This site has helped me solve some long standing gear issues that plagued me over the last handful of years regarding rifle/optics expectations and reliability. I feel I should exercise some level of reciprocity for all the money and time I saved by not continuing that trial and error testing on my own. This is my attempt at giving back, there’s going to be some personal rambling and backstory here to start so I’ll start my actual review in a second post for those that don’t care and want to move strait into the actual product. Sorry if this sucks, if I’m glancing over relevant details, or if you have specific questions I’ll do my best to answer them.
As a backstory, I have wide-ish feet and most shoes/boots don’t fit them well. I have a wide forefoot, wide ish midfoot, a narrow heel, and narrow ankles relative to my boot size. Around 2010ish I tried on a pair of merrell trailglove’s while shoe shopping. I had no interest in barefoot shoes and found it’s minimalist design somewhat off putting, but it was the best fitting shoe I’d ever tried on and I couldn’t un-know that, so I bought them anyways. I still own them, they are pretty impractical; they are basically hygroscopic, your feet could get wet in them during a drought. They are super low cut, and get filled with debris if you are hiking off trail or in seeded grasses. They stink pretty much 24/7, worst smelling shoes I’ve ever owned and I don’t tend to have smelly feet. And the tread is only ok, it works but nothing great. They wear like iron, but are best suited to hard pack grippy surfaces like the hard packed trails. Since buying them and wearing them I gained some appreciation for minimalist footwear, and I wear some form of it a lot a decade later. The pro list for me would be: The fit, generous toe box, and lack of a raised heel or “zero drop” in the designs. Some will disagree, but I don’t always want a super thin flexible sole of a minimalist shoe. My work life on industrial construction sites requires robust safety toe work boots, which generally lack all of the features of minimalist footwear. So I’m far from being a born again zealot when it comes to the barefoot boot types, I see pros and cons to both.
I’ve tried, owned, returned or sold most traditional brands of boots due to a bad fit. In the last 10 years have bought and used lowa renegades, crispi summits, crispi nevadas, and Meindl comfort fits. I’ve warrantied 3 pairs of boots due to goretex failures in the last 5 years alone, and am no longer interested in goretex lined boots for early dry season use. Once the membrane fails, I have perfectly serviceable boots that don’t breathe well and don’t keep my feet dry if needed.
The Meindl comfort fit’s are hands down the best fitting traditional boot for my feet I’ve used, however they have a huge tall heel, very rampy feeling. And the shaft height and goretex lining make them too hot for the vast majority of my hunting season. My feet run hot and unless it’s below freezing with snow on the ground I don’t like to use them.
I wear Vivo tracker esc’s quite a bit, I really like them actually. No membrane lining, thin and flexible, I feel more agile in them, or maybe just less clumsy. I am far less noisy hunting in them than traditional boots, but the outsole is too thin for me in some applications.
I’ve been looking for something to bridge the gap between the Vivo and the Meindl. I bought some lems boulder summits recently to try, and found them kind of narrow, and the WP membrane and fabric padding makes them to hot.
My want list was:
-all leather construction, preferably leather lined and no waterproof membrane
-zero drop
-generous toebox
-thinner outsole with heel in tread
-rubber rand of some sort
So I rolled the dice and ordered some boots from a German company called Baer shoes, the model I ordered are BÄR Bergkomfort Wandersteifel 2.0. They tick every box from my want list. I wore them around my house for a few days to make sure the fit was ok. And I’ve been wearing them out on my daily hikes with my pointer for over a week. And so far I’m elated. I’ve been doing creek crossings on every outing, so far no wet feet. Breathability is excellent, fully leather lined with no membrane. Zero drop, with a small integrated heel in outsole. Total thickness of the footbed and outsole is around 16mm from what I can measure.
As I have the most use on my tracker ESC’s I figure I’ll do my best to compare them sizing wise for anyone who is interested in these. As so far those are the best, non lined, leather boots I’ve found that fit my feet.
However here is my current lineup of comparable footwear that you might own if you want a comparison to any of them for sizing, absent are my meindls as it’s no longer winter and they are stashed away. But I could dig them out if someone wants a size comparison.
From L to R:
birks size 43, merrell trail glove US10, Vivo’s US10, Lems summit US10, BÄR 2.0 US10/43
As a backstory, I have wide-ish feet and most shoes/boots don’t fit them well. I have a wide forefoot, wide ish midfoot, a narrow heel, and narrow ankles relative to my boot size. Around 2010ish I tried on a pair of merrell trailglove’s while shoe shopping. I had no interest in barefoot shoes and found it’s minimalist design somewhat off putting, but it was the best fitting shoe I’d ever tried on and I couldn’t un-know that, so I bought them anyways. I still own them, they are pretty impractical; they are basically hygroscopic, your feet could get wet in them during a drought. They are super low cut, and get filled with debris if you are hiking off trail or in seeded grasses. They stink pretty much 24/7, worst smelling shoes I’ve ever owned and I don’t tend to have smelly feet. And the tread is only ok, it works but nothing great. They wear like iron, but are best suited to hard pack grippy surfaces like the hard packed trails. Since buying them and wearing them I gained some appreciation for minimalist footwear, and I wear some form of it a lot a decade later. The pro list for me would be: The fit, generous toe box, and lack of a raised heel or “zero drop” in the designs. Some will disagree, but I don’t always want a super thin flexible sole of a minimalist shoe. My work life on industrial construction sites requires robust safety toe work boots, which generally lack all of the features of minimalist footwear. So I’m far from being a born again zealot when it comes to the barefoot boot types, I see pros and cons to both.
I’ve tried, owned, returned or sold most traditional brands of boots due to a bad fit. In the last 10 years have bought and used lowa renegades, crispi summits, crispi nevadas, and Meindl comfort fits. I’ve warrantied 3 pairs of boots due to goretex failures in the last 5 years alone, and am no longer interested in goretex lined boots for early dry season use. Once the membrane fails, I have perfectly serviceable boots that don’t breathe well and don’t keep my feet dry if needed.
The Meindl comfort fit’s are hands down the best fitting traditional boot for my feet I’ve used, however they have a huge tall heel, very rampy feeling. And the shaft height and goretex lining make them too hot for the vast majority of my hunting season. My feet run hot and unless it’s below freezing with snow on the ground I don’t like to use them.
I wear Vivo tracker esc’s quite a bit, I really like them actually. No membrane lining, thin and flexible, I feel more agile in them, or maybe just less clumsy. I am far less noisy hunting in them than traditional boots, but the outsole is too thin for me in some applications.
I’ve been looking for something to bridge the gap between the Vivo and the Meindl. I bought some lems boulder summits recently to try, and found them kind of narrow, and the WP membrane and fabric padding makes them to hot.
My want list was:
-all leather construction, preferably leather lined and no waterproof membrane
-zero drop
-generous toebox
-thinner outsole with heel in tread
-rubber rand of some sort
So I rolled the dice and ordered some boots from a German company called Baer shoes, the model I ordered are BÄR Bergkomfort Wandersteifel 2.0. They tick every box from my want list. I wore them around my house for a few days to make sure the fit was ok. And I’ve been wearing them out on my daily hikes with my pointer for over a week. And so far I’m elated. I’ve been doing creek crossings on every outing, so far no wet feet. Breathability is excellent, fully leather lined with no membrane. Zero drop, with a small integrated heel in outsole. Total thickness of the footbed and outsole is around 16mm from what I can measure.
As I have the most use on my tracker ESC’s I figure I’ll do my best to compare them sizing wise for anyone who is interested in these. As so far those are the best, non lined, leather boots I’ve found that fit my feet.
However here is my current lineup of comparable footwear that you might own if you want a comparison to any of them for sizing, absent are my meindls as it’s no longer winter and they are stashed away. But I could dig them out if someone wants a size comparison.
From L to R:
birks size 43, merrell trail glove US10, Vivo’s US10, Lems summit US10, BÄR 2.0 US10/43
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