User Review: Asolo Globaline Meridian

Reviewed May 29, 1997 by Nathan Kofahl

Rating:
Materials: leather
Use: rough trail/off trail with heavy pack
Break-in Period: not long
Price Paid: $190

i bought a pair in january... did some day hikes in them untill my big trip to cannyonlands np this month, on the day hikes they were fine, but after the hard miles with a heavy (80lb for 7 days with climbing gear and 10 liters of h2o) pack i cant recomend them to anyone.

the thing is, i loved them untill my trip...but about 5 miles into the first day's hike (16mi total first day) i started feeling hot spots on the center of my heels. i had never had a blister in this spot, so i thought that rocks had worked their way into my boots. i called a boot stop, checked both boots, and found nothing but rowing hot spots on my heels. so i hiked on.

a few miles later, i had to stop again, this time i taped the hot spot, but i still didnt find the source of my pain. a few miles later, i stoped once more...same story, but this time i took both insoles out. the first thing i noticed was how thin they had gotten...i must have compressed them with all the weight that i was packing....(i doubt it, but it sounds good)...and then i found the elusive source of my pain. there is a small hole on the globalines that is directly in the center of the heel of the boots footbed. i assume this is where they do the injection molding, but dont know. anyway, this hole wasnt flat in the foot bed, one side was raised a bit on both boots, and the raised side was causing me quite a bit of pain. the insoles were almost worn through where they had rubbed on the small bump. i wound up with some serious blisters on my heels, but found a trail fix for the problem.

1. i yanked out as much of the offending plastic as i could with my trusty leatherman

2. i made a moleskin pad fit around the rest of the exposed plastic.

3. i used the moleskin on my heel as well. this seemed to work ok for the rest of the trip, but i promptly took the boots back to REI when i got back. much to REI's credit, they took the boots back and were very cool about the whole situation. they gave me store credit... I looked at new globalines to see if they had the offending hole, because if they didnt, i was going to get another pair, but alas, there it was staring up at me from under the insole.

overall, i had about 200 miles or so on the globalines, but most of it was just dayhikes. for the first 140 miles i thought that they were the best boots ever, but the 60 i spent on them in utah changed my mind i also had 3 other problems that you may want to consider in you boot choice

1. the rand that goes around the toe box was peeling back from the leather, not a major problem, could have been fixed with some shoe glue, but still not what you would expect from a $190 boot.

2. the sole seemed a bit soft...i know that i was hiking on a lot of slickrock in utah, but when the trip was over, the lugs were worn down considerably...this may be a major problem, because i am not sure you can even have these boots resoled. i should have asked that question before i bought them in the first place.

i relise that others have posted great results with these boots, that is why i have went into such depth. my case may be rare, and it also may not be so rare, not too many people who jump on a new thing are so ready to admit that they made a 200$ mistake, but then the converse is also true i may have just had a bad experience, but for my money, i wont make that mistake again..i will look much closer at the products that i buy in the future, and i doubt if i will ever buy another pair of asolo boots again.

3. they were not very water proof. the area at the bottom of the toung leaked pretty bad, every where else seemed ok, but the toung area is a design flaw that you could never waterproof, no matter how much sealent you used.

hope this information can be of some help.

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