NOS Hiking Boots Merrell, ASOLO

[Brian Devlin]

I don’t want to post an open ended “any interest” post in the GEAR SWAP forum but I just came across these NOS boxed boots at my Dad’s.  Do either of these have value these days?  He said get rid of ’em.  Why in the world someone would buy a spare pair of $125 Asolos is just nuts!  And this is 1990.  A product of a child growing up in the depression era.

[Brian Devlin]

Sorry!  Duplicated post.  Obviously this is the one with Photos.

[Nick Gatel]

What our parents can teach us . . .

If a piece of gear works well, it will soon be discontinued. So buy extras while you can.

Thus, I completely understand the NOS boots.

[Jason McSpadden]

I learned this principle from Collin Fletcher’s book as Herblock’s Law:  If it’s good they’ll stop making it.

[Nick Gatel]

I learned this principle from Collin Fletcher’s book as Herblock’s Law:  If it’s good they’ll stop making it.

I like it!

So these are probably older than most folks here on BPL: Sigg Tourist cook sets.

The one in front still has the tags. I think it cost $12.50 new.

 

It still has the original packing material in it:

 

Stuff below I still use occasionally. Same age is this special Sigg Tourist set with a windscreen for a Svea 123 stove:

 

The last one holds an early MSR Whisperlite (you can tell by the yellow pump):

 

If I live until 2022 or 2023, this stuff will be 50 years old, except for the WhisperLite, which will be a youthful 38 years old. The red Sigg fuel bottle (below) is older than the stove.

[Paul McLaughlin]

Just a little caution on old boots vs. old stoves and pots: with boots that old , failure of the glue attaching the soles  becomes fairly likely, whether used or not. Old stoves don’t have that issue – though if really old, and not used for a long time, you might need a dab of sno-seal on the pump leather. I need to do that occasionally on my old Coleman suitcase stove. Roughly early 50’s vintage I think. The only piece of gear I own that is older than I am.

[Edward John M]

Soles are pretty easy to reglue tho, done it twice so far on old La Sportiva boots. It helps tho if you can source a decent solid last to beat them down on using a medium sized mallet.

Boot lasts do come up for sale on eBay reasonably often, but also often massively overpriced as “decorator” items. Still looking myself as my dads lasts got sold off before I could claim them, shoe lasts are more common so should be cheaper

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