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Trying to get some good military boot advice. I’m tired of frequently buying new boots, and I’m looking to get some input from everyone.

In the past I’ve always been partial to side-zipper boots. One of the main reason was just the ease and speed of putting them on or taking them off. I spend a lot of time in EMS and volunteering for a fire department so speed was an important factor. I needed to be able to throw them on and be out the door for a medical call, or if I’m wearing them I needed to be able to pull them off quickly to switch to firefighting gear. I also only worked a few days each week, so they lasted long enough. But now I’m in a position where I’m wearing my boots 5 days a week and putting decent use on them, so they seem to be breaking down fairly quickly: seams break, the “leather” flakes and wrinkles really bad, the support just goes away quickly, the soles break down. I’ve tried a few different brands (5.11, TAC, Bates, Rebook, etc) but in reality they’ve always been priced at right around $100. So this time I’m thinking about just spending the money and seeing if old Sam was right.

I’m also thinking about saying goodbye to the side-zipper boot. I’m only putting my boots on one time daily, and taking them off one time daily. I also think that the zipper creates a weak spot in how much the boot can really support and protect your ankles, so I think if I’m wearing boots for another 20 years I should invest in better boots. I’ve heard many stories from different docs about how newer cheap boots are just causing all kinds of issues down the line.

So my current thought is the Danner Fort Lewis boot. I like the look, I like that it’s all leather without fabric, and I like that Danner can rebuild it down the line.

Has anyone owned that boot? Does anyone have any suggestions?

If the leather itself is breaking down, you're not taking care of the leather. There's a reason the military made a big deal out of cleaning, oiling, and polishing boots; it's to keep the leather from degrading in the manner you're describing.

Well, there is leather and there is “leather”. I clean and polish on a pretty regular basis, but different brands of boots have all deteriorated differently. I don’t know how well synthetic leather or thin laminated real leather glued to other stuff can really maintain over the long term. Which is why I’m considering something with better quality to begin with, you can only polish a turd so much after all.

I wonder if there is a reason why so many of the sage green boots are suede rather than regular leather now.

Sam Vines was right. No question.

I'm not familiar with Danner, and I don't wear military boots, but I've only been wearing 100% made in England shoes (plus some Italian trainers and one pair of Red Wings) for years and the cost for wear ratio vastly outstrips cheaper things. The free rebuilds that many offer are obviously a bonus, but so long as it's goodyear welted any solid cobbler will resole easily and the uppers should be fine for decades if you look after them. This last bit is crucial. Proper looking after. Brushing after every wear. Regular polishing. With real cream or polish and a brush and cloth, not those squirty polish and foam pad things.

nfe wrote:
Sam Vines was right. No question.

Aye. Not that one necessarily has to spend over 100 if one can find used boots (or unused, even) through some military surplus outlet. HAIX is said to be one of the best brands you can get, and they run from, oh, 160 - 220 euros here. Or I can buy a pair of used Bundeswehr model 2005 combat boots (made by HAIX) in excellent condition for 65...

The German boots fit my feet better than the corresponding Finnish model anyway - they're a bit narrower.

Wrong guy to ask, I wore the Army issue Cadillacs every day of my career until I was forced to switch to the desert suedes for the ACU's.


I know in Ft. Benning, GA the Drill Sergeants almost universally swung for Matterhorns. I just refuse to pay money for ANYTHING the Army will give me for free, or on a clothing allowance.

I keep seeing this title and think it's about Sam Vimes, and then I am dissapointed, then more dissapointed there's no more Discworld novels coming.

I take solace in the fact that they were pretty awful at the end, much like cheap boots. The first couple books about 'fantasy racism is bad, mmkay?' were well done (trolls and dwarfs). The last six or so were not.

But as boots go, definitely avoid cheap branded trash. I know I've skimped the last few years and regretted it

 Mozzyfuzzy wrote:
I keep seeing this title and think it's about Sam Vimes, and then I am dissapointed, then more dissapointed there's no more Discworld novels coming.

I wondered why Sam Vimes would be interested in a high street chemist...

Also depends heavily on what your unit will allow you run I suppose. I didn't hate my Danners, but I ended up going with Lowas (expensive but fantastic).

Just avoid crap like Magnums, and even Converse (they tried to do some military boots, they were pretty crap - at least the pair I had).

We have minimal recs and restrictions. 8-10 inch boots, black without flashy branding, leather or suede or leather/fabric mix. That’s basically it in a nutshell. For me it helps if they are metal free to make it easier to clear a detector.

But I’ve spend right around $450 in boots over the past 2.5 years, so I think I’m ready to just pay a big chunk and be done with it for a while.

Then you'd be fine with Danners. We used to get them for around $250-260 a pair with our uniform allowance. I kept some polished for working in the station and for fancier occasions (the "work" boots often stayed in the car and were put on when taking off on shift)

Danners are good to go.

 Elbows wrote:
Also depends heavily on what your unit will allow you run I suppose. I didn't hate my Danners, but I ended up going with Lowas (expensive but fantastic).

Just avoid crap like Magnums, and even Converse (they tried to do some military boots, they were pretty crap - at least the pair I had).

My Magnums were comfy as civvy shoes, but they would have never held up to field craft. At all.

I had a buddy bring a new pair of Magnums to a desert camp (basically you work out of a trailer for a week, about 16 hours a day, etc.). We were working up in the mountains and he shredded his magnums from new to thrown away in that one week.

Yeah, light duty they'e probably fine, but on real rough terrain they just evaporated. Same with my Converse. Comfy enough for light duty, but really uncomfortable/poorly performing when on rough terrain.

What’s the stance on polishing wax vs polishing cream?

I’ve been using wax, but there’s really no need for my boots to have a parade shine. They’re working boots, so I can save the super shine for my uniform shoes. I’m thinking cream might help with keeping the leather conditioned a bit more?

I had a set of Cadillacs that lasted every bit of 12 years. I never spit shined them. I took the long brush, smacked the end bristles into a can of Kiwi about three times so there was some wax but not a lot, scrubbed across, then buffed out with the other side. Fast. Easy, Exactly like Drill Sergeant Lewis showed me in '93. Never had an issue, leather lasted longer than the soles.

 Just Tony wrote:
Never had an issue, leather lasted longer than the soles.

Has anyone ever had a pair of decent shoes where the soles laster longer than the leather?

My low quarters, but that may have been me using that sponge on insta shine from Kiwi weakening the leather.

nfe wrote:
Has anyone ever had a pair of decent shoes where the soles laster longer than the leather?

If so I can't really remember that. Real leather, when properly taken care of, can last for decades - I'm still using a thick biker jacket that's over 25 years old and while a bit the worse for wear it's still got many years left in it. Whatever stuff soles are made of has the same problem car tires do, it becomes stiff and brittle over time and even if little used will probably develop cracks within ten years.

If you look carefully, most larger cities will have a professional cobbler who can replace soles when they wear out. There was at least one that I knew of in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

It may not be cheap, so it's not worth it for cheaper shoes and boots. But when you're looking at boots you paid a couple hundred dollars for, it can be a good value.

There was a specialty cobbler out near out station who would transfer and trim aggressive boot soles to cowboy boots if agents brought them in. So the old guys (notably all with awesome moustaches) would wear cowboy boots on duty because they'd been re-soled to be suitable.

When I was in the military I almost exclusively used Danners.I bought a pair of Reebok boots that made it just fine through a Police Academy though.

I went ahead and ordered the Danner Fort Lewis boots, got a pretty good discount from a local place. I’ll let you guys know how it turns out.

Aku all day mate, or alt berg. Although I'm not sure you can get them, or are allowed to wear them in the US military. All the yanks I've seen seem to wear different types of boots, more of a jungle style, to those favoured by us here.


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 d-usa wrote:
I went ahead and ordered the Danner Fort Lewis boots, got a pretty good discount from a local place. I’ll let you guys know how it turns out.

I just googled them.. Wow, they are some romper stomping jack boots right there.

Is “Jungle Style” leather with fabric portions? I think those are sometimes called Jungle Boots here.

Yeah more synthetic fabrics around the sides with suede or leather toes and heels usually. When I worked with USAF they all had them. They all tended to tuck their trousers into the tops too which I found odd. The British boot style tends to be more like leather hiking boots or almost a trainer style but leather. I prefer low ankle boots so the low AKUs are ideal.

The US military still has never quite caught onto what modern boot tech can do. While we wear "desert" boots with the typical ACU (being replaced thankfully by a Multicam version - not sure if it's 100% replaced yet) now, any other type of boot is often old school black leather without any modern tech/comfort, etc. It's all about having nice polished boots when standing at attention, etc.

There's a reason why our special forces went into Afghanistan for commercial hiking boots (much like the Lowas Germany and the UK frequently use as service boots), etc. Danner makes a quality and robust boott that will last forever if you take care of it, but it's also more or less nothing different from a WW2 Corcoran boot as far as tech goes (maybe a slightly better sole material and some Goretex lining to keep out some water).

Culturally the US military is very slow to catch up to this kind of thing (which is odd considering how important comfort/stability is for infantry on the march all day).

I think the problem with a lot of the modern boots, more-so at the ~$100 price point, is that a lot of the modern tech and conveniences come at the cost of doing the primary job of a boot: support the feet and ankles.

Side-zippers are convenient as feth, but I’m convinced that they introduce an prominent weak-spot in the support of the ankles. A solid piece of leather is gonna hold and support more than a zipper stitched to Goretex and Fabric, at least that’s what a lot of folks who treat military members seem to think. I wonder if that’s less prominent in “6 and out” kind of folks, but long term wearers seem to end up with flat feet, crap ankles, and torn up knees. So fancy tech needs to be able to still support the primary function of the boot, which is harder to do at the price point you may be able to afford. Which brings us back to Sam Vines I guess...

Yeah I always thought the US forces boots were a bit dated. I've always bought my own boots, regardless of price. The issue ones just don't cut it and aggravate my feet and shins. Even the issue alt bergs the UK get are Chinese licensed copies, not the good quality ones made in Yorkshire. I switched to Aku low ankle last year as they are slightly cheaper, and more stylish, and a good all round boot. Technically were not supposed to wear our own boots but so long as they're not crazy weird we can usually get away with it.