Boots on Facebook & my crazy impulse purchase

[Where's Bruce?]

HUNTING BOOTS ALPHA DRYHUNT® MC16

The hunting Alpha boots by Hillman are born to enhance your efficiency while hunting through innovations, new technologies for comfort, lightweight, breathability waterproofness, and changing forever the standards for premium footwear in the entire industry.

www.hillmanhunting.com

I dunno why but I saw the HILLMAN HUNTING BOOTS ALPHA DRYHUNT® MC16 and just ordered em expecting to hate em. The promises just seemed impossible.

Dryhunt® Most breathable (air-permeable) nano-membrane
✔ Waterproof - keeps your feet dry in water up to 5 inches (12 cm) deep
✔ Lightweight design - only 1.1 pound / 0.49 kg.
✔ UTURN® Danish smart-lace system
✔ Reinforced heel and toe protection
✔ Flexible, double-sided protection
✔ Protecting joints with flexible construction
✔ H-Flex® cushioned, heel-stabilizing insole
✔ Shock-absorbing EVA midsole
✔ Anti-slip, mud-resistant rubber outsole
✔ Perforated collar for ultimate ventilation
✔ Water-repellent outer shell made from premium Italian leather
and more...

Only wore em for half a day upon delivery but am amazed at the ultralite weight, comfort and overall quality of these darn things. The way they cinch up by turning the dial is really great...and fast. No loosening! Even my overly wide duck feet are liking em. I'll need to get them outdoors and but some miles on em but my first impression is surprisingly positive. Will post more after I put em through my paces.

 

[ChrisAU]

Whats the weight for the pair and what size did you get?

 

[Laelkhunter]

Good luck with them. I hope the lace system holds up better than the similar system we had on our SRT boots. Nearly everyone (about 14 of us), had the "BOA" system on our boots, and about 10 of them failed within a year. They have a lifetime warranty, and when the ratchet broke, they sent us a repair piece, but you needed an engineering degree to take the broken one apart and reassemble. NO ONE on our team uses them now. Hopefully the "Danish" system is new and improved over the ones we had. They look a lot like Crispi boots, might be a great find !!

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Whats the weight for the pair and what size did you get?

According to the website 1.1lbs. Mine are size 44 (US mens size 10). My scale is on loan to a buddy who is building arrows so I can't confirm the weight but yeah...they appear to be close to that. Crazy light. I read the ad and thought, "You cannot have a truly waterproof boot that's also breathable." Then I watched this and questioned my belief system. Boggles my mind.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Wore em for a full day today and they were pretty darn comfortable for brand new boots, rate em a 96% for day one. Hope the comments about the lacing system do not prove to be prophetic. I can put these on so much faster than any of my other boots.

 

[bdgr]

Hi just wondering how you are liking these boots now that you have had more time with them. I love that lacing system for my waders and always wondered why they didn't go to that for hunting boots. A little leery of paying 450 for such an unknown thou.

 

[StylZZ234]

Hi just wondering how you are liking these boots now that you have had more time with them. I love that lacing system for my waders and always wondered why they didn't go to that for hunting boots. A little leery of paying 450 for such an unknown thou.

I've had mine for 2 years now and though I really like them. The locking(BOA) system on mine just failed and I haven't tried to exchange them yet... I have had some trouble with one of the systems staying locked from time to time as well but I just dealt with it because of the comfort level and lightness of the boot.

 

[travism38]

Wore em for a full day today and they were pretty darn comfortable for brand new boots, rate em a 96% for day one. Hope the comments about the lacing system do not prove to be prophetic. I can put these on so much faster than any of my other boots.

May be kicking a dead horse here but after the years what is your impression of the boot? im in between the hillman and the zamberlan.

 

[CorbLand]

May be kicking a dead horse here but after the years what is your impression of the boot? im in between the hillman and the zamberlan.

Where Bruce got the boot a couple years ago. Your going to waiting a while for a response from him.

 

[nobody]

May be kicking a dead horse here but after the years what is your impression of the boot? im in between the hillman and the zamberlan.

I can chime in on these. I work for a large Masonry company in Utah and our general manager and I each bought a pair of the 2.0 version back in December as a daily wear work boot. I’ve always worn Ariat pull ons for work, and he’s always worn Crispi’s. We get about 18-24 months out of our work boots historically. We recently got a job in Alaska that spec’d Aerogel insulation on the exterior of the building, and in our research into aerogel we discovered the Hillmans. So we ordered a couple of pairs to try out before buying a bunch for our guys and sending our crews to Anchorage to work on this job.

After 4-ish months of daily wear, they’re totally shot. 100% broke down and hurt our feet. The BOA laces broke on mine in early February, and luckily Hillman warrantied them. They don’t breathe at all (my feet have never stunk so bad in my life) either.

They look on paper and are priced to compete with the high dollar Italian boots, but they’re just a Chinese made boot with lipstick. Their traction is solid, but the boots just didn’t last. If you’re gonna spend $3-400 on boots, buy from a reputable brand. We wholeheartedly regret our purchases.

 

[travism38]

I can chime in on these. I work for a large Masonry company in Utah and our general manager and I each bought a pair of the 2.0 version back in December as a daily wear work boot. I’ve always worn Ariat pull ons for work, and he’s always worn Crispi’s. We get about 18-24 months out of our work boots historically. We recently got a job in Alaska that spec’d Aerogel insulation on the exterior of the building, and in our research into aerogel we discovered the Hillmans. So we ordered a couple of pairs to try out before buying a bunch for our guys and sending our crews to Anchorage to work on this job.

After 4-ish months of daily wear, they’re totally shot. 100% broke down and hurt our feet. The BOA laces broke on mine in early February, and luckily Hillman warrantied them. They don’t breathe at all (my feet have never stunk so bad in my life) either.

They look on paper and are priced to compete with the high dollar Italian boots, but they’re just a Chinese made boot with lipstick. Their traction is solid, but the boots just didn’t last. If you’re gonna spend $3-400 on boots, buy from a reputable brand. We wholeheartedly regret our purchases.

That is great information. If im gonna spend $400+ on a boot id like to get a few years out of it.
thanks so much