 |  Average Rating: 4 out of 5 No. of Reviews: 10 RRP: £89.99 Year: 2004 Description: Comfortable, good for footpath, hill and moorland walking. Gore-tex laminate, full-grain leather upper, Evaluation 5 Sole unit.
Available in: 7, 7.5, 8 ,8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12
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|  | | Posted: 10/07/01 | | 'Use them for what they were designed for' | | Strengths:
Good low level walking boot | | Weaknesses:
Bad high level walking boot. | | Overall:
Chris Brasher designed these with only one goal in mind: comfort. In doing so he made rather a lot of comprimises.
While improved over the years with better soles and leather, this boot is still only good at low levels. The sole isn't stiff enough for heavy backpacking or really rough ground, where neither it nor the soft leather will give you enough support.
The leather is soft and needs lots of care with Brasher's own polish (G-Wax or Nikwax isn't suitable, they will over soften the leather and invalidate the guarantee). But after two years of admittedly hard use, the leather on mine is heavily cracked and scuffed despite careful to-the-letter care. They now also leak; in either boot the Gore-Tex has failed in small areas and the thin leather has little natural water resistance, giving me wet feet in rain.
Brasher also deliberately gave the sole a soft rubber compound to improve grip. They say the sole should be changed regulary as you would a car tyre, but at £40 a hit combined with the rest of the boots' lack of durability that's not realistic. At the same time, the Brasher-branded sole can't match Vibram for rock grip. Not surprising, as Vibram have been making soles an awful lot longer.
These things really are comfortable though. The leather lining, soft leather and large sole rocker (the bottom of the boot is highly curved when seen from the side, 'rolling' you fowards as you make a step) make them comfortable straight from the box.
They excel at country walking. But the weaknesses pointed out make them unsuitable for much else (although for the majority of people, there isn't much else). Personally, I got rid of mine after spraining my ankle twice on rocky ground. |
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| | | | Performance | | 60% | | Reliability | | 40% | | Value | | 60% |
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