Meindl USA / Meindl Europe: Meindl Comfort Fit Extreme Hunting / Mountain / Backpacking Boots:
Spent a lot of time researching these boots including reading all kinds of reviews and numerous conversations and specs / sizing verifications with a nice customer service guy. It seemed like what I wanted all around. The boot was a solid feeling boot with some weight to it and believe it has the potential to be a good boot. I ordered a pair and the experience turned into a disaster service, fit and quality wise, not to mention an incredible waste of a lot of my time. My time wasted is worth more than the boots. Also, Meindl USA is the only authorized seller of Meindl boots in the USA, and is the primary reviews site, so you won't get the variety of reviews you get when multiple independent retailers sell boots (e.g., like Lowa, Hanwag, etc.).
1) The box seemed a little cheap and boots fit overly snug in the box and the boots would pressure the box slightly. Boot box had some minor crumpling. Boots were terribly wrapped and the paper inside was cheap thin paper that looked used, and was crumpled and torn with not much boot protection.
2) The condition of the boots was terrible with all kinds of imperfections including lots of scrapes, scratches, wear marks, rub marks, stains, multiple finish discolorations (tan all the way up to dark brown). The right boot especially looked like the upper had been abused.
3) The laces were all over the place in the box and not tied up nice and neat high up on the boot as you normally see.
4) Tongues looked bad and had lots of dark or wear marks where laces touched the boots.
5) I am assuming this was a return from a previous customer. Don't they check their returns, especially before sending the boots out to another customer?
6) Sizing way off. I bought these boots specifically because it was confirmed as a D width boot with wider forefoot / toe area. Perfect for me as I need some room for my toes to splay, especially big toe room. I bought the 13D but it was like a very high volume 14 wide. I have been wearing D width shoes/boots all my adult life and these are nowhere near D width. Heel and mid foot were wide in addition the toe area and got noticeable heel slippage/rubbing. The length matched up to typical size 14 length. Foot bed measured 12 9/16 inches long.
7) The boots had a lot of extra lateral and vertical room. Way too much. When I tied down the boots snugly and walked, the leather would bow outward noticeably over the arch area.
8) Experienced heavy pressure / pinching on the base of my toes when bending the foot. Very uncomfortable. Actually more than uncomfortable as it actually hurt.
9) Boots had clearly identifiable manufacturing defects. The rand had a lot of hard inline small and larger bubbles in numerous areas on both boots. Looked like the boots had some horrible disease. I can't believe Meindl Europe would make such horribly defective boots and that Meindl USA would sell them to a customer. It's like impossible to miss so many obvious bubble and other sloppy defects. It is so noticeable that if Meindl Europe had no manufacturing quality controls at all, they couldn't help but catch it. Also, how did Meindl USA miss it and the other horrible condition problems?
10) Meindl USA rep was nice enough but you may want to focus on using emails for communications because, for some reason, they might not return my calls for days or not at all.
11) More trouble: When it came time for the return, they sent me an email with the UPS return label. Went to the UPS store and the guys said this is so blurry it can't be used. Meindl USA said they were sorry and would send another label. So I made another trip to the UPS store and the label was printable/usable this time but it was for USPS instead. So the next day I had to make a third trip to send back the boots, but just went to the post office. It got to them OK and they issued my refund.
12) I don't understand how the ratings are so good for Meindl USA boots. I can't be the only person over the past 10 years or so that had a horrible experience like this. Not a quality experience.
All said and done, I ended up with nothing from Meindl USA after all my time and aggravation. Not even a free pair of socks or something. If it was me, I would have given the customer a free pair of boots in this particular case, but obviously a different style. They just did not seem to care that much. Not to mention the major lack of quality by Meindl Europe, a major expensive boot manufacturer. I have owned 3 pair of Lowa's now and never had any problems after buying their boots. read more
