My Limmer Boot Journey - Part 1 (The Order Process)

 

I love backpacking.  I really do.  I don't do nearly as much of it as I'd like to, nor do I do enough to justify really awesome gear.  But that doesn't stop me from being a gear whore.  I've trended towards ultralight over the past 10 years, just like everyone else.  And then I got this bug.  This idea in my head that I should buy a pair of "lifetime" boots... You know the ones - really sturdy, full leather, resoleable.  The kind you leave in your will.  And total overkill for my purposes.

But that didn't stop me from searching.  At first I considered full custom, but my feet are pretty normal, and I just couldn't justify the near or over 4-digit price tag of a full custom boot.  So I settled on an off-the-shelf boot from a high-quality manufacturer.  There are numerous options, but for a variety of reasons I set my sights on Limmer Boots. 

The Choices

Limmer offers a few different models of off-the-shelf boots, which are not to be confused with their hand-made, one-at-a-time custom boots.  Their retail version are made in Germany by Meindl to Limmer's specifications.  There's plenty of info on the internet about the differences, pros, cons, whatever, so I won't cover it here. 

My preferred boot, and the one I wanted to order, was the Lightweight model (note: the name deceives you as these boots are not lightweight).  This decision was based on a number of factors, and maybe I'll talk about that in the future, but for now let's just call boot selection a personal decision and move on.

Getting Off-The-Shelf Limmer Lightweights

Stock Limmer boots are not sold in retailers, at least not sold at retailers near me, so you have to mail order them.  To get the mail order form, you have to send an email to the email address listed on their website, http://www.limmerboot.com.  So I sent off an email expressing my interest in a pair of non-custom boots, what model I was looking for, etc.  Later that same day I received an email back from Ken Smith (as far as I can tell, Ken is Karl Limmer's partner and the only other employee at the moment) with an order form and foot measuring instructions.

Limmer Boots don't want you to tell them what size boot you need... they want to tell you what size will fit, and that's just fine with me.  Measuring instructions are to trace each foot, as well as provide some circumference measurements at 5 different spots along each foot and ankle.  I dutifully did all of that according to the instructions.  I filled out my order form, but had a couple of questions, so I sent an email back to the crew at Limmer.

I didn't receive an immediate response to my email, so I waited a day and then I called and left them a message.  I wanted to know if the recommended "boot grease" (for conditioning the leather) was included (it's not).

The next day Karl Limmer returned my call, answered my questions, and gave me lots of reassurance that I was making an awesome decision.  I told him to expect an email from me that same afternoon with my order form, foot tracings, and other measurements.  I sent that email, as well as some biographical information (where and how much I hike, previous experience with other boots, etc.).

A couple more weekdays and the weekend then passed without hearing from anyone at Limmer.  Realizing that email was probably not their highest priority, I gave another call and left another message.  The next day Karl Limmer returned my call (I missed it, unfortunately), and let me know via voicemail that they had my order and would be processing it in "a day or two" and that I could expect my boots to ship Friday, assuming everything was in order with my order (see what I did there?).

A Friday shipment would be exactly one week from when I sent my order form in (and 10 days from when I first made contact with them), which is horrible for Amazon-era retailers but just fine in this case, considering the amount of care and attention that was going into these off-the-rack boots.

I noticed on Friday that my credit card had been charged, so I assumed that Karl would hold to his promise of my boots shipping Friday.  Despite asking to have the tracking number sent to me, I was never informed of the shipment.  However, a quick glance at the UPS shipping times chart told me that the boots should arrive Tuesday, which is exactly what happened.

So, from order to receipt the total turn around time was 11 days.  As I was about to find out with the break-in period, everything with Limmer Boots takes a little longer.

Read about my first impressions in Part 2 or my care and cleaning routine in Part 3.

A Final Note

I did not receive compensation in any form from anyone to write this article.  I purchased my Limmer Lightweight Boots and boot care kit with my own hard-earned money.  The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone and have not been tainted by any third party.

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