• I got these USMC boots for $30 at a gun show in the early aughts. They might have been cheap knock-offs of cheap knock-offs. But they felt like a dream and I could wear them all day and walk for miles without a complaint.

    And when I walked them apart eight years later, I couldn’t find a similar pair that felt right.

    Curiously, my buddy got a pair (different style) from the same vendor at the same show, and her soles fell apart in six months. It’s like I got Aladdin’s Lamp of military boots.