Kamik Pariots - The hi performance winter boot

There are people who like cold weather. However I have never meet anyone who likes having cold feet. During the winter months it is rare to see me outside in anything but ski boots or some kind of waterproof insulated winter boot. Last winter I had a write up about my Sorel 1964 Pac Boots.

http://mrpulldown.blogspot.com/2009/02/sorel-1964-pac-boot-review.html

These however are not the only pair of winter boots I own. My other winter boot are a pair of Kamik Patriots.

Kamik is a boot/shoe manufacture from our neighbors of the frozen north: Quebec Canada. Though you might not have heard of them, Kamik's parent company Genfoot Inc. was established in 1898; so they know a thing or two about making shoes.

When my old Sorels died (not my current 1964's), I decided to replace them with a pair of boots that are a little more high performance. The primary difference between this boot and a pair of Sorel type pac boot is the double boot aspect. Pac boots are double boots; meaning there is an inner liner/insulating boot, and an outer waterproof shell. The Kamik Patriots are not such a boot. The insulation is built into the walls of the boot. The result is a much better fitting boot; one which I can take long hikes or snow shoe without heel slip or fear of blisters. The Thinsulate Ultra insulation provide thermal protection down to -58 degrees F. Because of this single boot design, it is difficult to dry the inside of the boot. Remember that the average foot produces a pint of sweat a day. Airing the boot out is acceptable in drying them, however prolonged wear would result in clammy boots. A forced air or heated boot dryer is good to have/use if you were to use these boots all day, everyday.

The lacing system resembles that of a hiking boot. The four sets of corrosion resistant pivoting lower eyelets provides smooth lacing action and distributes the lace tension evenly over the forefoot. The center lace lock grab the shoe lace firmly and resist slipping. The upper speed hooks cinch the upper cuff tightly and seals out snow. The length of shoe lace provided however is ridiculously long. This isn't a big deal but very annoying since you will not be replacing new laces for your new boot, and trimming them will caused frayed ends.

Other features of this boot includes an anti bacterial foot bed, to help keep these boots smelling fresh after many pints of foot sweat. A large kick tab in the rear of the boot is effective for quickly kicking off your boots after a long work or play day. This tab also doubles as a retainer for snowshoe straps or similar, however it does not work as the rear latch tab of a pair of semi automatic crampons. The boot tongue is not connected to the rest of the boot at the top lace hook portion. This is in my opinion more of a benefit than a hindrance. Since this is a tall boot, the separated tongue allows an easy entrance of your foot. If the tongue is attached it would makes it difficult to get the foot in. If the tongue connecting material is made larger, to allow for easier ingress, the material would bunch up when the boot is fully laces. Because of this tongue separation, the boot is not waterproof to the top of its 10 inch cuff. If one steps into water above the lace lock, water will seep in. For me this is acceptable. After all these are snow boots and not waders. This tongue design also helps open the boot up to allow for improved air circulation to aide in drying.

My relationship with my Kamiks have not always been peaches and roses. When I first received my boots I noticed how stiff they were. Rather than being constructed of rubber, the lower portion of the boot appeared to be made of plastic. Squatting down would create a dramatic crease along the boot which would press onto your foot. This is the same crease that happens when you walk. With the lower section being so stiff this crease soon turned into a crack, which would let in moisture. This crack did not happen immediately but over a season of heavy use. I was very disappointed. With my recent experience with poor boot durability I was not looking forward to going through the warranty process. http://mrpulldown.blogspot.com/2009/09/trezeta-epic-boot-failure-part-ii.html

To being my warranty process I e-mail Kamik's customer service. They instructed me to ship in my boots. If they found them to be defective they would replace them. I did so, and after a week received an e-mail stating that a new pair of boots were in the mail to me. After another week I received a new pair of boots. WOW that is some customer service!! They did not hassle me, ask for purchase information, they just took one look at the boot and said, "that shouldn't happen", and replaced them. My new boot, though seemingly identical, has a rubber lower portion which will resist cracking.

By doing me right, some would say that I should fully support Kamik and not mention this transgression. However I think that this is an actual plus for the company. As I have said before: all products fail. What separates a good company from a bad one is their willingness to stand behind their products, and not to let the customer pay for their mistakes. In the future I will not hesitate to purchase another Genfoot INC. product.

Trezeta Epic Boot Failure - Part II

After several weeks I finally got a responds from Trezeta Boots, or the parent company. It seems like they are not willing to stand behind their product, below is the final e-mail respond I received. Oh well. I never found Trezeta boots to be exceptionally well made or designed. Of the few pairs I have seen, their life spans have been: average or low, their comfort: average, their styling: bland. Their current lineup is very minimal, consisting primarily of hiking boots and shoes. Of all the quality Italian shoe companies, this unfortunately, is not one of them.

For the whole story:

http://mrpulldown.blogspot.com/2009/08/epic-boot-failure-trezeta-double.html

"I received the pictures and saw them with the line Responsible. I am so sorry to have to inform you that they are out of warranty since you bought them eight years ago. It doesn’t matter if you used them few times, also lying without using the glue and spare parts can get damaged. Best regards Erminia"

Epic boot Failure - Trezeta double mountaineering boots

There use to be a tire commercial on TV (Michelin tires I think), where they say that there is less than an inch of material between you and the pavement. Then followed by their famous slogan, "Cause so much is riding on your tires." Well the same or more can be said for your shoes. The soles of your shoes are your connection between the earth and you.

As someone who spends alot of time on this feet in the wilderness, I have developed a certain fondness for boots. The fondness actually grew out of a necessity, for having the proper footwear for the proper conditions, can make the difference between a good trip and a bad one. This last weekend on a mountaineering trip, the importance of your footwear became very obvious as my climbing partner had an epic boot failure, which almost caused an unsuccessful summit bid.

Many years ago a pair of Trezeta Double Mountaineering boots was purchased (8 or 9 years ago). They were a double boot, meaning they had a separate inner boot, and a outer shell. This was a true mountaineering boot which would have given the equivalent performance as a plastic boot. Because the owner does not mountaineer much, these boots only saw action once every few years, when they are call to duty. And this last weekend they were.

Hiking the approach to our climb I hear a complaint about the boot making a funny clicking noise. A few minutes later I was turned around by a loud, "ohhh SHIT". What I found was a rather comical site. The sole of his boot had ripped off entirely. Our laughter soon turned to serious humming, as we tried to figure out a solution to this situation. The sole of boot was going to be very important on this trip. Not only does the crampon we were going to be using attach solely to the sole, but the 5th and 4th class route climbing was also going to require a good bit of rock to human connectivity. We both searched our packs for some lose straps we could use to bind the boot together. Using a bike toe clip strap, and a friction buckled strap, the sole was secured to the body of the boot. A cinch around the instep, and a strap around the heel and ankle was enough to secure the boot till we got to camp.

In my many year of boot owning/using/and observing, I have never seen a failure such as this one. Sure I have seen a sole begin to peal off, but never just fall off. It appears that the sole was purchased by Trezeta from Vibram. Then they used some molten rubber injection method to sandwich the plastic mid sole and a full shank steel bar. This rubber is then bonded to the leather/Kevlar upper boot, which extending high enough to act as rand protection. It was this bonding rubber that completely failed, and simply fell apart.

Who's fault is it? I would ultimately put the blame on Trezeta. However other factors should be considered and evaluated. The age. Do boots have a self life? Is 10 years approaching the life limit of a pair of boots? I would think not, having many a boots that are much older and still kicking. The boots were bought at Sierra Trading Post, a discount retailer of older or blemished gear. This should not have any effect on the quality of the product either. As a manufacture of goods, one should not allow a product they know will fail when put in use, to leave their factory door. It is one thing to have a scratch or an off color, another to have the sole fall off. Therefor STP did not know that they were selling defective items. Exposure to degrading elements. Maybe the boot sat in a vat of sulfuric acid? This in fact could be a possibility. Though not acid, maybe some other household agent. Maybe the boots were exposed to extreme heat from the trunk of a car on a hot day, or a campfire. However possible, one would think the ill effect would transpire upon both right and left with equal vengeance. The owner also never remembers subjecting the victim to any harsh treatments which would be considered out of the ordinary.

Once at camp I dug through my "first aid" kit to see what kind of repair items I might come up with. It was examine time and my fix it skills were being tested. The heel and the center portion of the boot was fairly secure with the straps rigged earlier. The toe was of primary concern. Duck tape was a last option. I could only imagine wrapping lengths of tape around the sole and the body of the boot. I knew I did not have enough tape to wrap as many times as I would have liked, and I did not want to decrease the traction by covering the rubber sole with tape. My first attempt was thermo Glue. I carry a small packet of glue used to repair Therma Rest Inflatable sleeping pads. Boil the packet for about three minutes to soften the glue then apply. This attempt did not work out for various reasons. A collection of zip ties however yielded a solution. Three holes were pierced in the outer sole, which the zip ties were threaded through, and fashioned into loops. The three loops where then connected to form a basket to keep the toe in place. In conjunction with the two straps, this seems to keep the boot together. When crampons where installed, an additional strap was used around the instep to further insure the crampon would not fall off. In the five pitches of ice/snow climbing, the crampons required to be readjusted only once.

At the end of a day of mixed climbing and two days of hiking the repair job held and still had many miles and verticle feet left in them. However I belive that these boots will never see another outting. The last picture shows the boot at the end of the trip. Much of the bonding rubber had fallen off, yet the other boot remained in good shape. I have contacted Trezeta to see what they had to say about this failure. So far I have not heard anything from them and will update this post if I do. Products fail, that is a given fact. But these failures can be reduced with proper feild testing and consumer feedback. It will be interseting to see if Trezeta cares enough about their customers to respond to my inquiry. Aside from product quailty and performance, customer service is what often seperates a good company from a bad.

Oh yeh, I guess I passed my test.

Sorel 1964 Pac Boot Review

When most hear the name Sorel, an image of a winter boot pops up. Like Xerox or Kleenex, a company has defined a product. Established by William Kaufman in the early 1900, Kaufman was building winter boots in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, before any of you readers even knew of snow, or the cold, or even life... In 1964 Billy we the first to combine a leather boot upper with a rubber sole and removable felt liner. That boot is still around today, and in fact is keeping my feet warm as I type. Two features of this boot that make it great; the removable liner and the minimal wavy thread.

An average foot has 250,000 sweat glands, and can produce up to a pint of sweat a day! A PINT!!! Man if foot sweat was beer... So where does all this sweat go? Into your sock, then into your boot. In order to be totally and completely water proof for the life of the boot, the boot relies on totally water proof material, PVC coated leather (not available back in 1964), and rubber. Not a fancy one way membrane that claims to be waterproof and breathable, but ends up being both not water proof and not breathable. Membranes like that also tend to only work for short period of time before they wear out, and the more abuse they are exposed to, like being pounded to the ground, the shorter the life span. Also since it is a delicate membrane it must be sandwiched between tougher materials, which is not usuualy water proof and will become totally wet and freeze; dry yet very cold. So back to my point; with a removable linear, one can easily pull the boot apart and let the insides dry out.

When I was a kid, one measure of how cool your shoes were, was by how aggressive the sole pattern was. If that still held true, I would not be given a positive review on these boots. With the 1964 pac, there is little more than a few wavy lines and some texturing. But on snow and ice, thread make little difference as far available traction goes. You do need some thread pattern on the bottom of your shoe but it doesn't make that great of a difference. The really cool thing about this thread pattern is that is sheds snow very easily. A simple tap of the boot and it is clear of snow. This actually aids traction cause the thread is self clearing, and able to dig in with each step. And the most important thing about easy clearing thread is that it doesn't track snow into the house like other boots, that leave little squiggles of packed snow to melt on the carpet.

These boots however are considered my outdoor "slippers". I do not lace them up tight and I can slip them on and off with ease. I do not go on long hikes with these on. I just go from my house to the car, to the office, walk around the grocery store...

I have had these boots for less than a year and they have held up so far. I did get them directly from Sorel as a manufacture warranty replacement (that says something). My last pair, not the 1964 or the other ultra classic Caribou, did not hold up so well; but that my Friends is a story for another time...

http://www.rei.com/product/674940 Look under reveiws MrPulldown