Posted: 4/25/2013 2:53:21 PM EDT
|
It is probably time to spend some money on boots again.
My summer boots the past few years have been Belleville hot weather boots. But, the heels and soles have worn down and the shoe repair guy wants $80 to fix them. I figure I can get another pair for less than that. I have been looking though the lower cost options and found a few that look promising. I was wondering how well the "desert" boots hold up on pavement. They seem to be readily available at decent prices right now. I do a lot of my walking on pavement and it just tears up the the heels of my boots and eats soles as well, although not as bad. I don't put a ton of miles on boots. Maybe 25-30 miles a week typically. But all my daily walking is on pavement. Weekends, mostly dirt and grass. I see a lot of Rothco boots for sale. Any experiences with them? I am a little reluctant to spend good money on them, Mostly because of how they are marketed as "military style" boots. but, that does not in and off itself make them bad boots. And often the price is right. But, having been burned on boots before, I am nervous. |
| Stay away from rothco. They are China junk. I have a pair of USMC issue desert boots made by Bates. They have not held up well at all. I prefer the old school jungle boots. I've been wearing jungle boots everyday for about 20 years now. With the exception of about 4 months wearing the desert boots. Honestly the best brands to stick with are altama , McRae, or wellco. Altama is my favorite. Online the cheapest you can find them is about $109 but military surplus stores always have them a lot cheaper. I was just in the surplus store yesterday and they had the $109 Altama boots for $49. Wellco were $35. Hopefully you have some surplus stores close to check them out. I also do not like the ripper soles. |
| Oh I see you're in IL. What part? If you can get to south Elgin, trader john's is awesome. And they have a shit ton of boots in stock. It was just over an hour drive for me and we'll worth it. Hell I spent almost 2 hours in there shopping and bs'ing with Norm the guy that works there. Very good prices too. |
|
Quoted:
Oh I see you're in IL. What part? If you can get to south Elgin, trader john's is awesome. And they have a shit ton of boots in stock. It was just over an hour drive for me and we'll worth it. Hell I spent almost 2 hours in there shopping and bs'ing with Norm the guy that works there. Very good prices too. I am north of Rockford. South Elgin is maybe an hour away from me. I might make a run there some time. Been a long time since I have been to a real surplus store. |
|
Quoted:
Stay away from rothco. They are China junk. I have a pair of USMC issue desert boots made by Bates. They have not held up well at all. I prefer the old school jungle boots. I've been wearing jungle boots everyday for about 20 years now. With the exception of about 4 months wearing the desert boots. Honestly the best brands to stick with are altama , McRae, or wellco. Altama is my favorite. Online the cheapest you can find them is about $109 but military surplus stores always have them a lot cheaper. I was just in the surplus store yesterday and they had the $109 Altama boots for $49. Wellco were $35. Hopefully you have some surplus stores close to check them out. I also do not like the ripper soles. There is not much in the way of real surplus stores real close by. But usually you can get stuff off eBay for about the same prices as a good surplus place, even considering shipping in the mix. I bought a pair of Chinese made "jungle" boots. I really liked them at first. They were very comfortable and had good ankle support, and were quite lightweight. The tread was just about perfect for trails. The problem was the the heels and soles wore down really fast, possibly because I walked on pavement a lot. I suspect boots made for trail use have a little softer soles and heels and will wear more when worn on pavement. That may be something I just have to live with. I am a terrible heel eater. I recently ordered some plastic heel savers to install on my foot wear. I have a pair of Columbia hiking shoes I wear every day but I do not hike in them as the tread sucks for trail walking. They have held up to daily use pretty well though. I generally don't get more than a year out of a pair of shoes. They are maybe 3 years old now. They are having the same issues now. I don't know if they are fixable, and in any case the shoe fixer wants almost $80 to resole a pair of boots or shoes, and thats about what I paid for them. When I was in school (late 70s early 80s) I worked as a guard and walked a lot of rounds at night. I used to get Viet Nam era jungle boots for around $5 a pair at the surplus stores back then. Comfy and nice to walk in. They rarely lasted more than 6 months but at $5 a pair I did not care. |
|
Quoted:
Stay away from rothco. They are China junk. I have a pair of USMC issue desert boots made by Bates. They have not held up well at all. I prefer the old school jungle boots. I've been wearing jungle boots everyday for about 20 years now. With the exception of about 4 months wearing the desert boots. Honestly the best brands to stick with are altama , McRae, or wellco. Altama is my favorite. Online the cheapest you can find them is about $109 but military surplus stores always have them a lot cheaper. I was just in the surplus store yesterday and they had the $109 Altama boots for $49. Wellco were $35. Hopefully you have some surplus stores close to check them out. I also do not like the ripper soles. +1 on this. The only Bates I own are lights, useful such things like an endurance course, but they're still junk. |
|
Quoted:
Stay away from rothco. They are China junk. I have a pair of USMC issue desert boots made by Bates. They have not held up well at all. I prefer the old school jungle boots. I've been wearing jungle boots everyday for about 20 years now. With the exception of about 4 months wearing the desert boots. Honestly the best brands to stick with are altama , McRae, or wellco. Altama is my favorite. Online the cheapest you can find them is about $109 but military surplus stores always have them a lot cheaper. I was just in the surplus store yesterday and they had the $109 Altama boots for $49. Wellco were $35. Hopefully you have some surplus stores close to check them out. I also do not like the ripper soles. I actually came in here to say stay away from Altamas. I've had two pairs of Exo II's and they both fell apart with daily wearing in less than a year. Nothing that hard either, anytime I was in the field I wore others. That being said, I've been pretty happy with my Danners |
|
Quoted:
My favorite surplus boots are belleville. my current boots are bellevilles. at $40 a pair on eBay it is hard to argue with their performance although the hot weather boots are all but shot sole and heel wise and I had to replace the heels on the ICW boots. |
| Altamas did not hold up well for me, but I work construction and am hard on boots. I am thinking of trying a pair of 6" Palladiums - basically a Chuck Taylor with waffle sole. The NVA copied the boot, and they make a leather version as well. They should be good here in AZ in really hot weather. I really like Merrells too. Danners are great, but not cheap. |
| Depending upon your requirements of the boots rocky c4 trainers are very comfy boots.. Good for classes and normal street wear along with the Nike sfb boots.. Both I wear at classes instructing & taking.. Both have served me well.. The c4 has more of a running shoe sole while the Nikes have a standard boot tread sole.. But for actual field nothing beats a set of altamas.. Much better the the USMC issue boots.. |
|
I find any of the "newer" U.S. gov issues are great. I wear a pair of hot weathers with Panama tread 5 days a week, full time. I also have a pair of all leather, cold weather, Bates that I love (except for the tread design). I find the Panama sole the best all round tread design and swear by it. I work all day on my feet, in mine and they've lasted a lot longer than my Vibram soles. I do industrial maintenance in an old building on old crappy equipment and have to walk through the nastiest mud parking lot you've ever seen and these boots have stood the test of time and comfort. The mud and rocks don't stick in the tread as much as the Vibram, which can be a real pain in the arse. The (?early?) vibram tread with the 4 pointed crosses in the center area sucks in a big way. The mud and gravel stick like glue and I loose traction and have to make a concerted effort to clean them out before entering any building. The (?later?) vibram soles are a little better and have great dirt trail traction. But I found them to wear down a lot faster than my Panama's.
I also use Dr. Scholl's gel pads. They do need to be changed out once in awhile but I find them very durable and worth every penny. The only issue I have with USGI boots is finding a really good fit when it comes to used/excellent condition. I have tried on 2 different pairs of the same size (including width) and it was like they were at least one and a half size difference between them. You could even see the length difference when putting them sole to sole. The most common size issue though is in the front toe section. So its best if you go down and try them on before buying. I'll admit though that I've had good luck with the boots I've gotten off sportsmansguide, except that I've received 2 pair of womans sizes instead of mens when I ordered the sage green USAF boots. So beware there. They did exchange them though and they paid return shipping. They had a great deal on brand new Bates not that long ago at $65 a pair. Glad I picked up 2 pair when i did. I just wish they were Panama tread. |