Well I'm one of those that has been converted into the life of wearing gaiters whenever doing any hiking/backpacking/hunting. I've been using some of the now discontinued REI Desert Gaiters and really liked the simplicity of them, but they began to fall apart after a year of use. I've been playing around with some hunting pack/vest gear and have a ton of Coyote Brown fabric/hardware on hand so I decided to make a little beefier set for my next outing. For this pair I used some of the 500 denier coated Cordura. I essentially replicated the REI gaiters, in that I used a velcro front closure, and a simple instep strap. I used some 1/8" shock cord, and will be adding some tough electrical heat shrink tubing over the shock cord after a trip to the auto parts store. If I find that the coated shock cord doesn't hold up well enough I'll go back to some paracord with heat shrink over it, like I was using on my REI setup. A trip to the local "Tandy Leather" provided me with the boot lace hooks, and the grommets, rivets, and necessary tools. I'm happy with my first attempt, and plan on ordering some of the Spandura type stretchy Cordura for a minimalist type pair that I might opt to simplify by making them slip on rather than velcro.
