soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
One of the benefits of living in NW Oregon is that the Danner factory store in Portland is just under an hour away from my house. I was already up there for a union meeting, and I needed boots, so I went there and got lucky. They were having a sale on their "factory seconds" which are perfectly good boots with minor or even invisible cosmetic blemishes that are sold at a huge discount. The sale was "buy one pair get another at 50% off", and we are talking about $300 boots that have already been marked down to $165 or so. Whatever minor blemishes there are will be meaningless the first time I wear them to work and scuff them up anyway. And the store offers a 15% discount to UPS employees. I spent a total of $220 for 2 pairs of Danner Mountain Lite II boots, waterproof GoreTex lined and made in the USA that normally retail for $300 per pair.....and the best part of all is that my money stayed in Oregon, supporting the family wage jobs of the people who work there.
There is a little sticker with a red arrow on one of the boots. It points to a little tool mark in the rubber of the sole that is so small you cant even see it in the photo, and its the reason that these boots are considered "seconds". That mark will be scuffed over after an hour or two on the first day I wear them to work, and in 5 or 6 months I will take the boots back to the factory and spend about $80 apiece to get them re-soled. Danner boots are the best boots money can buy.
There is a little sticker with a red arrow on one of the boots. It points to a little tool mark in the rubber of the sole that is so small you cant even see it in the photo, and its the reason that these boots are considered "seconds". That mark will be scuffed over after an hour or two on the first day I wear them to work, and in 5 or 6 months I will take the boots back to the factory and spend about $80 apiece to get them re-soled. Danner boots are the best boots money can buy.