Tenacious Boots with Crud Protection

I just placed an order for what I hope will be the best hiking boots I've ever had. And maybe the last I'll ever need. They are Bergamo boots made in Italy for Hi-Tec and the retail price on them is $400. I paid $149 on a close-out.

These are heavy-duty, waterproof boots that will be great for the feet winter and summer, on a greenway trail or a mountainside.

I love this passage from the marketing material: "Built with a trail-dominating mix of agility, tenacity and unyielding protection from the kind of crud lesser boots would succumb to." Hmmm. Tenacious boots with crud protection. Who'd-a thunk it?

I had a pair of top-end Asolos a number of years ago and they were the best of mine until this point. The Asolos lasted 20 years with heavy use and they never wore out. I lost them in a move. Since then, I've mostly had second or third line boots or shoes because my knee became so dysfunctional that great shoes didn't make much difference to a guy who couldn't hike the way I used to.

I got the knee replaced two years ago and the hiking has returned to me full scale in the past year, so the new boots are more a defensive mechanism than a luxury item. I've stubbed my toe and bruised the bottoms of my feet in recent hikes because my shoes weren't up to the trail. These Bergamos, I suspect, will be.

My dad, who cooked for a living, once told me that "anybody with a good knife can cook." I suspect that applies equally to hiking and shoes.