Re: Boots

Doki wrote:

So, following that massive preamble: Are these new style boots any good? Does the breathable bit actually breath?

Reading the catalogue Field & Trek recently sent us, I was looking through the technical info appendix and came across a fantastic piece of information regarding breathable waterproof membranes in boots. It points out that they "work best in cold and dry conditions". So if it's dry you don't need them, and if it's wet then you compromise their ability to do their stuff... deary, deary me. But Marketing tells us Waterproof Is Good, so everything tends to have liners now. Grrrr.

They will keep the water out, but whatever marketing tells you a "breathable" plastic bag sewn into your boots will inhibit vapour escaping more than if it isn't there, and your feet /will/ be sweatier as a result.

Do they actually last

Not as long as the rest of the boot, and once they've gone the boots will leak but you'll still have the problems.

And one other thing: most of my walking is for uni field trips, and I have a pair of cheapo "trekking shoes" which will get me through the rest of this semester, but I'll definately need a pair for next September - is there likely to be a big boot sale before this time?

My undergrad degree was geophysics and we did a lot of fieldwork, mapping on Arran, hunting for gold at Gairloch. We were recommended to wear walking boots or wellies. Those of us with "proper" boots reacted in horror to the idea of wellies and wore our "proper" walking boots, but those in wellies generally had drier feet and didn't encounter any obvious problems. Postgrads along to help us tended to wear wellies. Get a good pair (builders' merchants do good site wellies that are VAT exempt as they're protective equipment thanks to steel toecaps, and they have soles well up to slippery conditions too) and they'll do standing around in mud on field trips better than most hiking boots and need substantially less care and feeding.

You'll probably get sneered at by people in "proper" boots (as I used to sneer at wellies, which Clearly Weren't The Thing), but that's their problem. You'll have drier feet, and will have paid /substantially/ less money.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Boots
    ... However, it seems that most of the boots on sale in the shops have bits of suede and nylon, and almost invariably a waterproof membrane, and some sort of foam rubber in the sole, which always disintegrates on trainers that I've had. ... Does the breathable bit actually breath? ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Boots
    ... used to have what I would call "proper" boots - brown leather, rubber sole ... and no goretex or other "breathable" membranes. ... Does the breathable bit actually breath? ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Boots
    ... always used to have what I would call "proper" boots - brown leather, ... rubber in the sole, which always disintegrates on trainers that I've had. ... Does the breathable bit actually breath? ... leather boots, preferably with a sticky Vibram sole as I fall over a lot, ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Boots
    ... I'm after a pair of walking boots. ... invariably a waterproof membrane, and some sort of foam rubber in the sole, ... Does the breathable bit actually breath? ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: The search for the waterproof boot
    ... wellies as he usually did for walks back home in Sweden. ... boots I'd have had the same reaction. ... I had a similar epiphany from big waterproof boots (kept mine waterproof ... I always figured that the gloves and ...
    (uk.rec.walking)