Review Summary: Korkers “The Outfitter” Konvertible Wading Boot with Interchangeable SolesPrice: $129.95

Authors Product Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5 of course)

Pros: This boot is light, durable, and comfortable. About as comfortable as my Simms L2s.  The convenience of interchangeable soles is very very cool.

Cons: If you want all of the soles you are going to be spending another $120.

The Bottom Line: Interchangeable soles coupled with the fact that they are easy to swap and actually stay on the boot puts Korkers Outfitters a cut above the rest.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­So there I was in two and a half feet of new snow with Crump and my crazy cousin Allen. Packed to the hilt with fly gear in preparation to descend upon Notellum Creek in the North Cascades. I donned my Korker Outfitters over some thick wool socks and mused to myself: “now we’ll see if these boots are really any good.” 

Growing up with a father who was a survivalist at heart I cut my teeth on winter camping in the Cascades. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that we produce the wettest and coldest kind of snow there ever was. Over the years I learned a great deal about boots from my father. He would spend hours cleaning and prepping his Danners in anticipation of the next outing. He would scrub them down, dry them out and then heat them with a hair dryer to prep the leather for the perpetual application of Hubbard’s Shoe Grease. (I think that there are better waterproofing solutions out there now but my Dad was from the old school).

In preparation for this outing I hit my Outfitters with a little Nikwax for leather and called it good.

I started out with the rubber lug soles (included in purchase) and wondered how steep it had to get before I started slipping and sliding. My other thought was, "How many steps can I take before I am soaked to the bone?" A good portion of the boot’s composition is cordura nylon and not to mention they’ve got two breather holes riveted to the instep. Cool features for wading boots but not cool features for snow hiking boots. You may ask, "Why test these boots as hiking boots when they are wader boots!?"  I’ll tell you why.  I don’t know. Hahaha!  I just felt like it was a good way to break them in.  Sometimes I do more hiking than wading. It’s valuable to me to know that the boots I am wearing are going to get me where I am going and get me back again.  It goes without saying they’ve got to stick me to the stones against the current.

After 4 miles in, my feet were still dry. I was amazed. I didn’t slip and fall once. Again, I was amazed. We rigged up, I changed to the plain felt soles (included in purchase) and off we went. I wondered if I would lose some traction to the fact that the felt didn’t cover the entire sole. No problems at all. I was pretty impressed. After fishing, I swapped back to the rubber lug soles and we hit the trail. Traction was just fine and I was happy.

The rubber lug soles are rugged. They rival most hiking boots by way of traction.

The felt soles just latch onto the slimy river bottoms. They are definitely on par for felt soles.

The studded felt soles are an additional bonus. As most of us can attest some river bottoms are conducive to just the felt but some types of rocks really require a little extra grip. The studs provide that.

One of the things that I have been very impressed with was how tight the sole itself locked into the boot. Every time I remove a sole I inspect the inside to make sure I remove any sand or gravel that may have been lodged in there. I’ve never had to do anything more than just rinse them out if anything at all. 

The first time I witnessed them in action was when Ryan Davey and I fished a very rugged stretch of river near North Bend Washington. My jaw dropped when I saw him take a seat on a boulder and swap soles before we made the climb out of there. I remember him mentioning to me that he had beat the hell out of them and was impressed over all but that he had trouble with the soles coming loose. He told me that he got in touch with customer service and they swapped out his boots no questions asked. That is pretty good customer service if you ask me. I mentioned this to one of the Korker Reps one time and he told me that they have since made a few improvements to the design of the locking soles and that they have had very little complaints since.

As far as just plain boots go, they are really up there on looks as well. I’ve had friends compliment me on them when I wear them to work (part of field testing of course). And when they find out that I can swap soles and hit the river they just ooooh and aaawe!

If you want to know about the durability ask me in a year or two. Perhaps we can get some good durability feedback from Crump and Worldanglr and anyone else for that matter, provided they have put some miles on their boots.

In summary: If you see me on the river chances are I will be wearing something on my feet manufactured by Korkers. Just wait until you ready my review on the K-5000s.

MAC
marc@washingtonflyfishing.com
www.coldcanyonoutfitters.com

 

Article	061
Created	6-23-2004
Modified	6-24-2004
Author	MacRowdy
Rating