Before and after. Boot on the right after 3400 km.
Ah, boots! Can’t do anything without ’em, can’t do anything with ’em.
A long time ago I had an old pair of hiking boots that were well past their prime and I seemed to have gained a couple of blisters from them and lost a couple of toenails in return on their last journey. A mate of mine, Chris Thompson, on hearing of my mishap, had bought a pair of boots that were too small for him, but he reckoned they might be OK for me, so in the style of we’re all one big family, he made me a present of them, when it turned out that they were a good fit.
This was a pair of Landrovers, not particularly expensive, and they outlasted a couple of hiking partners. But in the run up to the 2009 trip, when I was marching around the European Long Distance Hiking Path E1 that passes close to here, doing supermarathons up to 50 km a day just to know that I could do it if necessary, and after six years of wearing the boots, the soles started wearing dangerously thin. Chris was heart-broken: How could I possibly wear out a pair of boots? It was inconceivable.
So, just in time for that trip I got myself a new pair of Landrovers and broke them in. They took an absolute thrashing on that trip, including a day or so of salt water which they took some time to recover from. Their active service life ended after just 18 months. Still, not bad for not quite €50.
Drying in the sun and wind after Waikaremoana 2010
In the meantime Deichmann, who retails them, took them off the shelves and I was forced to go to a higher price category and buy a reduced pair of Lowa for €150. They went through a couple of chemically active bogs, and the acid air of White Island, but they survived the trip, and with a couple of minor repairs were looking fine up until the end of 2011, when tears in the leather resulted in their rapid demise.
Then Deichmann put the Landrovers back on the shelves, only this time the quality had gone completely downhill, and I wore a pair of them to dissolution in less than 50 km. Took them back to the shop and got my money back.
Enter the Salomons. I was suspicious of the warning that you should buy boots one size larger than usual (Don’t they know what standardisation is? Dictionary, please!), so I opted for the European 44 (UK 9.5) which proved to be a very tight fit. Still, they survived the 3400 km I did in 2012, and so found myself contemplating the brand for successors for 2013. Wore the soles completely off that first pair, but the tight fit cost two toenails, and I found myself in the next larger size (44.5/10), which has comfortably survived the 300 km of trials. Did I mention standardisation? Never mind.
