I received my Mountain Hunter Elites today. The boots are very striking. Good look to them especially from the wearer's perspective. They look and feel very sturdy to the eye and hand. They rand seems very secure and its been shaved down at the upper rim to decrease the height against the leather. I suppose this is so it's less likely to have something get hung up on the raised rubber edge. Regardless, nice touch.
As I mentioned before, I got some Tech Lite Hunters from L&S over a year ago and I just couldn't get them to work for me. While there are some similarities in the feel to those, the MHEs do feel a bit different. Still a pretty stiff sole on these. When the TLHs didn't work for me I went with the Lowa Caminos which were much less stiff. These are much stiffer than those or the Crispi Summits I got for dinking around in.
I tried them on with the factory insoles and had a bit of dread enter my mind with the feel of the boot. They didn't feel horrible, by any means, but definitely like something was lacking. I promptly took the boots off and pulled out the insole which is pretty bare bones like all hunting boots. We all know you need a different insole than factory and I think manufacturers are catching on to this as well and not going to extremes in this area. Kind of like putting in a place holder or something. This is not a knock on L&S at all. I put in the Synergy footbeds that I had made by L&S for my TLEs. I hadn't used them at all since I bailed on those boots. They fit perfectly inside the boot. Oh, and I accidentally forgot to take out the right factory insole before putting in the Synergy. Lol. Let's just say that boot felt FULL! Got all situated and the boots felt much better. I didn't have them on long and didn't have on my usual hunting sock, but walked around the house for a few minutes. Overall, they feel pretty good.
The lacing is going to take a bit of getting used to I think. I usually leave the forefoot a bit looser because of "not QUITE wide feet" and then start locking in at the midfoot/lower ankle. The ball bearing lacing of the forefoot is pretty slick and then there are some of the tabs that you pull the laces up into. As of right now, they lock the lace in not allowing it to slide back. Nice touch and hope that they don't get bent out over time. Normally, at this part of the boot, I would place two overhand throws and cinch tight to start locking my heel in, but this is where I ran into a problem. The next lacing section is the Lateral-Load Lok eyelets. The lace goes through the fabric loop on the inside and plastic like loop on the outside of the boot. I pulled the laces out of them to do my throws. It's a bit tricky to then hold the tension to get the laces back through the Lateral Load Lok holes. Plus, it's a pretty tight fit and I bet those aglets are going to start to deform. Then it will be a B to get the laces through that section. Above this are 2 standard open tabs. The laces, themselves, seem pretty stout. I am going to have to play around with lacing a bit to find a system that works well for me.
It's going to take some getting used to the stiffness, but I'm looking forward to breaking these in. Overall, I am quite impressed with the first company designed boot offered by Lathrop & Sons. The boots seem sturdy, well thought out and designed, and pretty nice to look at! Also, there was a nice handwritten note from James and Stephen asking me to call in once I received the boots to discuss fitting. Pretty nice touch. I will give them a call next week. There is a card with care instructions in the box as well which is nice. I need to figure out which product to use on this leather though for conditioning and waterproofing.
I'll try and update as I get some more wear on these. They won't get any mountain use until CO vacation in July, but they'll get some work on hikes and things here around the Kansas Alps...