Bedrock Sandals x Pa’lante Collaboration Introduces Hiker Trash Louboutins

As it happens, Pa’lante Packs founder Andrew Bentz also studied geology. His company released its first ultralight hiking backpack in 2017 and immediately became a cult product for ultralight thru-hikers. Pa’lante also struck a chord with those who appreciate style and the offbeat branding that corporations rarely deliver.

Given the shared audience of both brands, Opalacz says the Bedrock x Pa'lante collaboration is less about reaching new customers than creating something fun. Bedrock leaned on Pa’lante during the design process, giving Bentz reign to go a bit wild on new colors for its existing products. Typically, Cairn sandals use gray or black soles and add pops of color in the straps, but Vibram was open to making a more vibrant outsole for this project. And boy did they.

The result is a version of both the Cairn Evo PRO and Cairn Evo 3D PRO sandals with an alluring, mauve sole. It’s sleek, yet unexpected—like Louboutins for the hip, outdoorsy type. The color looks amazing on the collab edition of the Palante Side-Bag too. Even the standard Bedrock tag got a sneaky update with Pa’lante’s “Of quartz I love hiking” design on the inside.

While an interest in hiking and geology is great, Opalacz thinks the Pro sandal and sidebag combo lends itself well to tenkara fishing, too. Like sandals to boots or ultralight backpacks to Cheryl Strayed, tenkara is a stripped down version of fly fishing from Japan that matches Pa’lante and Bedrock’s spirit of simplicity. The Vibram Megagrip sole on the Pro sandals was designed for traction on wet surfaces and the sidebag can easily serve as an accessible pouch to store a curated fly box.