Lowa  Zephyr GTX Hi TF Hiking Boots - Men's

I am in the military and have worn the standard issued Bellvilles, Rocky SV2s, and MOAB Mid Waterproof boots and the Lowa boots are the best so far. I just finished the Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico and rucked about 40lbs for 26.2 miles. While I had a couple of blisters by the end (should be expected over that distance in the desert), they were very minor. My feet were in the best shape after the ruck when compared to the rest of my team. The guys were wearing SV2s and lightweight Nikes. They had much worse swelling and blisters. I was worried the waterproofing would make these boots too warm, however I didn't have any issues with this. A large portion of the march was over blacktop, uphill, in the afternoon, but none of that heat transferred into my feet. (My sock set up was tight Marino wool socks with lightweight synthetic Under Armor boot socks over). The only thing I had to change when I bought these boots was the insole. The Polyurethane midsole is considerably harder than a boot with EVA. I just took out the very hard insole and replaced it with a $15 Dr. Scholls Performance insole and I was fine. Even softer would have been better, but the support offered up and down the hills with the stiffer midsole was worth the slight banging on my toes. The Gore-Tex also feels rough on the skin, so I recommend tall socks. For fit, I used my Brooks running shoe size and ordered these in the exact same size. I ordered online and the sales associate measured insoles of the boot with a Brooks Glycerin and they matched perfectly. Size 13s. Overall I rate these boots as excellent. Tl;DR: Supportive, durable, not too hot, but initially very hard insole/midsole and slight skin abrasions from the Gore-Tex lining around the top of my ankle.

Let me start by saying that I’ve been in the Light Infantry for 8 years. I’ve worn every kind of boot imaginable. Garmonts, Bellevilles, Danner, McCrae, Altima, Rockies, Salomon etc. And I have always worn a 13D. I looked at the reviews, and the consensus was that these boots ran true-to-size, so I ordered a 13D. MISTAKE. These boots have the narrowest toe box I’ve ever encountered on any boot. They also run about a size too small. Added on to that, the uppers are incredibly stiff, which a good thing, however, when paired with the fact that these boots don’t lock your heel in at all, makes a terrible combination. The heel slips and slides while the toes are being smashed. Horrendous. I also tried sizing up. Same problem. Extra room in the tip of the toes, but the width in the toe box is still just as narrow. The seams on the side of the boots caused immediate hot spots on the pinky toes of each of my feet. And with the size-up, the heel issue was even worse. Absolute garbage.