Customer Reviews

H.S. Trask Men's Bridger Trail Boot,Black,8.5 M

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Trask started changing before they sold out to Phoenix Footwear several years ago. In the early days, the majority of the footwear was made by a small factory in Skowhegan, Maine, MacDonald Footwear. When Trask moved production to Brazil, MacDonald had become so dependent on Trask that they never recovered and eventually closed. The other two suppliers were Ansewn Footwear in Bangor, Maine and Addison (a division of Munro) in Arkansas. Ansewn eventually moved production off-shore but many of their designs were picked up by Highland Shoe, a very small company in Brewer, Maine that makes high end shoes. Now Addison is still around and makes shoe for Neil M. footwear. Unfortuately, Harrison Trask let the company get too big too fast and totally lost sight of what made the company successful in the first place, a US product that was unique in the market. I'm sure he did well financially when he sold the company to Phoenix. Now it's questionable if the shoes and the brand are worth the price since nothing differentiates them any longer. You might as well get any lesser priced Chinese made shoe or boot as there is no reason to pay top dollar for the Trask name. Too bad.

We're so deep into the age of disposable products, cheaply made, cheap price, and easy to toss onto a landfill without looking back, that the concept of quality, better-as-it wears, has been all but forgotten, priced out of reach or seen as nostalgically foolish. I purchased a pair of Trask boots 15+ years ago and amazingly, I still have them. I recall stumbling across the brand and feeling that immediate sensation of quality on picking them off the display for closer inspection. There was no break in period, the bison leather was thick and supple and incredibly comfortable and it wore like titanium. Even today after I imagine hundreds of hours of wear, the leather is worn but beautiful. Only the soles wore out as expected. When I saw Trask boots advertised at an incredible discounted price on another web site, I wound up ordering 3 pairs in 2 colors. The first pair arrived today and my immediate reaction was, What happened to this brand? First I see that it's made in China and with that knowledge, the boots had a predictably cheaper feel and the quality was nowhere near what I had experienced previously. People constantly commented on my old pair which seemed so strange that they would notice something so pedestrian. But the curves and rich, supple leather were remarkable. Now they feel like a cheap pair of running shoes stamped out en mass from Walmart. My old boots had eyelets that I believe were brass and still look the same as the day the boots were purchased. The present eyelets look like pop rivets purchased at Home Depot of perhaps tin. The soles of the past were some dense and durable material. These soles are very light, but look like they will wear out in a year or two at most. Almost immediately, my feet felt uncomfortable and cramped and the tops dig into the ankle because there is no extra padding there. I would have imagined that being made in China that the production costs would be cut considerably so the company could be more profitable but could also maintain a similar standard of quality. But these boots are an extreme disappointment and I am debating sending them back. I am sure they will accomplish their intended purpose. But there is no feeling of quality. much less comfort, and a huge disappointment in the diluting of what was once in my opinion a spectacular, elegant and durable product but now seems to have become just another stamped out and disposable throw away item. What happened to you Trask?

I purchased my first Trask pair of shoes over fifteen years ago, and as another reviewer mentioned, at the time there was absolutely nothing else out there that compared in quality and comfort. They, as I believe all Trask products were at the time, made from Bison Hide. You could hardly drive a nail through the leather, it was so tough and durable, but at the same time it was incredibly soft and flexible. Little wonder that the Native Americans' relied upon this quality leather for centuries.
I have continued to purchase Trask products throughout the years with great success, until I purchased this particular pair of boots. The quality was nowhere near what I had come to expect from Trask, but I kept them and they've proven to be OK, not great, but I purchased them at a discounted price, so they ultimately proved to at least be worth what I paid for them at the time. That being said, since that time, I have purchased several other Trask products, and I even though they continue to be made in China, I have found that the quality has improved a great deal since I purchased my pair of Bridger Boots a several years ago. Although they aren't even close to the original Bison Hide, U.S. Made boots, I have found their latest products to be a mcuh higher quality than the average footware currently being made overseas. I believe that the lower quality of the Bridger Boot I purchased several years ago was because the company had recently changed ownership and was transistioning it's manufacturing overseas, which, sadly, became the American "let's not worry about the customer, we'll just let the Free Market decide" way of doing business. We now know that sadly, this had nothing whatsoever to do with competition, quality or choice; only greed. I will continue to purchase Trask products, until they prove me wrong, again...

These boots are very nice. The leather is soft and thick and the boots are true to fit with more comfort than I have found with alot of other hiking boots. I have not hiked in them yet, so far they have been a great work boot. They easily take me from the construction site to the board room and back without ever seeming out of place in either environment. My only complaint is that the faux leather liner and footbed. I really like the feel of real leather around my foot, and while the faux leather comes close in matching look and feel, it is still short of the feel of the real thing. At $76, Amazon sure can deliver the goods at a fair price.

I actually didn't buy mine off Amazon, but I felt compelled to review these boots here considering how much traffic Amazon gets. I wouldn't want anymore disappointments like mine!

These boots are very cheaply made. The sole is not "sturdy" at all, as the description explains, but is made of a very foamy and malleable plastic/rubber that does NOT stand up to the trail time of an average hiker. the outer leather itself is beginning to ware through, and that's after only one year of light intermittent use. the faux inner leather doesn't even stand up to faux leather standards. The only plus I can think of might be that they are extremely comfortable and VERY lightweight, but it's far too light weight for a trail boot and definitely *feels* like it was made in china on my foot. Feels good on the foot for "around the town" walking, but if you were to use this as a daily work boot, much less as a daily hiker, don't expect it to go far in terms of durability.

Save your money for a better boot, unless you have sore feet and need a comfortable boot for shopping or something. This foot feels like I'm walking on air, but it's about as durable as air too!

Boots are ok. I ordered Black, the box said Black....the boots were Brown. Nice product though, at a very good price.