As a full-time LEO I am always in the hunt for good footwear. My niche was with the Oakley SI Assault boots. Fit and finish were up to my standards. The only beef I had with them was the fact that they didn’t last long. The soles wore out way too fast. I would go through a pair every 6-7 months. Having an extra 15-18# of gear on didn’t help either.
My fallback was the Danner GTX boot. Although comfortable, I didn’t really like the height of them. 8" was pushing for me. It restricted my ankles too much.
A buddy/co-worker of mine recently turned me onto the Nike SFB. He had the original version with the matte material. The new ones have a gloss look to them now.
Initial impressions out of the box and onto my feet.
VERY light in weight
These are not a winter or waterproof boot. They are IMO a summertime/dry season boot. I’m sure if you do get your socks wet they would dry pretty fast.
There is no ankle support. The boot material is thin and act more like a cover than a supportive “brace” if you will.
Heel cup feels low
I have WIDE feet and so far there are no hot spots or discomfort.
They do feel more like a running shoe.
Quiet so far walking on tile. I would clunk around with the Danner boots.
About sizing. They fit me true to size. Don’t laugh but I wear 8.5 US. I wear 8.5 wide in the Oakleys and 8.5 wide in the Danners as well.
8.5 in the Nike boots leave me enough toe room without crushing them.
Price paid was $140 (with tax and free shipping on the initial order). You can only buy them online/direct right now at Niketown.com
Well that’s about it so far. I’ll put them to use this coming Sunday. I’m off for the next 3… Stay tuned for feedback.
They look great…, but I am skeptical about the durability of them. Here is my thoughts. Nike has never made a “work boot”. It appears that they basically took a Nike tennis shoe and married it to a boot upper half. I worked some plain clothes assignments and wore my nike shocks. After a few months during a busy summer, they were destroyed. They just couldn’t stand up to the work of LE. (I was really hard on them)
I am excited they have entered the arena but I little skeptical of how good they will hold up. I am about to pull the trigger on some Danner APB’s. I might have to wait a month and see how this plays out. Please keep us informed! Inquiring minds want to know
Yep. That’s why I bought them. You gotta find out somehow and I don’t mind being the guinea pig. I’m a bit skeptical myself right now. I work nights so there’s a lot of running around and rough situations. I hope they last otherwise it was $140 down the drain.
They seem like they would after building up layers. I think that’s why they went with a gloss finish this time around. Unfortunately I don’t polish my boots. They wouldn’t last 5 minutes.
IIRC it released the middle of last year so it’s still relatively new. I found some literature online and some have stated this was a 4 year project in the making. Is there any truth to that? I have the slightest idea.
I’m pretty hard on my boots so I will know immediately if they will hold up to regular patrol use. Don’t worry. I won’t hold any secrets. I’m not endorsed by anyone and it was paid for out of my own pocket. If it sucks, I’ll be the first to let you guys know.
The first picture is the Oakley SI Assault. They were worn for about 7 months straight on 4 10 hour shifts per week. They’ve been through crap short of dog shit. My boots/shoes tend to wear on the same spot because of my gait.
This is my Danner GTX circa 2007. The middle of last year was when they went on full time. Before that, they were my rainy day boot because of the Gore Tex. They are wearing well for me but you can see that they are starting to crack.
Hey Buds, I hear ya about the service life of the Oakleys, they are comfortable though. I managed to get more life out of mine than you did,about a year. I just ordered a pair of the OTB Feredelance boots, hopefully they last longer than the Oakleys.The reviews were good. More to follow.
I have to agree with LittleLebowski up above about the Bates.
I use Bates at work in an industrial setting. I spend most of my day walking/climbing on concrete or steel grating, some blacktop and frequent trips on small round ladder bar going from grating level to grating level.
My Bates boots were purchased at Dick’s Sporting Goods a week before December 1st 2008 and I am still wearing them today. I overpaid, Sportsmans Guide is $20 cheaper, but who is counting.
They wear really well, but the real winner here is that they are comfortable as heck! Once in a while I swap over to my Oakley Nail shoes and I can’t stand them, these boots are just great, even 16 months after buying them and wearing them way too much!
I am starting to look at other Bates boots to replace these, and this is what I would like… the exact same boot but with Gore-Tex! The down fall to these is that they are like described above, a summer dry weather. Waterproof and these boots should never be in the same sentence. Add Gore-Tex and they would be too good to be true! Then I can see me wanting a second pair of these boots for winter with the Gore-tex and also add 400 grams of Thinsulate. Then I could likely get 2-3 years out of them because they could pull split duty in the seasons that they are appropriate.
Here is my 18 month old Bates ZR Duty Boots, or at least that is what I think they are called. And no!, I don’t polish my work boots to crawl around in an industrial plant!
Glad I don’t have a foot/shoe fetish! With that said, I tried on a pair of Bates once before and didn’t like the way they felt on my feet. They ran narrow IMO but then again I didn’t try on a wide size.
I work in LE as well and have owned boots from about every manufacture out there. Bates is what I keep going back to as they last longer than the rest. Bates parent company is Wolverine Worldwide; they are the largest boot maker in the world.
For you guys that are wearing out your boots quickly try buying two pair at a time and alternate them daily, as the average human foot perspires about a pint of fluid a day. It takes 24hrs from the time you take your footwear off for them to completely dry out. Perspiration breaks down both leather and synthetic materials.
I wear 8.5 wide in the Oakleys and 8.5 wide in the Danners as well.
