This story is about footwear. And emotion.
It’s not about the passion young women supposedly feel for $450 stilettos. No. This is about the abiding, nuanced appreciation one feels for certain hiking boots. The ones that feel right from the first moment. The ones that reach out to you, that don’t build a bond so much as make you realize that a bond was always there, just waiting for you two (or three) to discover each other. Boots that make you think, this works. This could keep working for a long time. These might be the ones.
That’s how Ahnu’s Mendocino hiking boots felt.
A few construction details: mid-cut, leather uppers, rubber toe-cap/bumper in front, rubber driver’s heel in back, Vibram soles with a good deep tread. A good lacing system, with a combination of nylon loops, closed metal lugs and open metal lugs. There’s a rear tab that provides a bit of support and comfort and is handy for pulling the boots on. (On the other hand, if I didn’t grab the tab, my heel frequently pushed it into the boot so I had to fish it out.)
A nicely padded, gusseted tongue. Pretty sturdy sole. (The boot has a thermoplastic polyurethane—i.e., TPU—shank, similar to what’s in Ahnu’s trail running shoes.) About 3 pounds for the pair (in a size 12 US). A reasonable balance between comfort, weight and support.
The Mendocinos are good-looking and comfortable; they are also waterproof. Usually a waterproof boot means your feet stay dry when you’re standing in a puddle but get wet from sweat when you’re walking on dry land. The Mendocino boot is different because it has a lining of eVent fabric, which is in fact pretty breathable.
On a five-day trek through Wyoming’s Wind River Range, with daytime temperatures in the 80s, the boots performed admirably: they kept my feet dry in low water, they provided adequate support over rocks. I gave them a short break-in—less than 10 miles on pavement—and paid no price: I was blister-free over 30-plus miles on trail.
We had a kind of love connection, me and my boots. But somewhere around mile 20, things began to come apart. Where there had been a tight bond, now there was a pulling away. A standoffishness. In this case, the unexpected distance arose between the rubber toe cap and the leather upper. And a bit between the sole and the upper.
In short, pieces of this boot began to separate. Not completely, but enough to create gaps that harbored trail debris and then small pebbles. This can happen over time with many boots. But it shouldn’t happen in the first 50 miles. (According to a customer rep at Ahnu, my experience was singular. He said the company hadn’t received similar complaints, which suggests that it was a one-off manufacturing failure.)
Did I seriously worry that the boot would break down before I got off the trail? No. Did I think that it might be more than a cosmetic flaw? Yes. Did I worry that the floppy toe piece would catch on something? Yes. Would I take them on another trek? Not without repeated use over shorter distances, so I could judge how well they were holding up.
So, did I return them? Yes. I took them back to the store and got a refund, not a replacement. With regret. Because they were comfy right out of the box, and attractive. And I had been so sure these were the ones. And because the price was right. The MSRP is $165 but they’re on sale all over the internet (and your local outdoors store) for around $115 or less, which is a hell of a deal. Except for the pulling away.
