well this spring our crew at Eastmans' had the opportunity to test a wide
variety of brands of footwear and in recent years we've really kind of fallen
in love with a super lightweight footwear category we still wear our
mountain boots in certain scenarios you know on high country mule deer hunts
sheep hunts and in and some guys have even gravitated towards the lightweight
footwear in those in those scenarios as well but there seems to be the need for
kind of a mid weight boot category and if there is one it's not like we're
invent reinventing the wheel here and so what we did is we sought out boots from
some of the major manufacturers including Lowa
and we're going to show you a closer look at the Lowa Baldo's today
now that spelled B A L D O and then the GTX at the end of the name simply stands
for gore-tex so they're fully waterproof and breathable like all gore-tex apparel
and footwear is but one of the things I really want to make sure that that
everybody knows about Lowa Lowa has a really good reputation for two things
number one is they're really friendly to people with wider feet or wider foot
needs or widerfootwear needs is what I'm trying to say but yet also
comfortable with those of narrow feet now I have narrow feet and so I was a
little apprehensive to test the Lowa's out and I was thinking that maybe I'd be
better off testing some of the other boot manufacturers out but I decided to
go with the Lowa I wanted to get to know them better and I was I was really
pleasantly surprised that even though they're considered a bit of a wider boot
they were I was still able to lace them up tightly and they fit great on my feet
and I can move quietly and not stumbling around in the field we tested them out a
lot in the spring during turkey hunting in Wyoming where it's really similar how
we're hunting turkeys to how we're doing it with with bull elk in in the rut in
September where we're covering a lot of country we're doing a lot of calling you
know really early mornings really late hours and so it's it's kind of a
marathon and we're putting on a lot of miles so it's a great test for these
boots so the second key feature that that Lowa is known for that helps custom
fit the boot to the users feet is their lacing system and there's really three
key components to their lacing system there's one they have roller eyelets
those are incorporated ball bearings that are in the lower two eyelets on
each side of their boots at least on this particular pair that allows you to
snug up the the shoe laces to your desired comfort level and also save on
wear and tear on your shoelaces because it's not dragging across the jagged
eyelets and you can really cinch those things up I've worn lots of boots I'm
sure you have to that it doesn't they don't really allow you to get the toe
box as tight as you need to and since these boots have a more generous toll
box four so you have more room and more movement so that you're not cutting off
circulation in that part of your foot in leading to more discomfort and
potentially blisters and other problems the roller system allows you to really
customize that fit then as you go up they have open eyelet systems one open
eyelet above the two roller eyelets and then there's the X lacing system which
essentially the purpose of the X lacing system which is really proprietary to
Lowa is it allows the tongue of the boot to
stay in place so that tongue doesn't shift around on you and cause tight
spots up in your ankle or where your foot in your ankle meet which can cause
a lot of discomfort potentially blisters and a lot of pain or slippage - if you
don't get it tight enough and then the boot is finished off with two more open
eyelets on top and so right now I'm gonna show you what this kind of looks
like and how it operates so I've got my boots laced up nice and snug and I'm
gonna show you a little trick - that I learned I've been here with Eastman's
for almost 10 years and shortly after I started here I keysmith showed me a
trick that he learned from one of his trail running friends on how to properly
lace up footwear for the backcountry so that number one you're not continually
having to tighten and loosen for that all-day comfort what I would always do
is I would tighten my boots or my shoes too tight and then I would essentially
start cutting off the circulation of my of my foot and down on my toes and
obviously that's really you know uncomfortable and so what you do is you
ball up so here's your foot in your boot and you make a ball with your toes or
like a fist and you can see that how the boot changes shape and what that does is
it provides a little bit of relief after you release that and your laces are
tight and so you'll ball up your foot you'll tighten it up and then you'll
loosen up your foot and it's almost the perfect tension once in a while you'll
have to adjust it a little bit just like you would a heavy load of equipment on a
trailer or four-wheeler but with this system with balling up your foot plus
with the roller lacing system and the X lacing system that Lowa has it
essentially eliminates that problem I was really impressed with how the system
works so you can see right now I'm gonna sew my foots flat in my boot right now
and I'm gonna I'm balling it up you can see my boot kind of puff up and here
these two roller eyelets and I'm gonna tighten up do my crisscross on the first
open eyelet crisscross on the second open eyelet which is right at that
junction so right now the first zone of this two zone lacing system is snug and
ready to go and it's holding tight I'm not pulling on it really hard it's
really solid now this stud that's in the middle of
the tongue it kind of shows a crisscross pattern and what you do is you
crisscross underneath it and then also over if I don't hook on the other eyelet
over top of it and then hook on the next open eyelet and then on the last open
eyelet and I can feel it snug up around my ankles I finish off tying their boot
give it a good pull now I release that fist that I've made in my boot and
they're perfect ready to hike ready to sit in glass whatever the need is so
sometimes if you if you tighten up your boots too much what's going to happen is
they're fine when they're when you're hiking but when you sit down a glass
you'll start feeling that pressure because it's too tight for when you're
just sitting but with this system incorporated with balling up or making a
fist with your foot when you're lacing it up really eliminates that problem so
another thing that the that the Lowa boots have is features that I really
liked and I was pleasantly surprised with is so they're they're 2.97 pounds I
think it is for the pair now this is a full pound lighter than some of the more
popular mountain boots that are this mid height of the low of Tibet's for example
or a really good pair of boots and they're a full pound heavier now they
have a special purpose they're really good for a high mountain hunting really
rocky and uneven terrain provide that support you need but like the old
backpacking adages a pound on your feet is like 10 on your back and so I just
saved a pound in my footwear that's like cutting ten pounds off of my pack weight
which is a game-changer the first time that I ever used a lightweight pair of
boots for hunting I was a little apprehensive to pack in the distance I
was going with lightweight footwear for the first time but I got to the site I
was tired I took my backpack off and once I got my
pack off I couldn't believe how good my legs felt it's kind of ass
weighted leather that's on there and so they're a little more pliable than
full-grain leather a little more flexible which I like and then also the
the vibram track light - outsole it's soft yet supportive so these boots are
still a really good supportive boot they're not super flexible like a tennis
shoe type boot would be but this Vibram sole really gives and so what it enables
you to do is stock in quietly without feeling like you got great big you know
cinder blocks on your feet and you can you can feel the terrain underneath you
they're super quiet super comfortable real cushioning and and you get again in
addition to the lacing system you get that all-day comfort there called the
Lowa Baldo GTX which is gore-tex so you stay waterproof they breathe so you
don't you know over sweat or over perspire in your boots and I've just
been really impressed with them if you go to lower boots calm you can check
these out and tons of other boots that Lola offers for more helpful tips just
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