+1
Gave mine a viking funeral on the river bank of the Togiak when my chotas showed up.

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Gave mine a viking funeral on the river bank of the Togiak when my chotas showed up.


OP fisher. How do you like your Chota's? Have been checking them out to replace the last set of Danners I wear. I need the tight support. To me nothing worse to have my foot slip around inside the boot when needing optimum traction.

Sorry but I don't understand the anti-korker sentiment. I agree that the old design with the velcro was not good, but the new design is as rock solid as i can imagine. I have a hard time taking them out when I want to change them, let alone having them come out at any other time. I love them and the versatility is unmatched in my opinion...sorry some of you have had bad experiences.

CM

The new ones, for me at least, fell out just as often, and just as easily...and seemed to pick the most inopportune times to do it.

Fish on...

Todd

Your boots are probably your most important safety equipment if you're wading. If you wade like me, you have to have bombproof boots that grip the bottom like an anchor. I consider my studs to be like river cramp-ons and there are rivers I just don't fish without them. That said, not all studs are equal (bigger is better). I've worn mostly Simms studded boots for the last 10 or 12 years and have been very happy with them. That said, the studs do tire your feet out if you walk in them much.

RnG- Love them, they aren't super expensive but they worked really well and comfy. I put 2 years on my first pair at about 200 days a year on the water.... I finally just killed the felt but after that long no complaints, exceeded my expectations.
The only down side I have heard from people is the elatstic can break fairly easily on them, mine never did, maybe im not as hard on them as others or I got lucky but never had that problem.

Todd, Did you have the type that clip into the toe? Just curious.

Thanks,

CM

CM, I'm not doubting your experience with them and perhaps they are much improved from what I experienced.

I'm sot sure what type Todd had but mine had soles with a "tab" in the front that would slide into the rubber part of the boot. You then basically had to step down on the boots to get the back of the sole to snap in. After that, you used the velco strap on the back of the sole and looped it through the clip and velcroed it shut.

If the back part of the sole pops out, it would is an inconvenience but not a hazzard. My problem is that the front would free itself in the middle of the river, leaving me walking on the slick rubber and having the sole flop around, still attached (usually) by the velcro snap.

I forgot to mention this earlier but after dealing with Korkers, they actually did SELL me a replacement sole (after NOT just giving me one because "how were they to know I wasn't just making it up"). I took that replacement sole (and the remaining one that hadn't yet been washed away) and Shoe-Goo'ed them into the rubber, thereby making them non-removeable soles. I figured I'd just wear them out over the next year and then never buy them again. Well, I went fishing in the snow shortly afterward and while I had managed to permanently get the soles fixed to the boot, THE FELT ITSELF PULLED OFF OF THE GLUED-IN SOLE. That was the last straw.

True to what I told Korkers when they went into dick-model and called me a liar, I will continue to tell my story and experience with their products and customer service. I actually hope that I've cost them money. I think I was especially offended because I was calling their Portland office and, foolishly, thought they would be some decent type of Pacific NW fishermen.

To be fair, and to make this excruciatingly long, here is the e-mail exchange I had with Korkers after they were (ironically) sending me e-mails trying to get me to buy their stuff. The only reason they even had my e-mail address is because I had complained to them. To be fair, this Nick guy seems to actually care and demonstrated customer service completely unlike what I received during my initial contact with them.

E-mail thread starts below:
--------------------------------------------------

Ironic that you would e-mail me as the only contact I've ever had with Korkers has been entirely negative.

I bought some of your shitty boots a while back and, like everyone else I've talked to that owned them, the soles started randomly falling off when wading. I called and talked to someone in Portland Korkers facility about the issue one time and they essentially called me a liar and told me that the boots I purchased "could not" have been purchased when I said they had because he had "taken them off of the shelves himself". At that point, I was offered the "deal" of sending them back for credit towards a better pair. No thanks.

Eventually, I convinced him to ship me the sole I was missing and I was charged something like $15.

After that, I've made sure to let my story be known to thousands of people via a prominent salmon and steelhead message board. It is amazing to me how many people have had similarly poor experiences. Sometimes, one asshole employee can have a large effect on future sales.

Loving my Simms,
AP
---------------------------------------

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 5:03 PM, Nick Colasurdo <Nick@korkers.com> wrote:

Aaron,

Thanks for the email, that sounds like a shitty deal and I apologize that no one took care of you properly. This company changed hands a little while ago and some things have certainly changed. I have been here about a year and a half and I handle all of our customer service now.

While I have talked to a few people who have had an issue with the Konvertible series boots, more often than not people seem to love those. For every bad review I have seen, there are plenty of good ones to go along with them. I just had a guy call up here the other day who wanted to buy another pair of the older models and refused to get an updated model that we offer now. I had to dig a pair out of a sample bin to sell him. Anyways, my point is that there are tons of people who have had those boots for 4-5 years and never had a problem. I do apologize that your situation wasn't handled properly though, that's not the way we operate these days. The old owner is gone and with him went the staff.

We have some really great new products and I would like to offer you something that we don't normally do. I understand that you have your Simms now, so you may not even be interested, but I can get you a new pair of Korkers boots for a very low price. Basically it would be close to our cost.

If you want, let me know if this is something you would be interested in.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience.

Nick

From: AP
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:36 PM
To: Nick Colasurdo
Subject: Re: Korkers Buy One, Get One Free Konvertible Sole Event

------------------------------

Nick,

Thanks for the reply. I only wish I would have ended up talking with you when I called a while back. At the time, it was just so discouraging to call a fellow Pacific-Northwesterner and have that type of experience.

I appreciate the offer for a discounted rate on some new boots but I'm actually happy with what I've got now. I wish you luck in the future and hope you can overcome the unfortunate reputation that Korker has earned with a segment of the fishing popluation. Tight lines!

Thanks, Aaron

Aaron, thanks for the info....I did have the same problem with the "old" style with the velcro strap and I too would feel the same way if I was treated as you were. In all fairness though the new models are lock solid. They actually have two notches that the front clips into and rubber lanyard with a hook in the back instead of the velcro. Even with the back unattached I have a hard time forcing the front toe clip out to change the insoles...I do not see any way they could ever pop out like the old style did....hopefully these are just a great improvement. So far, so good.

CM

Both, two pairs of the "old ones", and two pairs of the "new ones"...and unlike Aaron, I never even got one single reply to many emails and phone calls...utterly ignored.

Like I said, I'm glad Sportco was willing to stand behind them and give me a credit towards new boots...new boots that were not, will not, and never again will be Korker's.

The only difference for me between the "old" and "new" styles is that the newer ones were even harder to get in...they seemed to fall out just as easily as the old ones did.

Joe watched me stumble around the N.Fk. Sky without a sole for half a day in two feet of snow...killer. Then the following year he saw me lose a sole off the "new" ones while crossing a tailout on the Sol Duc...also killer.

"Killer" as in the fuckin things were trying to kill me.

Due to the multiple failures of the product, and the total failure in customer service, they'll get nothing but bad reviews from me in person, or right here on the webz.

If some of you have had good luck with the products, or with the company, then more power to you. They won't get a dime of my money, and if I have my way, they won't get a dime of any of my friends' money, either.

Fish on...

Todd

The old style sucked ass and it probably would have ended bad if it was winter time (Flows up, cold water); however it was a hot summer day in low water. I was wading on the sky and the front fell out leaving the back attached, this is when im trying to cross a heavy midstream pool that was probably 3 feet deep and zipping pretty good. I totally fell face first into the water and got washed downstream a good 50-100 yards. Thank god the water shallowed out into a gradual bar/tailout and i didn't have waders on... Those where immediately dried and sprayed with a bake on adhesive spray and lasted another 3-4 months and they did the same thing, this time thankfully i was walking to the river.
I contacted Korkers and they gave me credit for the old ones, and i paid something like 15-20 bucks for the "newer models". The new ones are badass and so far so good, 2 years later and over 200 trips on them. There soles are tough to remove/hard to get in which makes me more apt about using them. I got the Aquastealth soles on them, and they grip pretty dam good on both the trail and the river. They have seen combat in AK, ID, WA, CA and in Montana where there are some "slick" riverbeds and they have held up fine. I did get a pair of Chotas awhile back and have been impressed with them aswell.
Moral of the story: While they almost killed me, i gave them another shot and have been impressed. However you may see me in the newspaper in the following year or two (blame them on the wading boots....)
If i was to get a pair of wading boots all over, a vote for Chotas or Patagonia's boots.

I will probably do the same as Chrome/22 is doing since I have a decent pair of felt boots for the boat, and take the new boots with the vibram sole and stud them for wading.

I've waded with the vibram soles only, and don't feel as secure as my felt boots. But, I hear the studs work well.

I have had my newer pair for over a year and they have been great for me. Maybe I just got lucky. The boots have held up fine. I fish four times a week most of the time and I do a lot of bank fishing. I do like the look of the new simms and have heard pretty good thinks about their new non felt soles.

When Aaron falls down in the river, I am still in the habit of yelling, "F'ing Korker's" to help him feel better.

When he loses a fish, I say "f'ing rvrfshr hooks"

True story:

Coley was downstream of me a few months ago, just around the corner and out of view. I hook one of the biggest steelhead of my life but I'm in a no-win situation where I'm either swimming or losing the fish. There are some random fly guys on the other side of the river, so I yell at them to yell at Coley because I needed some assistance.

Once Coley came back upstream, I found out that he assumed I had fallen in the river and need help. Apparently, me hooking a fish was way down on the "most likely scenario" list.

Nice timing on that by the way. I was just getting to the juicy part of my run and everything. Not to say I was reluctant to come help a brother in need of course. OK, maybe just a little.

Needless to say, I was glad to find you wrestling this guy instead of doing the backstroke

out of that spot it was but the aligator that held that lof jag as his home was worthy

Thank you

I picked up Patagonia canyon Walker Studded at Sierratradingpost last night for under 100 bucks, Regular 150 they are 35% off and I got an additional 25% off of that cuz I buy from them a lot. S/H I paid $75