Bantam in brown
I've had the regular Vellies for about a year and a half and love them. They have completely replaced my AR's as my everyday shoe, and my AR's became more of a trail/hiking shoe for warm days. However, I didn't really like the smoothish tyre wedge sole for trails and hikes in my area since it was prone to slipping on tree roots, loose soil and gravel on the uphills. So I had the choice to either resole or buy a new shoe. The smooth KH sole on the Trubo Vellies ruled that out for me, but resoling would cost like $60 less than buying the Bantam which is like a Turbo Vellie with a lug sole. I already knew I really liked the Vellie style over the AR style, so I opted to buy the Bantam for my summer hiking shoes.
Initial walks through town has really got me feeling the stiffness and extra weight of the shoe compared to the Vellie. So I would definitely choose the Vellie over Bantam for an everyday shoe. However traction on uphills is definitely an improvement over the tyre wedge AR. Water test on the leather was pretty darn poor like I have noticed on all my JG shoes. The leather just soaks up water, but I don't think I'm going to Sno Seal it since its a summer hiking shoe where I will want more breathability. Great shoe all around, and looks so good that I think I'm going to have a very hard time getting them dirty.