Leaky boots How long should they last?

I've got a pair of Vasque Wasatch GTX and had them for 5 yrs, They are Numbuck. I've just filled them up with water and they leak slowly mainly through the area to the side of the ball of your foot where the rubber rand ens and the boot bends when you walk so I guess that area is under the most stress for abrassion from inside.

It Sounds a long time but I really don't get to use them very often, so from memory Ive worked out that I've probalby done about 25-30 days of walking averaging about 15 miles per day. I've always cleaned them treated them with brasher leather cleaner proofer stuff.

Is it normal for a gortex liner to fail so soon. The boots are still in good condition. Is it worth me buying some waterproof socks, rather than getting new boots ? Most of my walking is on Moorland so am prone to getting wet.

I remember having a pair of old school Karrimoor fabric ones which I never cleaned and the gortex linning lasted a decade.

Goretex liners aren't particularly robust - easy to damage them with grit that gets into boots, toenails that need a cut. You might have been unlucky with the Vasques, or lucky with the Karrimor ones.

My Kaylands have just gone - they're about 5 or 6 years old, and I've no complaints.

If the leather's still in good condition, try using good quality boot wax (Nikwax used to go some great stuff you could warm up and massage into all the seams) to beef up the natural waterproofing of the leather: the leather of the nubuck should provide you with a fair amount of protection: see if with a bit of elbow grease massaging in wax you can give the boots a new lease of life.

As MK says GTX liners can be fragile.

 An other thing to try is SnoSeal, same sort of thing as Nikwax.

 A tip I can give, what ever wax you use, try to put a bit of heat on to surface of boot, ( it MUST be complely dry). You could use a hairdrier on low setting, put on a window sill in sun, upside down on a raidaitor, not for too long, just enought to get a bit warm.

 The leather will soak the wax deeper in if you can do so.

My favourite for waterproofing is Zamberlan Hydrobloc, I believe it is silcon based, makes water just bead off the leather. It come in a tooth paste type tube, lasts for ages, I now only use it if it is very wet/boggy.

http://www.zamberlan.com/catalog/index.php?lang=en&pg=prod&idprod=63&idcat=10

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