How many times have you tried to save a little bit of money on your equipment and lived to regret it?
I know I have. I’ve done it countless times – and it’s nearly always a mistake. Whether it’s skis, waterproofs, bikes, coats, rucksacks or whatever else, you nearly always regret buying down market.
Perhaps the most extreme example of all is walking boots. Walking boots are extremely easy to buy – but very difficult to buy right. When you’re trying boots on, they all feel OK, so the logical thing seems to be to go for the cheapest as you can’t see a good reason not to.
Unfortunately, this is almost always a big mistake. There are countless technical differences between makes you can’t really be aware of if you simply go into a shop and start trying them on.
But of course, you don’t really find out that it’s a mistake until it’s too late. The boots start to really give you discomfort when you’re up a mountain, or, most commonly of all, on a steep descent. That’s when you wish you’d paid a little more attention to the whole thing and that your toes weren’t getting crushed at the front of your boots with every step – and that’s when you really wish you’d done your research a little more thoroughly.
If you’ve ever been there – you’ll know what I’m talking about. So the best way around this is to do your research as thoroughly as possible – particularly in asking people whose judgment you trust and respect what they think and what their experience has been. In my case, the advice was to buy Scarpa Boots.
Once you’ve made your choice then by all means try and find the cheapest seller of the brand you can, like the Regatta outlet. Just don’t skimp on the choice in the first place.