Category Boots & Kit

The blister I blamed on my boots was caused by grabbing the wrong socks from the drawer. Why cotton fails, how sock thickness is really part of boot fit, and the liner experiment that did not work for me.

I found a sealed emergency blanket that had been carried two hundred miles unopened. What came out of the bag after that, what stayed, the unglamorous things that earned their place, and why lighter meant walking more.

A neighbour asked what she needed to buy before she could start walking. My whole first year ran on old trainers, jeans and a football coat, and those walks taught me which problems were actually worth solving.

A snapped pack buckle at a stile made me audit three years of buying. What turned out to be worth paying more for, where I honestly cannot tell the difference, and the purchases I regret most.

I carried over trousers for a year without using them, mostly out of vanity, and got cold for it. What finally changed my mind, the three features that made them wearable, and what they are still genuinely bad at.

Three winters of wet feet taught me that a waterproof boot is a claim about the boot, not about your leg. Where water really gets in, why old boots fail at the crease, and the drying mistake that killed a good pair.