resoled with some Vibrams for an even better experience down the road.
For the sizing I would recommend going with your true size. There is a size chart on the site. For reference I am usually a 10.5 US for most shoes, but it’s smart to always give yourself some space when buying any sort of boot. I went with 45 EU > 11 US and they fit like a glove. The toe box is slightly narrow at the top, so getting that extra .5 was actually nice.
Ok, I know that right now sizes are insanely limited but a restock is coming as well as more sizes up to 13 will be introduced on December 6th!
Overall, I think that this is a very solid quality low-top hiker that is well worth your money. You can expect to rock these for years if you take care of them properly. If the sole goes you can always just put on Vibram right after, but honestly I don’t think anything is going to happen to the factory soles. The construction is solid, and they are extremely comfortable right out of the box.
I will say they might not be the most ideal in heavy snow situations as the upper is a thin suede but these aren’t designed for that purpose. A little wetness won’t hurt, but I would also not recommend getting suede wet in general as you risk damaging the material, which will cause it to look pretty beat up faster.
If you’re looking for alternatives to the Paraboot Clusaz — because a) they are expensive and might not be as accessible to those on a budget, and b) they seem to be constantly sold out, then the Cricle Cage Mountain Derby is going to be a very solid choice.
needed the voice of reason to dispel the tik tok rumours!
can confirm that the restock + additional larger sizes will be stocked on December 6th