Where to get Army Pros?

Skyhawk1990

I'm looking to buy a pair of Meindl Army Pros. Can anyone tell me where the best place in Dublin is? Or even which website
it's good to get them off?

steyr fan

great outdoors on chatham st, just off grafton st - bought mine last year, excellent choice.

Happy wearing.

Skyhawk1990

Thanks, can you give me a rough price guide?

minidazzler

I saw on a website a price of GB£160 so be prepared to spend alot of money!!!

Why do you want them? Have you looked at other options? Do you want them so that you can say you have meindls?

steyr fan

cost me e210 - expensive but worth every cent. Maybe a bit on the heavy side, but there is great ankle support. I have tried many types of boot over the years, and there is none to compare with the army pro.

However, each to his own.

bunny shooter

I bought them. I've been punishing my feet for years in inferior boots. Got mine from Protac at the Curragh Camp.

Skyhawk1990

minidazzler wrote: »

Why do you want them? Have you looked at other options? Do you want them so that you can say you have meindls?

The only boots I have are magnums and i'm going to be doing tactics during the summer so i want a boot that's water-proof and more comfortable. Don't get me wrong the mags are comfortable but i don't want to spend ages getting muck out of the fabric on them. Yes, i have looked at other options and from what i've read and heard from friends the pros are the best of the lot of them.

Skyhawk1990

Thanks again.

Irish_Army01

I had Army Pro for about 7 years.. they finally gave in after 3 overseas trips and a sniper cse.

Great Boot, cept they they don't do well on wet surfaces/rocks. trust me.

Just be careful when crossing rivers and standing on wet rocks;)

Skyhawk1990

Thanks for the info. By the way where'd you go oversees? How'd it go?

neilled

Should state quite clearly I'm not military but I have a background in hillwalking etc and I worked in two well known gearshops that aren't TGO in dublin! An alternative that may be worth looking at is the HanWag Special Force GTX. Approximately the same price, similar spec with a slightly different fit. Whilst the Meindl's come highly recommended the shape will not fit ever person's foot, and as someone who used to fit boots, I can only recommend that you try as many boots as possible and go for what feels right for you.

muletide

Skyhawk1990 wrote: »

I'm looking to buy a pair of Meindl Army Pros. Can anyone tell me where the best place in Dublin is? Or even which website
it's good to get them off?

Skyhawk

You need to ensure you really need the Meindls - they are expensive, heavy and only really come into their own when worn for long periods without a break


Dont get me wrong I am on my second pair of Army Pros, the first lasted 6 years and they were worth every penny. But I only wore them when the occasion called for it i.e. 3 - 7 days on ground, overseas missions etc


I presume you are in the RDF and are going on camp for a week, therefore you will be doing low level tactics during the day and back to the billets at night.

Magnums are perfect for this, they are light, will keep you cool, easy to move quickly in and will almost dry overnight

If I am correct in my assumptions - save your money stick with the magnums

Irish_Army01

Skyhawk1990 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. By the way where'd you go oversees? How'd it go?

It was the Lebanon.;)

minidazzler

If you are gonna be going on the Ground for a period of not less than 72 hrs then rewuest Ops boots. (Not Magnums say Ops boots.)

That is if you are RDF.

They are on the scale of issue for RDF members as long as you are gonna be on the ground for 3 days straight.


I must ask, Since you would get them if you were going out for 3 days and you wont get them then I assume you are not going out for 3 days then why would you use 3 days (RDF) Pay on a pair of boots?

You will get too little use out of them to justify the expenditure in my opinion unless you regularily go hill walking and Orienteering.

Sputnik

Great Boot, cept they they don't do well on wet surfaces/rocks. trust me.

Just be careful when crossing rivers and standing on wet rocks

Ain't that the truth! They don't do smooth wet surfaces at all, I've nearly ended up on my arse just walking down the street in the rain.

For everything else they're the dogs bollox. I sometimes wear mine day to day because they're so comfortable.

Lockstep

Ah, the aul magnum.

I've fallen in love with my pair.


Excellent, excellent boot.

minidazzler

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Ah, the aul magnum.

I've fallen in love with my pair.


Excellent, excellent boot.

Wait till you get Muck in the Fabric!!!!!

Since you havent gone on Recruit camp yet this might help. Bring a Brush for your Magnums. Not a Polishing brush more of a Hard wire Brush.

It will be the best way to get rid of Muck!!!

miss no stars

minidazzler wrote: »

I must ask, Since you would get them if you were going out for 3 days and you wont get them then I assume you are not going out for 3 days then why would you use 3 days (RDF) Pay on a pair of boots?

They also reckon you only need three tshirts and three pairs of socks. Nor do they reckon you need dryflo gear unless you're doing a 72 hour ex. And since when have we gotten everything we request? That's quite a silly comment to make.

Magnums do NOT have enough support in the ankle for sustained tactics. Remember, even if you're back in the billets for the evenings; spending around 11-13 hours doing tactics a day for a week will allow the strain on your joints to build up. I found this out the hard way when I was wearing a pair of boots similar to the magnums and ended up damaging ligaments because the strain on my joints was gradually increasing. Don't forget, it only takes one small hole in the ground that you don't see to go over on your ankle and snap it. It could happen as you're going out the gate to do one section in attack and equally it could happen 70 hours into a 72 hour ex.

The best bet if people are thinking of buying their own boots is to look for a pair that firstly, have leather around the ankle - material just won't provide the support you need. Secondly, make sure you try different boots on until you find a pair that fit you and that you find comfortable. A decent pair of boots is actually well worth investing three days pay in. If you buy anything, it should be a pair of decent boots. After all, if your feet, ankles and knees are banjaxed, how do you expect to carry your gucci webbing and bergen? And don't just get the boots. Get a decent pair of liner socks, such as coolmax socks and good thick socks to go over the liners, like meindl socks or bridgedale socks. They're pricey enough but well worth it. The construction of them and the materials will allow sweat to be wicked away and if your boots are goretex lined, the sweat will be able to evaporate out of the boots. Your priority should be to look after your feet so to say that magnums provide enough support for weeks of tactics is folly. How long have you been sworn in, minidazzler, anyway?

The second thing I would invest in is a decent base layer. Cotton kills. Even if you are back to billets at the end of the day, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna be working up a sweat and then stopping and freezing. A wicking layer will stop this happening and will keep you dry, warm/cool (they do both) and comfortable. Any fool can be uncomfortable and endure it, not anyone can be comfortable.

minidazzler

OK I guess when you put it like that!!!

I do have Haix though and if you read back you will see I never suggested that he use his Magnums for Tactics. I dont even use them in the Barracks anymore.

miss no stars

sorry, I confused your post with kickoutthejams's post. My bad

Irish_Army01

I don't rate the Magnums for Tactics at all, they're to light and offer little if no protection to the ankle.

Lockstep

miss no stars wrote: »

sorry, I confused your post with kickoutthejams's post. My bad

Eh? All I did was say I love the boots.

miss no stars

You'll learn to hate them when your feet are soaked through, cold and blistering from the water stuck inside them and you wake up in bits afterwards because they've offered you no support at all. Comfy for barracks? My god yes, as long as you're indoors in the barracks...

Lockstep

miss no stars wrote: »

You'll learn to hate them when your feet are soaked through, cold and blistering from the water stuck inside them and you wake up in bits afterwards because they've offered you no support at all. Comfy for barracks? My god yes, as long as you're indoors in the barracks...

Grand, cheers for the help.

steyr fan

I saw the Army Pro in Mahers Cork yesterday - two hundred and sixty flippin euro (that's right - e260).

And guess what - the guy in Mahers said that within 12 months they could be e300.

A lot of money, but still great boots.

sf

Skyhawk1990

Thanks to all for the info.

Skyhawk1990

Sputnik wrote: »

I've nearly ended up on my arse just walking down the street in the rain.

Nice.

arybvtcw0eolkf

steyr fan wrote: »

I saw the Army Pro in Mahers Cork yesterday - two hundred and sixty flippin euro (that's right - e260).

And guess what - the guy in Mahers said that within 12 months they could be e300.

A lot of money, but still great boots.

sf

Trust me, if your paying that for a pair of boots you've more money than sense.

steyr fan

minidazzler wrote: »

Wait till you get Muck in the Fabric!!!!

Try to say that when you're pssied

gollem_1975

are these the army pros you are talking about ?

http://www.jackson-sports.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=4777

its a decent price compared to the GTO and free delivery to Ireland and the UK

rgds,

Gollem

concussion

steyr fan wrote: »

I saw the Army Pro in Mahers Cork yesterday - two hundred and sixty flippin euro (that's right - e260).

River Deep in Limerick has the Army Gore for EU 190 - a good bit cheaper but they are the shorter cut boot.

gollem_1975 wrote: »

are these the army pros you are talking about ?

http://www.jackson-sports.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=4777

its a decent price compared to the GTO and free delivery to Ireland and the UK

rgds,

Gollem

No, these are the Pro's http://www.bramwell-int.co.uk/meindl/meindl-military.html

Seems a good price on those Eagles, haven't heard much about them though.

neilled

Had a quick glance down the thread and I'm surprised that Magnums would be issued. As I've said before I've a background in hillwalking and working in some of the shops in dublin were the DF (not army bargins or tgo) buy alot of kit and the feedback I got on them was fairly poor and they weren't a product I pushed that hard. Out of curiosty, which type of Magnum is issued? Is it the one constructed out of fabric and leather? If so thats a bit..... silly. I had a member of a Mountain Rescue team who thrashed a pair of well regarded fabric boots within two months.

Bizzarely hitecs consumer hiking boots have come on leaps and bounds and if they done a military version of them you'd have an interesting prospect.
I imagine for urban use etc magnums might be useful but taking it on a hillwalking perspective, the tread on the sole is a tad shallow for my liking, the uppers are a bit floopy and internally the cut is a bit all over the place. There's no PU midsole like the Meindl Hanwag or Lowa boot either. On backpacking trips I've carried something like 28kg (not all mine mind you, had to take it off others who couldn't cope) and you need the support and cushioning. I imagine a soldier carrying ammo, weapons etc would be at a similar amount? Anyone? Then again I suspect I'm going to be told I'm a prancing sissie civvie who needs all the flashy gear to compensate!

As for the price - last year, much to my surprise our suppliers announced an increase in footwear prices. This was reflected by the distributors of Lowa and Meindl as well. Obviously the overheads are going up and Meindl have jacked the cost and passed it on.

I actually use the Han Wag military boot myself which is quite similar to the Army Gore (Not the pro), seriously comfy, although like the Meindl the soles can be slippy on rock/cobblestone.

Basically manufacturers like Vibram can do two things - soften the rubber used giving it greater traction in the wet and on smooth surfaces, but reduce the durability.

Or alternatively harden the rubber, increase the lifespan and make things that bit more slippy. Its a double edged sword and most manufacturers have tried to come up with a balance.

minidazzler

neilled, The Magnums are supposed to only be used in Barracks for light duties which only require walking/leggin it around to barracks. They are not for Tactics but they are used for it because some people have no other Boots. The Magnums are grand for what we are supposed to use them for.