These Lomo Aluminium Walking Poles cost under £30 – we had to try them out

It’s impossible to find a bargain in this cost-of-living-crisis era, right? Wrong. Lomo has come up with a ridiculous bargain here – just £29 for a pair of trekking poles. That’s remarkable stuff, just £14.50 each.

You can barely buy a spare pole tip basket from other brands for that price. But does cheap equate to good value?

Some will see the Lomo Aluminium Walking Poles as simple and effective at an incredible price. Others will see them as cheap and nasty, with an excessively heavy and clunky design. Which camp will you be in?

For us, the positives are plentiful. Made entirely from aluminium with a three-segment, telescopic design secured by flick-lock lever clamps, the build is fuss-free and straight-forward.

The poles feel strong and sturdy, you get good adjustability from 100cm to 135cm, and loads of features, including adjustable wrist leashes, trekking and winter baskets, tungsten pole tips and EVA foam extended hand grips.

The negatives? At 248g per pole and 63cm-long when collapsed away, they are too heavy, long and non-portable, while many of the components feel basic and non-premium.

But why worry when the price is this crazy? You could buy two pairs, double their usable life-span and it’d still be a stone cold bargain.

Design, locking mechanism, materials and durability

There is nothing unique about these poles: they use the classic, long-standing design approach seen in cheaper, entry-levels poles for many years.

Made entirely from aluminium – the material of choice for good value and high strength – these Lomo poles are made from three parts, condensing down in the usual telescopic style, and expanding to full-length via lever-style clamp locks.

Due to the use of aluminium, we’ve found that the poles feel reassuringly strong and stable in use, and long-term durability should be pretty solid.

The locking mechanisms – “flick lock” lever clamps with a dial for fine-tuned tension adjustment – work well enough straight out of the box, ensuring a solid structure to the pole.

But let’s be clear. These aren’t premium components and they feel a tad basic. How will they fare over the long term? More time is needed to truly find out, but with cheap poles there’s always an inherent risk of performance drop-off (or total functionality failure) over time.

Length, adjustability, weight and portability

On my scales the Lomo Aluminium Walking Poles weigh 248g each, which is slightly less than the official weight of 255g quoted on Lomo’s website.

This is very heavy for a trekking pole – the heaviest pole we’ve tested in recent years. It’s 79g heavier per pole than the ultralight Fizan Compact, for example, which illustrates how much extra heft you’re having to lift and wield with every pole placement.

Is this a deal-breaker or not? It all depends on your priorities. If you’re a slow and methodical hiker, the extra grams might not bother you at all – and, in fact, the extra strength and sturdiness of a hefty, thick pole might feel like a benefit.

But if you’re a fast hiker powering through the miles, these Lomo poles will probably feel excessively sluggish, lacking the slickness and speed you crave.

The length and portability of this pole will similarly polarise opinion. Some hillwalkers won’t be deterred at all by the 63cm folded-down length and lack of compact portability – it’ll just be a minor, or inconsequential, inconvenience and a price worth paying for a bona fide bargain.

Others will see it as a big problem, fearing the poles will be clunky and awkward to carry in their backpacks – something they are not willing to abide.

Adjustability, however, is impressive, which is something everyone can agree on. This pole can be extended or shortened from 100 to 135cm, enabling fine-tuned adjustments to suit every hiker.

Hand grips, leashes, baskets and pole tips

Despite the crazy price of £29 for a pair, all of the features and accessories you need are included with the Lomo Aluminium Walking Poles. All of these features deliver mid-range, half-decent performance. It's nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible either.

Of course, at this price point, a lot of the components feel rather basic and cheap compared to premium £200 trekking poles, and there may be a steep drop-off in component performance and functionality over time, but overall I'm quite impressed with the quality-to-cost ratio.

You get an adjustable, D-loop wrist leash at the top of each pole. Its size is easily adjustable (although the adjustment cap device feels a tad sticky and clunky), and the leash itself feels comfy and light.

Trekking baskets adequately protect the pole from getting stuck in mud or swampy quagmires (snow baskets are also included).

For hard-packed trails and rocky ground, you get tungsten tips or you can switch in rubber tips if desired. The hand grip, meanwhile, is made from EVA foam with a nicely-contoured, curvy profile that fits the natural shape of the hand.

Some etched grooves at the rear of the hand grip feel nice to the touch and add a sense traction to the palm, while the plastic, oval-shaped top of the hand grip seems to encourage you to place the thumb atop it.

You also get an extension to the grip for use on steep ascents. It’s a different type of foam on the extension – far softer with way more give – but it feels comfy enough for intermittent use. Although it’s a little short and, in an ideal world, we’d have favoured some additional length in the grip extension.

One thing we have noticed is that the printed graphics and paint on the pole shaft have a slight tendency to chip quite easily, which is perhaps a tad annoying – although it’s only an aesthetic issue, rather than a structural one.

Verdict

The Lomo Aluminium Walking Poles are a pair of strong aluminium poles at an unbelievably cheap price – but they are heavy and not very compact or portable.

Getting cold hands while using your walking poles? Check out the best gloves, as tried and tested by LFTO.

About the author

James Forrest writes regular features and route guides for Trail and LFTO, and has been one of our main gear testers for the last few years. James is based on the edge of the Lake District so when he isn’t off on his latest crazy adventure or challenge, he’s walking in his local fells.

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