Saturday, May 29, 2010

Putting my best foot forward

I would like to declare at the outset that this post id the result of a competition that I won recently.

A while ago I started my search in earnest to find a really good pair of walking boots with a view to a trip to the States to celebrate a special birthday for my wife, Cathy.  One of the places I went to look was Brasher.  While on their site I saw they had a newsletter and, as I signed up, I saw that they did a monthly drawing to win a pair of boots for new subscribers.  I signed up in the hope that I might get some sort of discount offer in a newsletter, what I got was a complete surprise.  A few weeks after signing up I found that I had been drawn to win a pair of new Brasher boots of my choice from their catalogue!

The boots arrived today, Lithium GTX, full of Goretex goodness.  I couldn’t wait to get them out to try on.  IMAG0615

These boots mark a change for me.  I have always been a leather boot sort of chap, never gave a lot of thought to newer developments – to be fair I didn’t expect to be buying the top end type of boot and many much cheaper fabric boots seemed to be more like beefed up trainers.

Having the freedom to choose any boot I took time to learn about the many different types and what they were best suited for.  We will be visiting a variety of terrain in the US from mountains to salt plains to westrn seaboard so I needed a boot that was versatile.  We might undertake activities such as horse riding so I needed a boot that wasn’t too bulky.  The boot would also need to comfortable in all sorts of locations as I intend wearing them in urban and country settings, in hot and cold temperatures. 

I needed to have my feet carefully measured before committing to size, since Brasher would be sending the boots direct.  Fortunately with the help of Sarah in Brasher’s publicity department I went along to their Premier stockist nearest to West Cornwall – Penrose Outdoors in Truro.  Cathy and I were treated really well at the store, even though I explained I needed measuring but the boots would come to me direct from Brasher.  While Cathy would need a pair of boots for the US we had decided that the most we would do is by some socks to say thanks for measuring my feet.  (In fact, Lynette at the store was so knowledgeable and helpful we ended up getting Cathy a pair of boots from there, plus some sets of socks and boot care products).

I can’t wait to be able to try the boots out on a walk but that’s another post, as they say.

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About Me

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Cornwall, United Kingdom
A married Cornishman who is getting an inkling of what he wants to be when he grows up. I currently work for the NHS. [See bottom of page for Blog Archive and Links.]