BUDGET BOOTS Want to keep your feet warm and dry but don’t want to spend a fortune doing it? We tested a range of boots – but there was one clear favourite (well, two)
MIL-COM ALL LEATHER PATROL BOOT PRICE: £34.72
R
ight-o, as these are so similar I will tackle them both together. The Mil-Com Patrol Boots are identical to the All Leather boot except for the inclusion of 1100D canvas siding. They look smart and feature the same Thinsulate lining and leather exterior. Stick them on and you’ll find they’re lightweight, warm and have a good fit – for the price you can’t really ask for more. As an obvious point I expected the All Leather boots to outpace the canvas sided pair outdoors, with results reversed for indoor games. Both pairs have single stitched uppers which suggests they will let in water if the weather turns nasty or the ground is wet and boggy.
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April 2012
Indoors These were both test-driven indoors first at a day skirmish. Frankly there’s not an awful lot to say: for the price you still couldn’t ask for more. After six hours they were still comfortable on, and proved up to task as far as robustness goes. They will inevitably wear after a while – no real sign of it yet but personally I feel the uppers will start to come away from the soles after a fair bit of use. However, back to facts – in a day’s skirmish I noticed bugger all difference between the full-leather and canvas-sided models. There was no overheating issue with the All Leather boots, and conversely the canvas sided ones didn’t seem to be that much more
breathable. With more scientific testing we might’ve found some small variations, but that’s not the point of this test – we want this to be relevant to the use you’ll put the boots through. And to that end, we took both pairs down to a woodland venue for a day skirmish too, to see if one might outpace the other there.
Woodland It was damned cold during testing so it was hard to tell if the canvas-sided boots really made much difference in terms of aeration and heat retention outdoors either – and again the All Leather boots were absolutely fine.