I'm always looking for quality gear that's inexpensive. Why, because most people don't have cash to burn on the high-dollar stuff everyone on Instagram or YouTube love to hock. Sure, it's cool and all, but for the vast majority of folks who live paycheck to paycheck, it's not feasible for us to drop $600 without hurting financially for the next six to seven weeks.
Which is why I was intrigued by LaCrosse's Ursa GTX ES boots. They seem pretty rugged, are backed by a good warranty, and come in at a reasonable $250 price point.
Now, it might seem weird for a powersports website to be looking at a set of hunting boots, but I don't think so. For the vast majority of hunters trekking into the deer and elk woods right now on the back of an ATV or in a UTV, they're likely wearing their hunting boots while out on the trail. And for me, if it can work both in terms of keeping my feet planted with a little protection on an ATV, and hiking up a scree field, all the better.
So for the last three months, I've put these boots through hell and this week, I clipped over 450 miles of hiking, scouting, ATV riding, and UTV driving with them. They're phenomenal, though I have one issue with them that I hope to guilt LaCrosse into doing.
Please, please, please start offering a rejuvenation service for your boots.
I've had a few different hunting boots in the last two years, including full-hide leathers. LaCrosse's Ursa ES GTX's are my first set of synthetics and I took to them like a duck to water. Whereas I like the stability of a full-grain leather boot, especially during the winter months, the Ursa ES GTX's gave my ankle the flexibility to just move around like I was wearing a running shoe without sacrificing protection or stability.
That stability is largely down to its Vibram outsole, which is grippy as hell. The rubber is soft and just latches onto whatever you put your foot onto, whether that's the slippery metal floorboards of Kawasaki's Brute Force ATV (review coming soon) after a rain storm or soaking wet high-alpine mud. You feel like a mountain goat in these boots, especially as the toe-box is slightly flared outward to give you a more sure-footed footprint.
Moreover, the Ursa ES GTX's are tough as nails, as I slapped countless tree limbs, branches, and rocks with these boots, both while hiking and on the ATV, and they just kept going. They won't provide the sort of protection that an ADV or moto boot will, but when you're out hunting on the back of an ATV, you don't want to be switching from boot to boot. You're also likely not pushing the ATV as hard as you would during a mid-day romp, so the extra protection likely isn't necessary.
Breaking the boots in took all of a week, though I definitely hike more often than most folks. And while there was a little tightness and pinching at first in the tongue of the boot, that went completely away after I put a few more miles onto them. And since that break-in, they've only become more and more comfortable as I've hiked and rode further and further with them.
You end up forgetting you have on an 8-inch boot. That's largely thanks to them weighing a grand total of 2.5 pounds. But not everything is sunshine and daisies.
I have two small gripes about the Ursa ES GTX's. First, while the liner is waterproof thanks to Gore-Tex, if you get an ounce of water into them, it takes a while to dry out. And if you get stuck on the top of a mountain in a torrential summer storm, and are wearing slightly longer socks than the boot's 8-inch top, the rain will soak through your pants, into your socks, and you'll be SOL. I'd like to see LaCrosse figure out a way to dry them out a bit quicker, though that'd likely make them far less water resistant.
But my biggest issue is how these boots encourage you to go further, ride farther, hike with more weight on your back, and scramble up gnarlier spots, yet they can't be rejuvenated at all.
Now most people aren't going to put 450 miles onto a set of boots within a few months of getting them. They'll throw them on for a few hikes per year, a few hunts, or quick scouting on the back of an ATV or in a UTV. I know I'm an outlier. And as the engineering edge-case, I've completely worn out the midsoles of the boots, as the EVA foam is compacted and getting to the point where it's just not providing the same support or cushion it once did.
Similarly, the Vibram outsoles are definitely showing the miles, as parts of the tread have been damaged, ground down, or cut from the rocks and vibrations of the Kawasaki's floorboards. But the rest of the boot is fine. It looks nearly identical to how it exited the box. I could see these boots lasting another 450 miles without issue, so long as I got new outsoles and midsoles. Having a restoration service would likely make these boots the best around.
I know a bunch of other fancy-pants boot makers do it, why can't LaCrosse?
In the end, despite those two small issues, the Ursa ES GTX's are some solid-ass boots. Their $250 price tag is extremely reasonable for how much capability they offer, as well as how well they stand up to just constant abuse. And even though I've nearly blown out the foam, there's still meat on the bone and I plan on using them until I absolutely can't.
I just wish I could send them in, pay a little cash, get them spruced up, and get back out on the trail—whether that's on the back of an ATV or using my own two legs.
