Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Meindl boot failure

Bought these as a spare maybe 2 years ago. Finally wore out my last pair after 7 years so got these out to break in last night. Within 10 minutes I noticed the edges of the sole sort of crumbling. Then this, on both boots. Anyone ever seen such a thing? Stored indoors in a room in the basement. Cabelas discontinued the meindl line so I’m sure no recourse there. I’ve owned 5 pairs snd ordered a pair direct from meindl USA tonight to replace. Just curious what would’ve caused this?

Chinese glue?

Seems saw a thread about this.

I had a pair of Vasques do that. That sucks

Pretty common with Polyurethane soles... regardless of manufacturer... happens from age, not use.

https://www.safetyjogger.com/en/eu/technical/hydrolysis#:~:text=Hydrolysis%20is%20the%20chemical%20breakdown,by%20warmth%20and%20high%20humidity.

I had the exact same pair do that 3 weeks ago. Mine were purchased in 2012 and always stored in my closet.
Haven’t checked for recourse as I have a few pairs of boots.

I believe they are leaving something out of the rubber compound. Everything rubber fails much faster than it used to. Rocky Mountain Resole can fix those.

Send to Dave Page for a resole if you like them. Love my Meindls, but wouldn’t buy the Cabelas branded ones.

I saw a similar thread not that long ago. Obviously the midsole rotted away but I have no idea what would cause it. Maybe bad glue as you said.

Moisture.

Like many boots with that molded Polyurethane construction they don't like humid environments.

There is no glue involved - the boot is placed in a mold, which is then filled with the PU sole. Comes out as one piece.

They will last for decades when kept dry, but if allowed to soak up humidity the rubber essentially de-links and you get what happened to your boots.

Pity, they are really good boots and should not have died that early.

Common thing with the Cabelas Meindl boots. My buddy and I both had our soles delaminate on our Meindl's after a few years. He took his to a shoe repair shop but the fix didn't last.

Same thing happened to mine except they were 10+ years old

Yep just retired a pair because of that...I’ve had a couple pair over the years same thing.

It's called quality control - if you can control the quality to wear out or fail within a certian time frame, you can sell another pair. Everyone, it seems, has gone that direction instead of quality improvement. I'd contact Meindl directly and air it out. For what you paid, they should make it right.

Every single pair of Rocky’s I’ve ever had did the same thing, the bottom of the boot just disintegrated.

Some of the rubber components in the machines I serviced would just disintegrate, not worn out just melt or crumble. We called it "timing out". Some of the mfg said ozone was a factor but some of the machines didn't generate any at all. Later on we had replacements still in the bag fail so we knew it wasn't any solvents or other cleaners the techs were using.
I could see whatever glue they used to bond the sole attacking the other side?

As I said above. Send to Dave Page for a re sole. I sent him a pair in November and got them back 5 weeks from the day I mailed them good as new.

Meindl doesn’t care what happened to the Cabelas branded boots.

I’ve had multiples of the hikers and hunters and no issues. These were brand new and kept the same place o keep all my guns, reloading equipment, fishing gear etc.
Ordered a pair from Meindl USA to replace because they’re the most Comfortable boot I’ve ever owned.
Looking at Danner Santiam’s as an alternative though. Used to wear Danner’s exclusively til I switched to meindl.

I’ll check into it now.

Anyone owned the Meindl USA boots and can speak to the quality?

My son and I both had something like that happen with some Rocky Stalkers years ago. The soles either disintegrated or separated from the rest of the boot after just one or two seasons.