This is a heavy duty boot with shank. "One-piece" upper is very water resistant sturdy leather. Nicely made. Not lightweight. The Vibram sole incorporates softer foam areas.

Very stable on trail, you can see the sole sticks out on both sides of the foot. It does make it harder to edge or side-hill because of the torque on your foot, so this is no kind of mountaineering boot. It's like a heavy duty patrol boot.

Thin lining, so not cushy and will require a fair break-in period. If it wasn't gore-tex, the thin lining would help it dry out once wet. As it is, gore-tex is useful in real wet areas where you wont get a chance to dry out anyway once wet.

Decent ankle support, but not as bomber as Makalus; they have support to help you from getting as tired, but it still possible to roll your ankle. The soles are more cushy than the old 90's steel shank makalus. Oddly small lugs, perhaps because of the foam in-molds. These are comparatively wider in the footbox than the Granites or Makalus. They are not sized small.

Con: I need them to go straight up a 35-40 degree hill and flex forward equally to my ankle, but then the plastic insert in the tongue (that reinforces the tongue stud for the laces) bites into the top of my foot. I believe the rest of the boot would break in, maybe not this. I'll have to keep trying, I'm starting to have affection for them and got them dirt cheap.

Whereas the Asolo Sasslongs are going straight back as all-around too wimpy for the extreme duty I expect. I'd go La Sportiva Granites but too narrow in foot, too wide in ankle. Also considering Garmont Dakota, maybe some Scarpa boots. I have a couple light Kayland boots which are super wide, but the ones I got were not supposed to be very durable, and are not. For what these retail, you can do better for backpacking or mountaineering. These are like a military or work boot. Could be good for trail crews. Very reliable seeming, heavy duty, good for heavy loads.

Very versatile bag. When too hot, it has a decent length of zipper and you can even use it upside down if you take the pad out the sleeve, leaving just the bottom cloth layers over you. The Hinman pad it comes with is too heavy, replaced it with the InsulMat Max-Thermo, which is cheaper, but not as good as the BA Insulated AirCore pad.

I wore them on a 14er as backup to my power stretch tights with undies. Predawn winds were blowing along the ridge and summit but didnt feel it.
Probably they are waterproof. Seemed pretty durable, but still wanted to be careful how and where I sat, etc. No damage, stayed clean OK. Ultra-packable!
The zippers are useless for me because my big boots (Salomon SM Lites) can't fit thru the trim-cut legs. But at least they werent swooshing badly while I walked. Good looking, in the generic uberican cut Golite has.
The material felt on the less breathable side, there's no fly or other vent. When overheating, rolling up the legs helped a little, even rolled down the waistband as far as it would go without binding leg movement.

I'm not a minimalist when it comes to footwear. These are some nice socks. When new they fit quite firmly. There is no movement, but two pairs are too tight. Eventually they get a little bagged out in the foot, but not bad. The tops are pretty susceptible to brush damage, and didn't like duct tape gaiters. They may not be perfect, but they were my best socks and I bought 4 more pair this year.

I had to return it because it was too snug and felt restrictive. With about a 40 chest, 5'10" 165 lb., the medium was too small across the back and elbows.
Great quality, a little on the crinkly side, as are most of these type fabrics, but very impressive for the money. Didn't want to send it back; tried it on again and again. Probably a Large would be nice.
Looking at the Bozeman Mountain Works Cocoon offerings. Could this garment be superior in maintaining loft in the face of pressure from a shell?

- tall enough for my snowboard boots.
Seem to work so far for hiking. A bit slippery, maybe less than polypro-type liners.

I have worn them a few times now. Overall the feeling is a super-cushy boot with a sturdy toe and heel. A couple problems made me consider returning them.
Out of the box there was some obvious quality control problems with the uppers. On one of the boots, along where the lace hooks are attached, the inner plastic which gives it structure does not go much past the end of the hooks and so there is not a nice defined tongue fold, it just kind of accordions together, even when making an effort to do it neatly.
The tongue and upper in general are too mushy, the inner liner gets small folds in it. Ankle support is OK for my worthless ankles; for such a high boot, you'd think it would be better. The oversized locking hooks at the inner hinge of the ankle can dig in and get somewhat painful going diagonally up 35+(?) degree slabs when you are keeping your heel low. Thicker socks seemed to help.
They seem quite roomy, even with heavy socks I had plenty of wiggle room, almost too much. I ordinarily get my street shoes a tad oversized and got these at my regular size. I could wear 2 pairs of socks and a liner with them, which can be good for winter. That's what I do with my old-style Makalus.
The big sticky front toe rand and the heel cup (counter)are sweet and the soles are very soft. There is maybe a half shank but alot of structural bits that make it seem like a little more. They are light compared to my old-version Makalus, I can actually run with them on and feels great. The new Makalus are only about 2 oz heavier.
I got them because they are cheap, to burn up on regular peakbag workouts around Tahoe. If more socks and/or lacing techniques does it for me, I won't trade them in for new Makalus.