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Highlander 'N.A.T.O. Military Style' Boots
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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5748
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17/7/06
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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£110.00
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9.0
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Author
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Marlowe
Comrade Pointy Cap
Registered: November 2004
Location: South Yorkshire
Posts: 304522
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Review Date: 17/7/06
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £110.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Comfortable, hard-wearing and excellent quality.
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Cons:
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'Commercial' Feel - brass plaque mistaken for a 'Kickers' logo!
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When Gordon of highlander got in touch offering to send some sample items over for review, I had no idea how impressive some of the kit he would send me could be. First of several reviews of these products is Highlander's N.A.T.O. Military Style Boots, retailing through Highlander's suppliers at the rrp of £110.
First Impressions:
First impressions seem fairly positive. The boots came well packaged in a sturdy cardboard box, which I must confess I actually preferred to the glossy ‘flip cover’ design of the ATF Sigma boots’ container (expect to see a review of these soon by Ghost Rider). Inside the boots were wrapped in tissue paper, with the top boot almost hidden by a plethora of various labels describing the various virtues of the boots. ‘Genuine leather upper’ reads one label, whilst others describe the wonders of Thermolite, Vibram and Sympatex. In effect, the manufacturers are keen to emphasise that these are high quality boots which won’t wear out in a hurry…
And I have to say, as I pull them out and lace them up, that impression does seem to be upheld by the level of quality. The leather is good quality, contributing to a robust boot design with thick rubber soles that line the rim of the boot, presumably to guarantee the waterproof quality of the boots as well as dealing with any unsightly scuffing. Inside the lining feels of a good quality, with none of the suggestion of expense being spared. Even the laces feel of sound quality, and don’t feel as though they are likely to shred themselves any time soon.
In fact, after a thorough examination, I had found only one feature of the boots which I was not fond of: the small brass Sympatex plaque fitted on the side of each boot. As was pointed out at great length when I proudly displayed the boots to others, these did have an air of ‘Kickers’ about them – the last thing which I would wish to have associated with what are being marketed as boots for military application. I should imagine for most airsofters will not be much of an issue, but as a fan of Russian kit I did feel somewhat conscious of the ‘commercial’ feel to the boots. I feel that really however, this was a mute and very minor point in the face of the quality which I had so far experienced.
After examining the boots with the sort of attention that would make a foot-fetishist envious, I finally got to the pivotal moment: slipping them on. I must confess this concerned me, as am a size 10 ½ - a fact not helped by the tendency of most major shoe manufacturers to seemingly avoid half sizes these days. Worse than this, my feet are quite wide, meaning that many boots do, to put it bluntly, have the same level of comfort as I imagine I would get from trying to slip into a pair of my girlfriend’s stilettos…Not that I’ve attempted of course…
Yet, lo and behold, the boots slipped on…and they fitted! In disbelief I tried to shuffle my feet up and down. The movement was absolutely minimal. The only slight concern was that I could feel the tip of the boots with my big toes – something which I hoped would not be an issue after the boots had worn in. For a pair of new boots however, the shoes felt surprisingly comfortable – snug, yet not too much so.
The overall initial impression? I’m impressed, and find myself struggling to remind myself that at £110 such a level of quality should perhaps be expected. After all, this is no day-to-day pair of footwear. With a name like ‘N.A.T.O. Military’, it should surely be reasonable to expect a high degree of robustness, shouldn’t it? After all, if, as the name suggests, these are designed with military application in mind, then it’s important to consider that these boots must be of high quality – and that this high quality must be reinforced by a hard-wearing nature…Something which, at an upcoming skirmish, I intended to test.
Post-Skirmish Evaluation
What these boots needed was a torture test. Somewhere where there the boots would be exposed to all manners of obstacles, both woodland and urban. The opportunity arose the next weekend at Lightfighter Urban. For those not familiar, this is an excellent site based around a vast abandoned carbon rod plant (save a few active workshops), and features not only CQB and FIBUA opportunities, but also high levels of debris in two separate scrap-yards full of demolished industrial rubble, along with a border on the southern side of thick woodland filled with all manners of thick vegetation…
Needless to say I dragged the boots around as much of the site as possible, and spent much of the afternoon in the upper scrap yard, clambering whenever possible over debris. The result was encouraging: as the image shows, whilst the boots did get filthy, the high rubber ‘bumper’ around the toes meant that scuffing was kept to a minimum. The hard-wearing nature of the boots certainly, from this day of stumbling through rubble and slipping down nettle-strewn embankments, to be asserted.
One thing I noticed was that for once the various jargon-fantastic selling points which you always get with any new item actually seemed to have some bearing to reality. When running for example, the ‘heel energy absorption’ did in fact mean that the impact of my feet on the floor as I ran did feel absorbed by the robust heels, and while I had no opportunity to dangle my feet in any pools of water, in the light rain which casually cropped up throughout the day, at no point was there a hint of uncomfortable moisture inside my socks.
More to my astonishment was that, as the day ended, I realised my feet had not a single of the obligitary ‘new boot’ blisters which I had come to expect from fresh footwear. Compared to the cheap commercial boots in which I usually skirmish, my feet also continued to feel comfortable, with no hint of the aching which I was used to. In fact, as I returned to my car, I almost felt sad to pull off the boot in pair of a pair of casual shoes. Perhaps if I had not spent the day dragging them through rubble and undergrowth, I would not have been so reluctant to wear them inside my beloved set of wheels.
Conclusion.
Well, the boots are still here. My old ones meanwhile are not – they’ve gone to meet the great shoemaker in the sky. Put simply, cheap commercial boots are no match for footwear of this quality and comfort. The boots performed admirably at their first skirmish, and gave me not a hint of discomfort.
My misgivings about the boots’ commercial appearance seemed trivial in the end – if anyone else at the skirmish thought as much, no-one said anything. However I must confess that the brass plates remain a minor niggle at the back of my mind, and whilst I can appreciate the need to advertise the use of quality products in the boots’ production, I would rather that this had been a stamped imprint on the leather rather than a gleaming brass plate.
So who would these be suitable for? In my opinion such boots are ideal for anyone who values comfort, quality and hard-wearing footwear – something which I assume most people would in a hobby such as airsofting. As usual there is a price to pay for such a high level of quality – in this case the RRP of the boots amounts to £110. With such a price tag I can see most younger airsofters at least dissuaded from considering such boots – however, even a quick glance at any surplus store on the internet will show that this appears to be reasonable for a good quality pair of boots.
Make no mistake folks, these boots aren’t the Hyundai or Kia of the military footworld world: these are the closest you’ll get to a BMW. At the end, as with most other things in life, a simple question will help you decide if this is the footwear for you: are you willing to pay for quality and comfort? If not then maybe these aren’t for you. If so than I am fairly sure that this is one pair of boots which you won’t regret. |
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