My First Lowa Boots

It has come time to say goodbye to my first pair of Lowa boots. I knew sooner or later this day would come, but looking back at all the good times I had in these boots it makes for a difficult goodbye.

It was early spring of 2005 and I was getting ready to head over to Europe for two months of backpacking with my best friend. Knowing I would need a pair of boots that would hold up and look good enough not get me kicked out of a nice restaurant I began my search.

Surprisingly it took awhile to find all of the above along with fitting my feet.

Finally I stumbled across some Lowa Renegade II GTX Mid boots. Not only did they meet my criteria, but they were also not made in some Chinese sweatshop.

After four months backpacking around Europe on three separate trips (‘05,‘06,'07), many hikes in my home state (Utah) and relegating these boots to my mountain biking mud boots. I must finally let them go. I went through three sets of laces and two sets of insoles before the boots even started to falter.

I saw many amazing places in these boots and stood in the footsteps of brave soldiers and tyrants. I walked on the sands of Omaha Beach on the sixty first anniversary of D-Day. Stood where Hitler once stood in Nuremberg and at the Eagles Nest. Walked the streets where once a musical genius by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart strolled. Hiked high up in the Alps of Switzerland and Bavaria. Stood in the ruins of castles, walked the shores of Loch Ness, took in some culture (König der Löwen: Hamburg, The Phantom of the Opera:London, Wicked: London), strolled through palaces and red-light districts, fell in love (not in the red-light district), worked on a film set and hiked numerous miles all over Europe in my first pair of Lowa boots. 

 

My Lowa Renegade II GTX Mid Boots

I purchased a new pair of Lowa Renegade GTX boots for my trip back over to Europe in 2008. Those boots got me through three trips over to Europe (‘08,’09,’11) and many more hikes around Utah. I also worked on several movies while wearing these boots, biggest one was The Lone Ranger. Seven years later these boots are now my mudders. 

Working in Moab on The Lone Ranger 2012

Low and behold my original boots are still found in my garage. It was just too hard to say goodbye to them. Finally some of the seams started to blow out on the boots. Nothing a little boot glue won't fix!

Ten years after buying my first pair of Lowa boots I picked up a new pair of Renegade GTX Mid boots for yet another trip back over to Europe. This go round there were several color options to pick from, I went for all black. 

 

After Hiking in the Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Bernese Oberland 2015