How long should a pair of walking boots last?
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| Berghaus - worn out after 6 months. |
In March 2010 I bought a pair of
Berghaus Explorer Trek lightweight boots, and was a bit disappointed when the soles wore out after only six months of use. However, thinking about it in a bit more depth - six months is 26 weeks, I probably walk around 20 miles a week with the dog, and so the boots could easily have gone for 500 miles or more before the soles wore out - at a cost of around 17p/mile (interestingly a similar amount to what petrol costs are for the car).
This compares fairly favourably with my "proper" walking boots (
Meindl Burma Pro), which have, by my reckoning, covered around 650 miles in the last 7 years (albeit quite tough miles in some cases). But given they cost almost twice as much as the lightweight boots they are currently coming in at around 25p/mile - although they are still serviceable, so I expect them to clock up a few more miles. But it is sobering to think that they will have to do almost 300 more miles to reach an equivalent economy to the lightweight boots.
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| Zamberlan Trek Lites - 480 miles. |
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My previous walking boots (
db Mountain Guides) covered around 660 miles, to come in at 18p/mile (although they had been replaced early in their life, when the eyelets in the original boots failed). Eventually they became too uncomfortable to wear, rather than actually failing.
Before that I had a pair of
Zamberlan Trek Lites, which although they only managed 480 miles before one of the soles started coming off, also came in at around 19p/mile.
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| Hawkins Kestrel - 5p/mile. |
But all of these have some way to go in order to beat my first pair of boots - a pair of
Hawkins Kestrel boots, bought for £23.50 in 1986. They managed 550 miles (including the
Wolds Way, the
Coast to Coast and the
10 Highest Peaks in Britain, along with many other walks) before one of the heels finally fell off while backpacking on
Beinn Challum, clocking in at under 5p/mile.
So looking back, it seems that 500-600 miles is about par for the course for a pair of walking boots, and just because I covered that distance in several months rather than several years I shouldn't feel that the
Berghaus boots have underperformed.
4 comments:
According to Live for the Outdoors:
"John Merrill has walked more than 180,000 miles and through (literally on occasion) 102 pairs of boots. He says that traditional leather boots last 2500 miles, including 500 miles of 'breaking-in', while newer lightweight ones give you 750-1000 miles."
So maybe my boots are under-performing...
Maybe your boots would last longer without the matchsticks...
I just retired my 15 year old Dynafit randonee boots that has served as mountaineering, snowboarding, skiiing, and ice climbing boots, all in one.
.. and just to elaborate. I am totally amazed how long time those boots have lasted. They are plastic boots and really ment for randonee skiing. But I have used them for the mentioned sports and quite intensively. I suppose I could calculate the covered milage vs. cost (I have the activities logged and I even have the original reciept!).
I also have a pair of really old Meindl mountaineering boots (leather) that are well over 20 years old. They are still in good condition even though they were exposed to a basement flooding at some point and became moldy afterwards. The milage isn't all that great on those (the plastics superseeded them), although I did take them to the top of Matterhorn at some point in their life. The thing that seems to be going on those will be the metal bits (for the laces).
Boots are incredible.
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