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LifestreamMy current hiking boot is on its last legs. Looking back through the blog I can see that I bought this boot a little over six years ago. It’s Garmont Syncro GTX something. A mid-range and a somewhat lower boot for general applications. About the first thing I did with it was to step into a water filled ditch in the woods in the middle of the winter. Good times … But anyway, the boot itself has held up ok, though the soles were done for already last year. Now I could of course have these boots resoled. I found a local place that was able to get hold of Vibram replacement soles. But resoling a boot will cost nearly 50% of the market price of this mid range model. And this pair of boots just doesn’t feel fresh enough anymore to go for resoling. Put another way, a new pair of soles could get me another five years, but I doubt the boot itself would hold up as long. And for the record, from what I can tell, there is no boot being sold under the Syncro designation anymore. Otherwise I might have considered getting a Syncro redux.
So I figured I’d go for a new pair of boots, towards the high end of the spectrum. And so after much internet research, griping, and hesitation I proceeded to look around and try the models that are in fact available. For practical purposes, these include the entire line-up of Haglöfs and Meindl. Plus to some extent Hanwag and Viking. By method of elimination I got down to a pair of Meindl Island MFS Pro. The entire Haglöfs line just felt iffy. And even the Meindl boot needed moldable footbed insoles, from what I believe to be SofSole, to really excel.
I’m gonna have to think this through. Not just because it’s an incredibly expensive solution but because it most likely fails miserably on wet slippery or icy surfaces. One of the few solid criteria I had put up. But then again so do most high end boots because of their incredibly hardy soles. I don’t know if Meindl’s soles are particularly bad but it’s bad enough for them to deal with it on their website. And some customer reviews have phrased this boot’s performance on ice as plain death wish suicidal. That is also why I initially wanted Viking or Haglöfs, because they both offer a softer, more all-round sole that possibly offers better grip on slippery surfaces. It is also quite possible that it doesn’t make much of a difference and that these softer soles just wear down much quicker.
Also I’d be a little wary using such hoity-toity boots on a daily basis. People can brag a about boots that they’ve had all their lives, but most likely those boots spent most of their time on a shelf. Worn on a daily basis for 6-7 months a year I can ruin pretty much any product. It doesn’t matter if it’s built like a tank. So the question is if a pair of Meindl is in fact just opening up for a new mid-range second boot in the long run. One with better grip and less of a price tag that I can wear on a more daily basis. Highly specialized winter boots, like IceBugs or whatever are out of the question though. And while on the topic of even more specialized boots, I suppose that Lundhags or other rubber bottom boots are also out of the question.
Addendum: I also just realized that there are some noteworthy line-up changes for the next season. Two of these changes even made the Outdoor Industry Award 09 list. One being the weird synthetic Haglöfs Grym (coolest name ever?) and the other being an upgrade to the Meindl Island. The upgrade is already evident on Meindl’s website and should appear in stores early next year. From my point of view the upgrades are significant, thus buying a deprecated Meindl Island MFS Pro now when the Meindl Island MFS Active is right around the corner is just lunacy. Especially since Meindl only upgrades their boots once every decade or so. Word on the street is that Island Active will be available in late March. In other words right on time for the sandal season.
