Merrell Long Trail

The Long Trails don't require any time for breaking in, because they are made for people with large feet, so there is no constriction of the toes even after a long day on rough trails.

But durability is a problem. The leather at the edge of the rubber rand started to become unglued and is letting water in by the gallons. THE EVA support on my right boot cracked in half so its very annoying since I had to send the boot back and am losing weeks of hiking.

Luckily all this happened in the first year so the guarantee is still good. Hopefully I'll get a new pair!

Same failure in my wife's boots. She loved them until they came apart after about 5 years of mild use. Okay, five years, but here's the kicker... Merrell will only stand behind any of their footwear for one year. They say that is "industry standard". After that, they will give you $25 bucks for repairs. Can you imagine paying $250 bucks for some leather backpacking boots and having major issues after a year and getting $25 and a "sorry". I won't make that mistake again.

These are the second pair of Merrill boots I have owned and I think they are great.

They feel great right out of the box, but they feel better each time I put them on. I have heard some complaints about Merrills having a problem with the metal lace loops rusting, but I havent' had a problem.

Overall, these are great boots.

I noticed a very negative review of Merrel boots and I'm putting my 2 cents in.

I bought Merrel Long Trails a couple of years ago and was extremely dissatisfied with them. The soles came unglued on two separate occasions and without too many miles on them. Customer service was very shoddy. I will never buy Merrell again.