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Handcrafted in our Montebelluna, Italy factory the Men's Tribute II LTR has a beautiful full grain leather upper with a full grain leather liner that is buttery soft and highly breathable.
Full Description
Italian Leather
The 2.0mm Premium Italian leather exterior provides protection across rugged terrain.
Vibram Sole
The Vibram Sendera sole grips on just about anything. Perfect for hiking trails with loose dirt and rock slabs.
Elica Natural Stride System
The Elica Natural Stride System ensures an anatomical fit to provide better stability and weight distribution across the sole of your shoe. This improved fit reduces pressure points and encourages better posture and movement, reducing fatigue and increasing comfort.
Lining Description: Full Grain Leather
Sole: Vibram Sendera
Footbed: AKU Felt
Stiffness: Medium
Lasting board: TPU
Midsole: Injected PU
Upper: 2.0mm Full Grain Leather
Resoleable: No
Weight: 664grams Per Boot
Handcrafted By AKU in Italy
These are good boots for fit, comfort and simplicity. But that is all wasted when the sole wears through completely and they can't be re-soled. I first noticed when the bottoms of my feet began to feel damp. I looked at the soles of the boots only to find that the rubber had completely worn off in patches, exposing the foam-like material underneath. Apparently it sucks up moisture into the boot now, and will only degrade further.
I've visited a couple of cobblers in the Toronto area, to be quoted extremely high estimates for resoling - more than the cost of new boots!
Looking on Aku's website I see that these boots are listed as "Non-resolable". Why??? Of all the things to do, this makes no sense. You have an otherwise great boot that is completely wasted because the sole won't last and can't be replaced!
And that just makes it worse - the care, effort and pride that Aku seemed to put into the design, materials and construction of this boot makes the sole's failure sting all the more when the happy owners realize that their great boots are now, effectively, garbage. This really hurts any credibility or name that Aku is looking for, and because it's such a mismatch with the rest of the boot, seems like a blatantly cynical decision to use such a poor sole AND make it un-fixable. I thought outdoors companies were trying to do better these days?
Not to mention Vibram, who advertise their 'eco' cred with some resoling program that is a) not available in Canada and b) not available for these soles.
So why bother?
Answer for potential buyers: Unless they fix the sole issue - "good boots" turns into "good question".
I have purchased two pairs of the men's Tribute II LTR hiking boots. The boots are very comfortable and the break in period is reasonably short (about 100km). The leather is good quality and if treated well maintains a weatherproof boot as well. Over time they fit like a pair of comfortable slippers and have become my everyday boot. The Vibram sole is very well known and is seen as one on the better quality soles to put on a boot. However, there has been a lot of reviews with slipping when wet or slippery when on wet rock. I haven't experienced this issue in the time I have hiked in wet rocky conditions. Unfortunately, the Vibram sole wears out far too quickly and the Tribute II cannot be resoled effectively. This is also noted on the AKU website for these boots. Sure, there is always a shoe repairer (cobbler) that will attempt to resole them, but they always come apart after a couple of months. I attempted to resole my first pair with many shoe repairers telling me that I had missed the resole timeline and were too worn down to be repaired. I eventually found a shoe repairer that was willing to resole them but the resoles came of within 2 months. I bought a second pair and made sure that I would catch the starting of sole wear and take them straight to a shoe repairer before missing the resole timeline. The shoe repairers looked at the boots and just said that they cannot resole this type of hiking boot because it will come off after a few months without getting the genuine sole from the manufacturers. AKU do not offer a new sole or any resoling services. So I am now left with two pairs of boots with worn soles with not resole replacement service. The Vibram soles lasted me 11 to 12 months of hiking and have been left with looking at other brands of boots with a different sole or that offer resoling services to get more than 1 year out of a pair of boots. To reiterate, the AKU Tribute boot is a great comfortable leather hiking boot, but the Vibram soles are garbage and because of this the boots are not worth buying for 12 months of wear.
Definition of optimism. Buying another pair of these shortly after my 80th birthday. These are by far the best all leather, very breathable yet fully waterproof right down to the junker worn out tread stage boots for hiking and everyday wear. It’s a generous fitting boot that accommodates different sock thicknesses easily and requires little to no break in. At one time Vibram soles had a warranty against wearing out before the boot. With these they would lose badly. I’ve had three pairs of these since about 2000. My current pair still has lots of life but we have decided to do indoor walking at the Leduc rec centre this year avoiding some of the consequences of my balance challenges with my screwed up left hip and my Parkinson’s. The rec centre requires a separate dedicated pair of foot wear.
Oh, and by the way, Aku Ca on line is a great company to deal with.