[philmont] Boots Story

Tom,

The one part of the experience at REI that was lacking was the salesperson.
It was a young man who clearly knew next to nothing about boots.

It would sure be nice to have an experienced boot fitter to work with! You
are fortunate on that count.

Thanks.

Guinn

From: philmont@troop47.com [mailto:philmont@troop47.com] On Behalf Of Tom
Lindtveit
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 3:59 PM
To: philmont List Member
Subject: [philmont] Boots Story

Excellent Story Guinn, and perfect timing too. There should be a whole lot
of folks out there looking at boots about now so they can get 100 miles on
them before Philmont.

 If I may share some of the things I read between the lines of your note.
First, I noted that you dealt with a salesperson, and not a bootfitter. One
would think that in this day of advanced marketing we would have a few more
trained bootfitters than we have farriers (horseshoers), but we don't. We
have salespersons, and their job is to sell you what they can and get you
what you want. Now I'm not detracting from these folks and their way of
earning a living, but they lack the training that their employers should
provide.

 So it falls to the purchaser to do their own fitting. Guinn fell into it
either by accident or through careful forethought. One needs to make sure
they try several brands and boot types. You don't really know what will work
for your foot until you try it. Make sure that you try these on various
angles of incline, see how your toes fit in the boot. Do they rub, do the
knuckles on the toes chaff when you load them 'forward" (as on steep
downhills)? How tight is the heelcup? All these things will become
abundantly apparent problems on the trail. TAKE YOUR TIME. Don't look at
prices until you are done. As Guinn pointed out, the price is not relative
to the fit. If you only find one boot that fits right, and it turns out to
be expensive, then you are faced with a choice between possible misery and
price. But if you only try on boots that are less expensive you may never
know what a good fit feels like.

 I am fortunate to have a great bootfitter in the next county where I can go
when it's time for new boots. She has a small shop and only carries a few
brands she has selected, but she knows her stuff. Her husband is an Eagle
Scout, and they both backpack several times a month. She tests everything
she sells. I make a morning of it doing the hour trip to her store, and I
warn her I'm coming. She puts coffee on, and I generally spend 2 hours
before we are both happy with the boots and the inserts. Most of this time
she requires to make sure SHE is happy with what I get. An unusual
circumstance, I admit.

 The point is, YOU need to do your homework on boots and shop carefully.
Your boots are arguably the most important piece of gear you will take to
Philmont. Before I met my bootfitter I thought my hiking days were finished.
I could not do a hike with my boys without experiencing tremendous pain, to
the point of having tears in my eyes. It took days for the pain to go away.
There were no blisters or hotspots, just extreme pain in the bottoms of my
feet. Although my boots fit correctly, they were the wrong type for my feet
and didn't provide the support where I needed it. She found what I needed by
lots of questions about how different boots felt and issues I had. I wound
up with a boot that was nothing like what I would have went shopping for, in
fact I had never even heard of the brand before she sold them to me.
(Garmont.)

So give it some thought and shop wisely.

 Happy Hiking,

 Tom

I bought some new boots at REI this weekend, and I thought my experience
might be useful to some others.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Sun Feb 25 19:51:12 2007