RE: O/T Shoe Survey

[John B]

Laughing Side = Elastic side gussets. For the slack amongst us who just want to pull 'em on and get going. No laces to worry about. ;) John

[Prometheus]

Looks a little truncated, but I get the idea. I've got Wolverine steel toes, and they work great for me working 10 hour shifts on concrete floors 5-6 days a week. They're comfy, and tough as nails. The spray-on toe stuff (similar to the lining in truck beds) is useful if you're in an area where they're likely to get beat up a bit but it's not exactly pretty- most places that sell them will apply it for you at the time of purchase for ten bucks or so. I think I paid $150 for them, but there are different styles- highly recommended in any case.

[Prometheus]

Tell him to try out the bedliner stuff they spray on the toes and heels- it works great, and it's cheap. I'm in the same environment, and that's the stuff that does the trick.

[fredfighter]

Bought my first Rockports about 5 years ago, Bought some more about a year and a half later and again maybe 6 months ago. I still have the first pair, I've jsut bought more when the same/similar style was available in more colors or on sale.

THe oldest were made in the USA and have excellent arch support. The second set were made in Indonesia and were not as good. THe newest are made in Vietnam and have the worse arch support.

So, it may be that you have to put those inserts in because the shoes have been changing.

[Swingman]

You're probably right ... the last pair of brown walkers (MWT), bought just two months ago, are not as comfortable by far, and the style is being discontinued, or so said the salesman. I don't know where they were made.

The pair before that were made in China, and I am still wearing them, AAMOF as we speak.

I do like the looks of that Rockport style as they go well with khaki shorts during the work week, or khaki pants and blazer for those "formal" occasions (about as formal as I ever get these days).

Time to go to Ecco? The salesman at Nordstroms was pushing them real hard over Rockports.

[Patriarch]

"Swingman" wrote in news:AaOdnTcA173WAH [e-mail]:

That's where I went, when the Rocks didn't do it any longer.

A bit spendy, but a successful builder like yourself ought to be able to scrape a bit out of the tooling budget for a couple pair. ;-)

Patriarch

[Jim]

I have had two pairs of Eccos with Dr. Schols inserts over the last eight years. They are tough and have great traction on dirt and ice. They have prevented foot pain that used to be chronic.

[Leon]

It may depend greatly on the style. IIRC all of my Rockport's were made in China or from those parts and I have been wearing Rockport's exclusively since 1987. All of the pairs that I have bought have had great arch support. That said however 90% of my Rockport's have been an outdoors/ hiking type shoe. Oddly the shoes that did not hold up the best for me were the Prowalkers and I have not bought a pair in probably 12 years. The soles erased away on rough concrete after about 2 years of daily wear. I have had

3 pair of the same kind of hiking shoe starting about 10 years ago. Each pair has slowly failed on the leather uppers. That said however 5 years of water and mud is hard on the leather. I seriously doubt that country of origin has anything to do with how well the shoe is going to hold up. More likely, like anything else the standards that Rockport will allow in a particular shoe is the culprit.

[CW]

Sounds familiar. Years ago, I started wearing Georgia boots. The first pair I bought were about the most comfortable boot I had ever worn, Were comfortable right off and just got better with a little break in. Every year and a half or so, I would buy a new pair (not bad life considering I work in a machine shop). After a time, it got so a new pair would make my feet kind of sore for the first couple of days then be fine. The last pair I bought, I could not stand to wear for a whole day. Never did get them broken in. This over about ten years. In that time, price never did go up, quality just went down. It is getting increasingly difficult to find workboots that are actually made to work in. Wearing Wolverines now. Not as good as the old Georgia's but the best I've found recently.