Tag: Danner

July 30, 2025 – Getting In the Mood

July 30, 2025 /

Believe it or not, I had a free Saturday not too long ago. I was free of any obligations because everybody was working or doing things that they deemed more important. I didn’t have to wait around for somebody to pick-up something or deliver something or babysit or host a party and I have literally been waiting weeks to try out my recrafted Danner boots as well as jump start my return to hiking.

I put on my boots and only packed a day pack. I put up water and a couple of snacks because the focus was the boots and it was only going to be a five mile loop. Using the All Trails app I found a pretty close trail that I never knew about and set off.

I am happy to report that my toe no longer rubbed on the plastic toe cap. This would become raw in a day or so and my enthusiasm to put on the boots rapidly diminished each day to the point where I would rather take other shoes even if that meant wet or cold feet. One other side benefit I noticed immediately that I didn’t realize was a problem was the constant squeaking with each step.

Apparently, the heel supports had detached from the sidewalls, that is what the cobbler said. With each step it would rub on the leather and cause a very slight squeaking. It was definitely annoying and not the kind of thing you really want while out trying to sneak up on game. There were two, new kind of minor issues I noticed.

The most pressing was that the tongue was biting into my ankle. I tried to adjust it a couple of times but I cannot see anything unusual. I don’t know if it was the socks I was wearing or I just laced them up in a weird way. More to report some other time but I never had that problem before. The second was that the boots left a black ring around my socks. I think this must have come from the re-dying of the leather. I assume that will resolve itself.

I took a number of photos when I was out. Most of them were from animals that I ran across as I was out and about. The one that I chose spoke to me because if you change the sky and the temperature, it could easily have been deer hunting season. I saw four different deer after all.

Now that I have finished my kick, my mind is drifting to the fall. I realize that we are a week or so away from the technical, mid-summer point. Traditionally our whether starts to turn in a couple of weeks. The sun looks different, it is more muted and by the end of August it is setting by eight o’clock. The overall humidity often goes down and so it feels cooler that it actually is. This becomes harvest season.

Coincidentally, harvest season is also hunting season. The official start of Dove season is September 1. If I was an archery hunter, my big game season would also begin. But a short and pleasant month leads to the real, big game seasons. As I have stated previously, we won our tag draw this year and so I am planning on doing Mule deer hunting rather that Blacktail deer hunting this year. Maybe this is the year I finally go for coastal elk, I have seen plenty of them this year. It all depends on how things go with medical appointments and things as we move past summer.

I am adding some new gear this year (surprise, surprise). I have heard over and over on Meateater how the binocular harness is the number one piece of gear that they use. I will write more about that later. But I just got my base part and so I am anxious to get that tested out before the season. It seems like a good idea to put on my boots again and get out there just to feel things out a bit. The season is barreling towards us faster than I can imagine.

End Your Programming Routine: We are getting to my favorite time of year for many reasons but chief among them is anticipation of hunting season. I can say that the money was worth Danner boot recrafting if for anything than removing the squeak, I am sure that I will work out the ankle pressure thing next time I put the boots on. Yeah, I could have paid less and gotten new boots that would possibly work better than these. But, this is why I believe in buy once, cry once.

June 11, 2025 – Man, I Love Old Stuff

June 11, 2025 /

Take a look at my almost thirty year old boots. Yeah, I know that I love to flaunt this kind of stuff. I originally bought a different brand of boots and the leather ripped on the first day of wearing them. So, I returned them and purchased these significantly more expensive pair of Danner boots to replace them.

They haven’t got a lot of wear, specifically lately. These are my hunting boots. It was about 2014 that I had worn them on my one and only elk hunting trip that I noticed the sole started to separate from a boot. I took them into a local boot repair and asked them to sew the sole back on which they did. The problem with that is that it cupped the boot tip up and the plastic toe protector would rub my big toe. So much so that it would become raw after a couple of days of wear and so they stayed on the shelf in favor of my low hikers the last couple of hunting seasons.

I thought that I would investigate the Danner recrafting services. Fortunately for me, I live close to the home of Danner and there is a factory store in Portland where they actually do the work. One Saturday I had to do some errands in Portland so I thought that I would inquire.

And inquire I did. The stern looking cobbler looked the boots over and said, I recommend a full rebuild. The plastic heel forms were no longer attached to the boot. He also said that there is no way of knowing whether the previous repair had punctured the Gore-Tex sock that make these boots waterproof. I don’t feel like they are compromised but the package offering below the full rebuild did not address the heel and so I conceded.

The cost to recraft these boots was $280. The step down was $240 so it didn’t make a lot of sense to scrimp. I suppose that if I didn’t need the heel structure repaired, I could have gotten away with just a new sole to remove the cupping. Otherwise, I would say the boots are in fantastic shape.

This was a hard pill to swallow. If it weren’t for the fact that now these boots cost $450 dollars to replace and it was extremely unlikely I would wear them again with my toe rubbing I would have said that the financial cost was not worth it. Based on replacement costs of most of their boots, I would say that there are very few models that are worth recrafting. In other words, I would have been money ahead to buy a new pair of boots, just not these.

My understanding of this process is that the boot is entirely reconstructed. The plastic bits at the toe and the heel are replaced with a new sock. There is a new tread put on and probably a new sole core, although I do not know. They do offer options of tread pattern that the boot originally was not sold with, a bit of customization. The brass lace rivets are replaced because over time the pressure of the laces cause sharp edges to form causing laces to break faster over time.

What exactly remains of the old boot? I think just the leather which has been re-dyed. They include new laces and new insole platforms. With all that, they should look like new because they basically are. If it makes the bitter pill any easier to swallow, there is free shipping to and from, that saves time and mileage expense.

One other thing I was offered was 25% coupon at the factory store. I am definitely thinking about replacing my hikers, I don’t like them so that discount is probably worth $50 if I can find a pair of Danner hikers I like. That is still to be determined.

End Your Programming Routine: One of the reasons I justified this purchase originally was that they were an investment. That being said, how many people actually have their shoes repaired? I was going to give them an inaugural run on the sporting clays course but God thought I needed to stay in bed sick instead. So, I haven’t worn them yet. I may have to just wear them around town just to make sure that this fixed the problem. Let’s assume that is the case, I will report back otherwise.