Heschung - Gentleman's Hiking Boot

Heschung (1934) of Alsace

You wait five years for hiking boots to be featured and then a second pair comes along almost straight after the first. No doubt you will have ordered the Fracap boots for your Everest expedition, but do consider these for the K2 trip you will make soon after.

They are made exclusively for Manufactum by Alsatian shoemakers Heschung (1934). Dear, dear Manufactum — strolling around their shop in Munich is one of life's pleasures — each item they stock is rigorously selected for provenance, quality, craftsmanship and materials.

Manufactum take John Ruskin's observation to heart: 'There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper.'  They hope — as we all do — that we can return to a time when competition is based on quality rather than the marketing or pricing of inferior imitations.

The Heschung boot, which is described plainly as a High Cut Gentleman's Shoe, but looks distinctly like a hiking boot to me, is made from aniline-dyed full-grain calfskin, with obligatory vibram sole and a double-stitched storm welt.

The ankle strap is designed to fix the boot snugly around the ankle, so that you can eat up those miles in comfort as you make your ascent.

If one were to cavil, it would be that the laces could be in traditional red. A feature easily remedied. A reader recently told me that the use of red laces for hiking boots might have started because manufacturers used parachute cord for its strength, and the cord tended to be red. This makes sense to me, but I also never want to break with tradition — so red it must be.