Maelstrom Men's Tactical Work Boots with Side Zipper – Lightweight Leather Military Style, Comfortable, Durable and Breathable for Outdoors

I am a paramedic and use this boot for work. I was skeptical at first due to the low price. Boots usually last me around 6-8 months, I am very hard on them. I will update this as I use them more but I will list my first impressions below. Pros: Very lightweight boot, I don't feel weighed down but it still seems to have plenty of traction. I have used it so far in muddy conditions, as well as climbing up hills and going through puddles. My feet are staying dry and the boot seems to clean up pretty easily. The zipper works nice and does not seem to get jammed up. The value is outstanding, it fits the same as my bates boots and feels like a 511 in terms of comfort. It is blood borne resistant. Cons: The leather feels thinner than other boots I have owned, not sure how this will play out in the long run. Overall: it is a nice boot for the money 49.99 on amazon. It arrived very quickly took 3 days free shipping. I am satisfied with my purchase. I will update this review in about a month. 2 month update: I wear these at work I on average work 72-96 hours a week, these boots have been in rain, mud, oil spills, gas leaks, and house fires. They have held up very well, the only evidence of any damage is one scuff mark on the top of the boot. In wet conditions my feet have stayed dry and warm. They seem to grip the surface well. The best feature I have found so far is they are very lightweight, and after a day on my feet I don't feel like I am dragging them. I highly recommend this. 1 year 5 month update: I figured my boots were getting a little too scratched up, so I would order another pair. I cannot believe these boots have lasted over a year and 5 months. I still wear them everyday. The zipper and Velcro both are working fine. I have polished them a total of 5 times, they have been in rain, sleet, snow, mud, salt, oil, fuel spills, and any other disaster you can name. My feet stay dry in them, I have no complaints. These are a great boot, they are starting to show their age but just from being worn out, never thought I could say that about a boot. I will try to attach some pictures. I am buying new ones today, but will continue to use these around the farm. I will post another update when they finally break. I am also going to try to add some photos of the boots. The pictures of the boots are ones that are over a year and a half old (2nd pair purchased) I am still happy with them, they have lasted. I am not easy on my boots. I have not been compensated in any way shape or form.

Well, this was a win! I am 60 years old and having some trouble with my feet and flexibility. Additionally, I lost my right hand when I was younger. Getting in and out of a pair of hiking boots can be a bit of a chore. It can also be a bit embarrassing to need other people to help me with something that is so simple for most. I like going for walks but have not found foot wear that fit my needs. I had a trip to Germany coming up and wanted a comfortable pair of "hiking" shoes or boots. I looked around Amazon and found these. I was a little suspect of how well the zipper would work. After reading the reviews, I bought them. They fit perfectly both size and width! Hard to believe you can do that on-line! The arch support is good. The loop on the top back of each shoe make them easy to pull on. The zipper is very sturdy and extremely easy to use! Even with thick socks it zipped up comfortably! There is a leather flap that covers the top of the zipper and is Velcroed down. I tightened up the laces, double knotted them and never worried about them again! Taking them off is also very easy. The zipper is on the inside panel of each boot making it easy to reach for me. Even someone with serious flexibility issues can use these comfortably. They are light! Surprisingly so. I read about that before I bought them, but I was still surprised. It made packing them for a long trip all the better. Light does not mean flimsy! They are very sturdy and I did not have trouble walking over heavy gravel, rocks or the many cobble stone streets of Europe! My feet are ultra sensitive with nerve problems as I age. Again, these were very comfortable. The heavy canvas side panels allow the shoes to breath well. I had no problem with hot feet. As I flew back I wore them on the flight. They are so easy to take off and put back on, it helped as I went through security. Otherwise, that can be a very awkward and embarrassing spot for me. I was able to remove then on the long flight over the ocean and but them back on easily from my tightly packed seat! For those of you with flexibility problems... you know what I mean! Yes, this was a win! Now, next time I go to Tokyo... where you have to take off your shoes and put them back on over and over throughout the day... I'm going to be ready! Thank you for developing this fine product! (I was surprised to learn after I received them that my son who was in the military has a zip up pair just like them!) Wayne

I bought this same pair of boots 5 years ago and used them for camping, hiking, yard work, landscaping, garage work, metal work and moving. I used them only for my dirty and rough jobs to take the beating I didn’t want my nice shoes to take and they’ve held up all this time. They’re still usable, but I figured it’s probably time to retire the old ones so I bought the same pair again. They were water resistant, but if you’re kicking through a lot of dew-covered grass and they get soaked, the water will get through. So not waterproof. I only had a couple issues with them over the lifespan of my old ones. First, early on some stitching came out of the front rubber of the toe, but that never affected anything and the rubber never separated so not really an issue. Second, I had to replace the shoelaces a handful of times because they snapped a few times. Probably due to the nature of the work I did with them in dirt and mud and wet environments creating more friction and rust in the grommets over time. Not a big deal to me. Laces can be replaced and the shoes didn’t fall apart. Third, if I brought the zipper down to the bottom too hard, it used to get stuck there unless I pulled really hard. But they never broke even with the force I put into them so it worked for me. Finally, the velcro wore out after about 3.5 years but still sort of works currently. Upon buying the new pair, they feel very cushy and ergonomic in the soles and upper rim. The zipper works fine all the way to the bottom and the Velcro is new so it works fine of course. Overall I would recommend these shoes. They held up pretty well and are a fair price. I even got the black leather ones for other uses some years ago, but I don’t use those as often. They hold up just as well, they just get hot in the sun as black leather does.

I just got these boots today. I used to wear basic work boots bought at K-Mart or Sears back in the day. They allowed me to stay on my feet all day long. Nowadays I do not have to do that, but I am beginning to hike some and I prefer more support on my feet than a good pair of tennis shoes. I didn' t want to go the route of an expensive pair of hiking shoes, that cost between $100 and $200. I remembered how well a cheap pair of K-Mart boots had felt when I was younger so I decided to follow the recommendations of so many people who bought these boots when other more expensive ones are available. I guestimated the size that would fit the best would be 12. I have a Narrow foot and since these come only in medium width I was concerned that if they were too long I would get a lot of movement in the heel and that is the worst case scenario for a pair of hiking boots. It turns out I was fairly right. Size 12 is right for me. I do fill them to the toes, but not uncomfortably. I did notice the removable cushion sole inside the boot was ok in terms of cushyness in the heel but in the area of the ball of the foot it was pretty flat and hard. I removed those and put in a pair of Dr. Scholls insoles that is more cushy in the ball and toe area and these have made the difference. Since the depth of the Dr. Scholls insoles is thicker than the ones that came with the shoe, the fit is all around a bit tighter. It is not uncomfortable tho and I think I will like them fine. I prefer a close fitting shoe that I can feel the support of all around my foot. I am pretty sure I will do well with these boots on the trail. If they loosen up a bit with wear I will just add another pair of socks. The heels are gripping my heels well and there is no slipping with them. The price is just great and for the use I will give them a very good deal. I also like the zipper sides. I adjusted the tightness of the laces when I had them off so that I got just the right amount of tension on the middle laces which pull the boots up close to your heels. Then, when I take them off I just unzip and slide them off. Going back on is also easy, nice and tight. I recommend these boots.

It's a great pair of boots, but they won't last long under heavy-use. I work on concrete flooring 4 days out of the week and walk through grass and the like pretty much every day. Externally, the boots are in perfect condition. No complaints... internally though, is all the wear and tear you'd expect... some of it I'm not entirely sure how it's fallen apart or become worn. The front where your toes are, there's some kind of flexible plastic in that area that I assume is to keep the shoes in its form as well as help keep water out. Yeah, that stuff is brittle after 3-4 months and it's ungodly annoying to remove as it falls apart and stabs your toes until you shake it out or go in there and pull it all out with your hand. Removing it doesn't do anything bad to the shoe. There are no detrimental problems after I removed the brittle plastic stuff. The other wear and tear issue is the shoe has a side-zipper and I use it. Makes getting the boots on and off 1000 times easier, but somehow the inside where the back of your leg would sit up in the boot has started wearing off where normally this type of wear and tear is due to your heel rubbing up against it as it goes in the shoes and out of it. I'm not sure why it's showing this type of wear and tear but it is. Also, if you do buy these shoes, prepare to invest heavily into extra sole padding on the inside if you work in conditions like mine. I currently use the original padding. (I assume it's disintegrated by now, the original padding is never worth anything in any shoe), 1 heavy workload padding and 1 gel padding meant for work, and that just barely helps the inevitable foot pain after 2-3 days of work. And you'll likely have to replace all that padding after 2 months or so when you're weight and workload has murdered it into not being as effective as when you first bought it.

My wife would wear these to bed if she could. My wife has had years of issues trying to find high top boots like these that actually fit her calves. Then we ordered these boots and what it says on the sizing chart and ads are true. These have an extremely wide opening on the top and can be replaced with longer laces to allow extra wide openings. This is what we did for my wife. (180 can laces, the longest laces we could find. ) and they fit my wife perfectly. She says the slight lift in the heel is life changing for her ankle issues and says the side support or the heal is wonderful and prevents rolling. The inside of the boot is “extra squishy” according to my wife and she says there is great shock absorbing, so her joint stay comfy all day long. My wife is often out running errands, attending classes and training her SDIT, so she is often on her feet upwards of 12 hours a day. She says her feet and joints have never been so comfy after such long days but these boots have made that happen. These work best with “thick thigh highs” and are extremely adorable in combination. These boots go with every outfit from gothic to business casual and my wife says she feels very cool wearing them. They will make you a few inches taller so if you use a guide handle or a cane you will want to keep that in mind. The bottoms of the boots are all traction. They even do well in the snow and sand, but also work wonderfully with strap on ice cleats. We can tell these may be knock offs of a more expensive version of these boots but honestly, the sizing is so much better on these version. My wife recommends these boots for any one looking for style with out a lot of spending.

I'll be up front, this is not a thorough or even completely fair review of these boots. I just received my pair in the mail a day or two ago and haven't even fully put them on to see if they fit, etc... yet. The reason I'm leaving this one star review is because while I was attempting to do this, one of the included laces broke while I was tightening them to tie the boot. All but snapped in two. To be honest I'm not surprised, because I thought that the laces felt kind of cheap/flimsy before the one that snapped even had a chance to break. The overwhelming majority of other reviews give the impression that these are very "tough" (but comfortable) boots, which is exactly what I want and they may yet be that, but it's hugely disappointing that the manufacturer would skimp on quality laces and allow people to have such a bad first impression of these boots over so small a piece of the overall product which, I reiterate, many other reviewers have expressed high levels of satisfaction with. I plan on getting a pair of boot laces from the neighborhood grocery store so I can give these boots a second try within the next day or two, and will update my review after doing so. UPDATE 4/17/2017 :::: Got some replacement laces only to find out that the boot is slightly too small for comfort, as some other reviewers have noted. Exchanged for correct size and wore these boots to work only to find out that the "slip & oil-resistant outsole" is not so slip OR oil resistant and DO NOT provide "great traction on all terrains and surfaces." I work in the kitchen of a fairly busy diner and there is usually a good chunk of grease on the floor from about a hundred different potential sources, making a good pair of truly slip resistant shoes an indispensable asset on the job. Sadly, these boots don't even provide good traction on a plain old wet floor, and I was slipping and sliding even while mopping the floor, moving my feet by exerting force on the mop as much as I was moving the mop by exerting force using my feet. All this left my right foot spazzing out after the night was finally over because of the fact that it was constantly trying in vain to adjust for the fact that my feet were sliding off in god only knows what direction. My last pair of shoes, a Dr. Scholl's leather work shoe that I only replaced because the sole was starting to fall off, could handle this task just fine, so I was confident that a boot highly rated by a multitude of police/EMT/firemen, etc... would definitely be up to par. The worst part of finding this out was realizing that, because I had now worn them outside of a "testing safe" area that would definitely put them in "worn" condition, I probably won't be able to return them and/or get my money back for these boots that don't live up to the promises of their manufacturer.

I love these boots except that the tongues won't sit nearly straight. They want to sit off kilter, so the labels are not in the middle, as the pictures show. After seeing this, and knowing that these were built in China, I measured to make sure that the boots were the same height from heel to ground, and they are identical. Despite the very poorly designed or sewn tongues, the build quality seems good. Other than the laces, the materials seem good and the build seems sturdy but I've only been wearing them for a few weeks. The zipper is top quality and I wouldn't be surprised if it even outlasted the boots. The laces are just barely long enough for me to lace the boots all the way up and tie a small bow. The surface of the laces is such that the standard bow does not want to stay tied, but slip loose. I have to struggle to tighten the tiny bow each time I put the boots on, and every once in a while throughout the day. I will have to buy a double cord clamp for these, to replace the standard bow, and hope that the laces do not slip through it. These boots should really come with either a clamp, or laces that will stay tied on their own. These boots are amazing for the price and easily worth the five-star rating. I would buy a pair in another color and I would also buy the waterproof boots, but the crooked tongues look so goofy, and I can't be sure that any other boots from this brand will not have the same defect. I hope the owners of the company fix the problem with the shoddy crooked tongues with the Chinese manufacturer, and then put up a new Amazon listing that mentions "improved tongues". If that were to happen I would probably another pair or two, because THESE BOOTS are just SO GOOD at this PRICE.

Se ven bien pero si traen detalles, pensé que las puntas venían cosidas y no es así, cuando me las probé me di cuenta que el corte del empeine del pie derecho venía chueco, no se veia simetrico y al momento de amarrarlas quedaban de lado por ese motivo fue que las regrese, aparte vienen un poco reducidas yo pedí 27 y me quedaban justas. La verdad esperaba más