For another post in our Product Focus series, we’ve managed to borrow more of  Mark Pavsek’s time to discuss the Azura range of hiking shoe. Mark is the Business Director from the Performance Outdoor Footwear department, and the Azura – a female only line – targets the customer who “is on her feet all day and needs comfort but wont sacrifice on style.”

This is the evolution of a product line of women’s shoes that started seven years ago, and the market really has moved and shifted a lot since then: “Merrell introduced women specific outdoors shoes with the Siren collection in 2007 but style and trend has evolved since then… Zip off pants are now Yoga pants. But there’s still the same need for comfort, capability and style. Consumers loved the Siren range but we needed to adapt it to current styles trends in the outdoors,” explains Pavsek.

This is a shoe with a “modern design for a more athletic, tailored look that’s aligned to current apparel used in the outdoors. The colors blend contemporary and traditional – earth tones are mixed with bright feminine shades.”

But it’s undoubtedly more than just a redesign of older shoes, and Merrell has clearly taken pride in putting its years of experience into designing a shoe that will be popular with its female fans. Beyond aesthetics, the shoe brings a “closer to the ground feel with thinner midsole and a less luggy outsole,” for extreme comfort. Pavsek also explained a simple innovation that explains the shoe’s flexibility: “The TPU Butterfly shank saves weight, moves with your foot and offers a great mix of stiffness and flexibility where needed.”

The response has been extremely promising so far, and the range has become one of the most popular in Merrell stores and online, but Pavsek and his team are keeping a close eye on customer feedback to ensure that future shoes in the female line can do justice to the strong reputation that the Siren and Azura range has already achieved.

The Azura hiking shoes are available now in Merrell stores and online, starting from $100, exclusively in women’s designs. Waterproof versions are also available.