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"Made in America" hunting boots
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<blockquote data-quote="FAL Shot" data-source="post: 592137" data-attributes="member: 27328"><p>To Trickymissfit,</p><p> </p><p>Some of the Danner boots are Chinese made. My Danner Combat Hikers are made in USA, and they are everything any classic Danner boot has ever been. The replacement boot, the Improved Combat Hiker, is top rated over all the other military suppliers that are USA made (Wellco, Belleville, Matterhorn, Corcoran, Altama). </p><p> </p><p>The Italian Vibram sole is on most Danner boots, and all the USA made Danner boots as far as I know, and this is true of most high end boots no matter where they are made. Thus, almost all top end boots are part Italian. German Lowa and Meindl are part Italian. Vibram is the best boot sole manufacturer, PERIOD, and if your boots have anything else, they are second best at the very best.</p><p> </p><p>If you want the VERY BEST boot that is made entirely in one country......it will probably have to be an Italian boot. Look at Crispi, AKU, Scarpa, Garmont, etc......they are Italian boots. Italian boots own the mountaineer and ski world. Danner and White make diddly squat in mountaineer (not mountain hiking) and ski boots. While I like to buy American.......Italians are kings of the boot world. They just are.</p><p> </p><p>The LL Bean Cresta Hiker is made by AKU (check out the video on Youtube, the reviews on Trailspace.com) and sells for $190. Nothing else at that price point can surpass it, at least nothing made in the USA. I will take a pair of those over a Chinese Danner Pronghorn any day of the week. The Danner ICH will be definitely superior in a mountainous environment....at $380.</p><p> </p><p>As the price drops below $300 retail, quality begins to really suffer in boots. Something has to be given up. Maybe it is where it is made (The Romanian AKU factory instead of the Italian AKU factory, etc.), maybe it is features like Gore-Tex vs. no Gore-Tex, maybe it is quality of materials and/or workmanship. The really critical retail price point is $200, for even if the product is made in China or eastern Europe, quality rapidly falls off below the $200 price point in serious boots. You start getting into boots that are made with tennis shoe design and materials. EVA foam instead of PU foam, split leather instead of full grain or top leather, crappy soles instead of Vibram soles, fabrics instead of leather, little bits of scrap leather sewn together instead of one-piece wraparound construction, etc.</p><p> </p><p>Some words of advice: 1) Avoid Chinese boots like the plague that they are. If there is a neighbor dog you hate, then give the Chinese boots to him as a chew toy. 2) Plan on spending around $200 at retail at minimum or plan on spending some time on eBay. 3) You can get decent USA military boots on eBay from guys who were issued new boots but don't need them (they often buy premium boots like USA Danner and sell the issue boots to help pay for them.). 4) Buy military surplus boots and pay 1/3 or less what the military paid for them. Danner Combat Hikers (Afghanistan boots) are selling all over eBay for 1/3 or less of the government contract cost right now. A few months from now the situation will change and you will have another boot being sold at surplus. 5) High end European boots at closeout clearance prices show up all the time. I paid 1/2 price for my AKU mountain hikers on closeout. 15 years later I still have them and they are still in good shape except they need new insoles. 6) Learn those esoteric European boot brand names. I didn't know what AKU was all about when I bought my AKU boots, but now I know why some of the greatest mountaineers in the world use AKU boots.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FAL Shot, post: 592137, member: 27328"] To Trickymissfit, Some of the Danner boots are Chinese made. My Danner Combat Hikers are made in USA, and they are everything any classic Danner boot has ever been. The replacement boot, the Improved Combat Hiker, is top rated over all the other military suppliers that are USA made (Wellco, Belleville, Matterhorn, Corcoran, Altama). The Italian Vibram sole is on most Danner boots, and all the USA made Danner boots as far as I know, and this is true of most high end boots no matter where they are made. Thus, almost all top end boots are part Italian. German Lowa and Meindl are part Italian. Vibram is the best boot sole manufacturer, PERIOD, and if your boots have anything else, they are second best at the very best. If you want the VERY BEST boot that is made entirely in one country......it will probably have to be an Italian boot. Look at Crispi, AKU, Scarpa, Garmont, etc......they are Italian boots. Italian boots own the mountaineer and ski world. Danner and White make diddly squat in mountaineer (not mountain hiking) and ski boots. While I like to buy American.......Italians are kings of the boot world. They just are. The LL Bean Cresta Hiker is made by AKU (check out the video on Youtube, the reviews on Trailspace.com) and sells for $190. Nothing else at that price point can surpass it, at least nothing made in the USA. I will take a pair of those over a Chinese Danner Pronghorn any day of the week. The Danner ICH will be definitely superior in a mountainous environment....at $380. As the price drops below $300 retail, quality begins to really suffer in boots. Something has to be given up. Maybe it is where it is made (The Romanian AKU factory instead of the Italian AKU factory, etc.), maybe it is features like Gore-Tex vs. no Gore-Tex, maybe it is quality of materials and/or workmanship. The really critical retail price point is $200, for even if the product is made in China or eastern Europe, quality rapidly falls off below the $200 price point in serious boots. You start getting into boots that are made with tennis shoe design and materials. EVA foam instead of PU foam, split leather instead of full grain or top leather, crappy soles instead of Vibram soles, fabrics instead of leather, little bits of scrap leather sewn together instead of one-piece wraparound construction, etc. Some words of advice: 1) Avoid Chinese boots like the plague that they are. If there is a neighbor dog you hate, then give the Chinese boots to him as a chew toy. 2) Plan on spending around $200 at retail at minimum or plan on spending some time on eBay. 3) You can get decent USA military boots on eBay from guys who were issued new boots but don't need them (they often buy premium boots like USA Danner and sell the issue boots to help pay for them.). 4) Buy military surplus boots and pay 1/3 or less what the military paid for them. Danner Combat Hikers (Afghanistan boots) are selling all over eBay for 1/3 or less of the government contract cost right now. A few months from now the situation will change and you will have another boot being sold at surplus. 5) High end European boots at closeout clearance prices show up all the time. I paid 1/2 price for my AKU mountain hikers on closeout. 15 years later I still have them and they are still in good shape except they need new insoles. 6) Learn those esoteric European boot brand names. I didn't know what AKU was all about when I bought my AKU boots, but now I know why some of the greatest mountaineers in the world use AKU boots. [/QUOTE]
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