need a boot upgrade, ideas?

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SCOMAN

Life Member
Dec 31, 2005
2,583
452
53
Perthshire
I was in the same boat after my boots gave up after a long walk last weekend. I prefer a goretex boot and went out in search of alternatives. I've had a pair of AKU Pilgrims in the past but they're pricy and I didn't go back to them. I found out the Brit Army is now doing a fabric leather mix pair of Pilgrims as an issue boot. A quick search on eBay and I got a brand new pair for £100. Just had them on this morning, comfortable straight out of the box, they come in one colour, brown, for that price but I'm liking them.
 

GuestD

Need to contact Admin...
Feb 10, 2019
1,445
700
Here's my boots. The Altbergs are to the left, Karrimore Army issue on the right, and a pair of unlined Chippewa lace to toe boots. The Altbergs are by far the best quality, and have been primarily used for long distance motorcycle touring in all weathers, hence the reinforced panels for the gear shift, they have never let in any water, nor have I had cold feet. The Karriemores, I got gifted a couple of years ago, and also have been good. The lower lace hooks have rollers so they are far easier and quicker to lace. The Chippewas are summer boots, and are not in any way waterproof, but Sealskinz socks take care of that. I paid £55 for them in a sale. They have Vibram commando soles, and the leather is supple and soft.
nhCf219WlHsIw_HtP050iTKnYR-7C2uXVtp3gwn9YKhaxPb1nwvHDqDSzG5tDL2p__vPDEVY1BHzHKdafDuVSCbqYodmRSbvn94vuS3Bsdao7tbFcG7rpb4Z0kmtHs6TZnis16kzoOi7ijkoj_onjoJMXJWtK6PXhzOMDfE5tL4MAp3zpKWuetErxqqBpkwp5n1o4wawcGxNZkZaxw2GANJEsCfMKiohUeCOCgN6zL52FE32Dbhfsm-wVVMG1OWFmS5MRaMbcjaogSFX1-qvqz91iea1l6vL2PKHt6sDOU682iUGqG-Ml1o7js5Fat4D30_ySJoR6RGpShCO_1nqRJZqgHGNZgCNi90VUxDutwZp30dLBkd4xm3_9nn4jUFht8zlgNd0nJnTAAfP7JP-a3Q9PnD1I8icVSC68_eHaizQ29lM7OsbQFceWJJgfkOIjleWJuGZmcXtwI_iSYZGBq1S00tj-wW7XWo45jYWUqRVVgGh45_sgKB5ClZ534FqsjJ5XyBmT2IiJ2RHDChP0coSyXM6nXYCM79ztN3vkEeqNgKRkC6fXLkyNXJDcV9tr2tkXtNNWVPD4fp_GlNmLw0b4MOJLSgi-J2QRd-lw_KWNW5O8gC1D_q8OcfRpQZLF8-1FyTZsktZOmQ28oBnB3HYJKMiQZI=w600-h800-no
 

MarttiJ

New Member
Sep 9, 2020
4
2
40
Helsinki
But the worst stuff you surely can order from Steinkogler.

I guess if you tell him, that you want a pair of boots for the rest of your life, he will sell it to you.
You pay once round about 600 € for ultra heavy boots in your personal measures, and you never have to enter a shoemakers shop any more.

My father had shoes like that. He bought them as a student. When he died, unfortunately I couldn't find the left one. The right one was as good as new.

Off course! He had used it only for 50 years!

;0)
I have a question for user Erbswurst but might as well share the question with other users, as some might find his answer interesting.
Regarding the Austrian field boots , light. I had a pair, used surplus, earlier and was very fond of them but sold them when I got a Estonian hand made goodyear welted boots fitted to my feet. Sadly, the leather used in my then-new boots is of low quality (and have now found a new use as my winter boots paired with thick wool socks). Now I'm looking for a brand new pair of the light field boots. My previous pair was made by Völkl with Edelweiss soles. The soles were very, very thick and heavy, but the boot itself was excellent. Now I'm looking for a brand new pair and they are available in prices between 129 to 159 euros. The cheaper ones are, I believe, remakes sold by the company Steinadler. I asked if they are made by Völkl, they replied that they are as good as the originals but didn't share the factory or brand. Others, in price ranges 159 euros and up are made by Steinkogler. With my limited understanding and using google translator I believe that Steinkogler is one of the original makers. The price difference is manageable, should I get the Steinkogler version? Is the Steinadler copy as good as the issued boots?
Also, if any of you have experience on if the newly made boots have a lighter, maybe vibram commando sole instead the heavy original sole? Some resoled surplus boots indeed have been resoled with vibram commando soles.
I am aware of the difference on the heavy and light field boots in case someone might think I've mistaken the model.
 

chimpy leon

Full Member
Jul 29, 2013
543
139
staffordshire
I’ve been wearing the field boots from William Lennon/ruff lander on and off since March, just the occasional long dog walk so far, nothing too taxing. They are pretty solid feeling and made from good materials but the stitching in places could be improved. This area I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by them from day one to be honest. I’ll be hugely disappointed if my £40 17 year old Caterpillar Colorado’s outlast them. Time will tell.

If you don’t mind the military look, Take a look at M77 Norwegian combat boots.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
I think, but I do not know 100% sure, that Steinadler offers currently on the homepage the new original Austrian army model which tends to fall in pieces after a few days, weeks or month.

The Austrian army is still a general conscription army. They wanted to stop issuing used boots and similar like the last German Army boot model of the general conscription german army which lasts round about a year, the Austrians ordered cheaper boots to gift them new to every new soldier. Unfortunately they made a construction fault somehow, the stuff became to weak.

The young men go and buy privately the old model!

This is the old one, and as you see, it's looking different.


This shop offers Steinkogler boots as well as Austrian Army boots (old models) from other makers. If you have more questions you should ask them, I think they speak and write English too.

I think both models are made by several makers in and outside Austria, Italy is well known for shoes, Hungary too and other neighbours can do it too, they buy them everywhere in Europe.

Steinkogler still makes an even earlier pattern and sells it to private clients. The round about 30 shoemakers they have, have much enough to work to deliver traditional made civil hiking boots or the older army models to private clients, which surely are often officers and usual soldiers too, but Steinkogler currently doesn't deliver directly to the Austrian Army, because they weren't able to agree in a realistic price for Austrian hand made high quality boots for the Austrian Army.

You can get pretty expensive civil Steinkogler mountain boots everywhere in Austria but I never have seen them offered in Germany. They just sell theyr products to Austrian shoe shops and that's all they need. Different to other makers they don't use the name to sell foreign made stuff.

Every Steinkogler boot is an Austrian made high quality boot, made like the father or grandfather made them, no modern compromises, no foreign manufacturer or factories.

I highly recommend to avoid to buy the last modern looking model of the Austrian Army from Steinadler or anywhere else.

They can fall in pieces within a couple of days in army use, as far as I am informed.

I think you can get the old model from Army Warehose, which seems to be fine and if you want to be sure to get a high end product, you should invest in a Steinadler boot. (Offered as custom made othopedic version in individual measures in theyr workshop too after appointment with the boss.)

I bought from "Geiger Schuhe" in Frittlingen (Black forest area) other civil hiking boots in individual measures (Bernina in brown) so I don't own a pair of Steinkogler boots.

But my family went for many years for skiing to Austria and we rented our holyday apartment in the house of a Tyrolian orthopedic shoemaker master and spoke a lot with him about boots, because my grandfather had been a shoemaker too, and my father was a passionate hiker, as a student he had walked from Flensburg to Konstanz for example, which means Germany from north to south in two month exclusively walking.

That Tyrolian orthopedic shoemaker master also sold a few pairs of "usual" shoes, and that had been nearly exclusively pretty expensive Steinkogler hiking boots. (We came in similar boots so we didn't buy them.) The guy's workshop was a bit hidden in a very little village. I guess, he sold 95 % off his boots and shoes to his neighbours.
This guy sold exclusively own products and Steinkogler boots and a few house shoes and as far I remember it right, he offered nothing else.

Once I called Steinkoglers office. The Lady at the telephone (Probably Mrs.Steinkogler I guess) told me, that they produce exclusively traditional made high quality boots and that they aren't interested in competition with larger brands with lower quality like Meindl, Lowa or Hanwag, which produce a bit at home, usually the double stiched (zwiegenäht) versions, and a lot of stuff everywhere one can imagine. Steinkogler prefers to keep the old good name instead of becoming as rich as possible.

The orthopedic measurement exclusively is made by Master Steinkogler himself. For him that's obviously more important than a Porsche collection which other German spaking former shoemaker families seem to want. Perhaps he owns an old Austrian made Mercedes G. Who knows...

Old Völkl (the shoemaker, not the ski maker) died a few years ago. Before he died he sold his manufacture to an eastern German army and working boot factory. When he died, this factory went bankrupt because in this time the German army stopped the general conscription. German officers and mountain troops as well as border police and normal police usually wear HAIX boots, that means higher quality stuff, the factory which bought Völkl delivered before only the one year lasting simple soldiers boot to the German army.

They cutted out the wealthy Völkl manufacture, which still offers traditional made double stiched (zwiegenäht) all leather boots, if you visit the homepage you can see that old fashioned stuff.
But attention! They obviously got earlier or later also machines of the eastern German military boot maker and they sell this totally different stuff too, here as hunting boots in modern design. I owned the eastern German made German army boots. They had been very comfortable, very water proof and pretty light. But they weren't long lasting. Perhaps the current Völkl hunting boots last longer, perhaps not. I can't tell you that. The now by HAIX made simple German Army soldiers boot, which you don't find on the homepage, but which is delivered to the German army also doesn't last much longer than a year if you walk a lot in it, by the way. No reason to get them...

I guess the civil old fashioned ones from Völkl are more or less like the ones you owned, but they are lower, civil hiking and mountain boot models.
Völkl is a very small manufacturer. I guess there are a few old shoemakers wo make the complicated old stuff and a few new ones who make the modern stuff which doesn't really fit into the concept in my opinion. But that doesn't matter. Meindl does it too, good boots, double stiched in Germany, but also dog walking shoes from Mr. Ding Dang Dong with Meindl badge.

Hanwag is currently owned by Fjälräven and settled over to Croatia. No German production any more like no Fjällräven sewing machine is working in Sweden any more, they just use the old brands.

Lowa like Haix doesn't offer double stiched all leather boots and so I am not interested in them. No Idea, what they do where. Haix delivers to the German army, I think several models of Lowa boots are allowed to use there. I think both can be resolved by the manufacturer. But my Geiger boots could repair my shoemaker master next corner, becausevtgey arevmade like hiking boots should be made: in the traditional way.

What Army Warehouse in Austria offers are such traditional made army boots, the light ones single stiched for flat country, the heavy ones double stiched for the mountains. The cheap ones probably from Italy, Hungary and Croatia, if not a few from Austria too, the expensive once from Steinkogler in the a bit older pattern.

Who is interested in Austrian stuff should contact Army Warehose in Austria or directly Steinkogler himself.

If you look around on the homepage from Army Warehose and look at the prices you should know, that "neu" means "new" and "gebraucht" means "used". The olive green original army stuff is pretty cheap and often civil looking. If you prefere polyester-cotton mix clothing, tell it them if you order usual field uniforms, the newer ones exist in a mix fabric as well as in a pure cotton version too.





---------------
Exclusively custom made in individual measures after appointment in Frittlingen:

 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
Made in northern Italy, sold via exclusively one shop in Austria:
This are very good offers!

Allround

Heavy

Very high end stuff, but not extremely heavy:

And the surely best known with a few good remaining German made models too:

Allround

Heavy

Very heavy
 

MarttiJ

New Member
Sep 9, 2020
4
2
40
Helsinki
Thank you Erbswurst for your detailed answer.
I emailed Steinkogler about the availability and cost of the light model. It is the same model that the surplus boots I had. They seem to be available at lest in two webshops:



Depending on the factory's reply, I'll get them as soon as possible, from the or from the abovementioned retails.
Rest of your options are great, but this boot will be used for day to day activities, travelling and light hiking as I own lundhags boots for heavy use.

I mentioned my current welted boots, I got them from this maker in Tallinn, here's their models that are highly customisable for customer preferences.


However, as I mentioned, the leather isn't all that great and I had to get some of the stitching repaired after less than 18 months of use, and I don't think they will last for another year even if resoled.
 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
As far as I see in the first quick view Military Partner is the better assorted shop. They sell other original Austrian Army high quality stuff too. That's a reason to support them and an option to order a bit other stuff in the same box as well.

Because my brother started today for hiking in Austria I tryed to call two small army shops on his way which I found in the internet. Both were definitely closed.
I know that, because I called the tourist infos. So, if we want such shops, we should support the better assorted ones, even if they are a few cent more expensive.
 

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