I wear very similar boots everyday. Don’t do many road marches but I routinely put in 8-10 miles a day. My experience is while they are definitely more comfortable with some miles on them, they don’t require a lot of break-in.

Lots of advice here already but will add mine...I would take a close look at the fit. Also very important are the type of socks. Cotton socks are terrible. They make your feet sweat, then they hold the moisture on the skin. Damp feet=blister city!

The 2 pairs of socks never worked for me. A single pair of decent hiking type socks. They can be performance fabric or wool. I prefer wool, wear it year around. A nice pair of appropriate weight wool hiking socks will do wonders.

Good luck and glad to see she is off and running with ROTC. It’s a great program to be involved in.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sauer Kraut,

I would suggest SmartWool medium weight socks, that's all I wore with issue boots. I have those boots from my last issue and like them but if they are the Gore-Tex lined ones, they are warm. The only time I had blisters was from ill fitting boots. I usually bought my own that were approved for wear, Belleville 590. It was easier to get the right size. I'd wear a 7.5 in one style and a 6XW in another.

I assume the blisters are in the heel area? Very likely too big, I usually buy them pretty snug and try to shop at the end of the day when my feet are the most likely to be swollen.

Moleskin of course. Learn how to treat blisters, I've seen folks slap a piece of Moleskin on a blister without trimming a hole in it to reduce pressure.

Another thing for boot fit, keep the pants out of the boot. I know they are supposed to be bloused, but get some blousing bands and blouse on the outside of the boot.

If needed during the day, swap to dry socks. I would suggest at minimum at lunch time if possible. I would rather try to eat on the move than have wet feet if given the option.

Two pairs of socks can be a detriment if the boots are new and too tight. I've had the best luck with merino wool socks in a "proper" weight. No cotton!

If the blisters are on her heels, she can loosen the top half of the boots a LOT. Or leave the tops untied altogether (if allowed), just while they break in. This will keep the leverage pressure off of the heels.

I wish her luck!

quote:

Originally posted by ulsterman:
Wear two pair of socks. One thin set of liners and a thicker outer layer.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Best information there.

Quality socks are a must. I’d recommend Duluth Trading 7yr merino wool boot socks. That’s all I wear and I have worn Danner boots every day for years. Two pairs of socks can be tricky and may bring other issues to the table.

I can’t tell the brand from the photo; is it acceptable to supply your own brand of boot so long as they are approved?

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:

quote:

Originally posted by ulsterman:
Wear two pair of socks. One thin set of liners and a thicker outer layer.

This 1000%. Gar un teed.

This worked for me. I wore a pair of my dress socks under my boot socks and never had an issue.

Treating any hotspot is critical and should be done at the first rest. I was pretty lucky, probably from all my time in the Scouts, that I never had many issues but on the occasion that I felt a hotspot I would slap some moleskin on it before I even pulled out my canteen.

Get her a pair of Danners that fit. Call Danner direct. If she is hard to fit they will work with you to make boots that fit. My daughter was hard to fit and they made a pair for her and saved her a lot of grief in OTS.

Totally disagree with they need to be snug. A little loose ( most women get sizes too small) then the padding of heavy socks.
I also tell people a simple truth if you put the boot or shoe on and it does not immediately feel perfectly comfortable it is the wrong size or style period. When limited to certain types in uniform trying every approved type in every size up to one full size smaller or larger until if feels right the instant you put it on. Spent over 25years in military boots and never had a blister or even hot spot

I wore two pairs in Iraq exactly like that, A.make sure they fit there is no breaking them in. B. Good thick socks C. buy something else, I bought a pair of converse boots at the PX at FOB Warrior and never looked back.

We had the old leather ones and we broke them in with a nice easy 5 mile road march with full pack. LOL !!! God Bless

I’ve never had to “break in” those suede type boots, they are pretty soft and flexible already. Is it possible she has a size too small?

Also, tell her to buy lots of foot powder! Douse her feet before putting socks on, then throw some more in each boot too. Makes a huge difference.

Sock liners. Wear them every time I go hiking/backpacking

Even with properly fitted boots you can still get blisters after long hikes/marches. Wearing two pairs of socks helps, but she can also wear band-aids over the areas where she has gotten blisters before to help prevent them.

When I was in the army the accepted method of breaking in combat boots was to soak them in hot water until they were completely soaked, put them on and walk them dry.

I did that when prepping for 5th army NCO academy. Said academy involved a LOT of marching and walking during that 6 weeks.

Never got a blister.

Moleskin over previously blistered areas (hopefully healed) is far more effective than Band-Aids. The latter simply don’t stay in place well enough with heavy friction and perspiration working on them. They will bunch up and can make things worse.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Moleskin over previously blistered areas (hopefully healed) is far more effective than Band-Aids. The latter simply don’t stay in place well enough with heavy friction and perspiration working on them. They will bunch up and can make things worse.

This.

Moleskin can actually prevent blisters if you feel the hot spot coming on.

I also echo the "not too tight" when it comes to footwear - when properly fitted you should always be able to make them 'too tight' when laced up tight, then be able to adjust the fit to perfect by loosening to normal tightness.

I agree with quality Merrill / etc type boots you should never get blisters (when the reason why lots of SOF guys DONT wear issue combat boots), but with issue boots, sometimes it just happens, especially with new boots on forced marches where you CANT stop.

And sometimes, the feet just need to be toughened up. If she wears them to class, but doesn't do a lot of walking during the day, that's not much help.

Many folks have soft feet because they don't have to wear boots or do things that require their feet to be tough. Tennis shoes and sandals and such just baby the feet.

Think of it like the hands of an office worker vs the hands of tradesman.

THose boots do look like the Belleville Gore-Tex boot. Make the feet sweat more.

Belleville does make a womens boot in a few styles, this is my favorite style https://www.bellevilleboot.com...=product_detail&p=24 though I wear the mens version, the 390DES.

For an example of sizing, I wear a 6XW in the 390DES and an 8 in Lowa Ronin boots and they fit and feel similar to me.

Good boots that fit properly shouldn't need much if any breaking in.

Sock liners with wool outer socks, no cotton socks ever...

Moleskin.

Use...

The wet trick is more for leather boots.

Since everyone else covered using moleskin, good socks and various ways of breaking them in, I'll only add one thing that helped me through the years: proper lacing.
Don't crisscross them all the way up. Where it breaks at the ankle, just skip that area, and then crisscross to the top. Hope that makes sense.

My rheumatologist recently told me that we never really break in shoes or boots.
We can make marginal changes to make them more wearable, but that in fact we are breaking in our feet. He says that our feet change as much and usually more than the footwear we struggle with. That level of comfort we feel when we think that our footwear has finally broken in is actually due more to changes our feet have gone through.
These changes in our feet begin to show as we get older (hammer toe, etc...) which is why I'm seeing a doctor about my tired old hurting feet.
Go figure.