MBT shoes good for photographers?

[Rob C]

And I had such high hopes for the new year.

Rob C

[roskav]

And I had such high hopes for the new year.

Rob C

he he I was actually considering a thread on shoes.
I'm heading towards 40 and have found that shoes, and which kind, really influence my work quite a bit.
Firstly, boots in most circumstnaces are out.  Too easy to do your back in when you bend to pick up heavy gear. You also have to reach down further.  If I am wearing fancy leather shoes I'm less inclined to push myself to work longer and anywhere even slightly muddy.  A happy medium is a good pair of tough trainers, but they have to be still comfortable after a day on site.  For theatre shoots I'm in my socks or a really soft pair of flat trainers.  I had a pair of very stiff meindl shoes but they were quite prone to twisting, and ended up in a&e after running to the camera when the sun came out.
I use a pair of north face trainers now but they are not perfect. Suggestions welcome!
Shoes are important for anyone spending the day on their feet as far as I'm concerned!

[ashley]

I have a pair and they are rather strange because they wobble by design, so simply standing flat is not the easiest thing in the world to do. In rather paradoxic terms however, I seem to manage slower handheld images when wearing these shoes than other shoes using the 24-105L with IS activated, so perhaps there is something about them that actually helps in that case.

On the plus side I find them great for driving, which I really wasn't expecting and they are very well built on the top half. On the minus side they were pretty expensive costing £145 and yet I have never had a pair of shoes where the sole underneath has been ruined so quickly. Within a month of light use I was running on slicks and inside 6 months they were effectively destroyed with big cracks underneath and you can see right through to the spongy areas inside the sole. I wrote to MBT about this in the UK and never had a reply, so I doubt if I will ever buy another pair simply because the soles have lasted so miserably. BTW forget running in a pair of MBTs. You'll most likely end up flat on your face.

[Ben Rubinstein]

6 months is warranty period, I'd get them replaced..

[ashley]

6 months is warranty period, I'd get them replaced..

Easier said than done when they don't even reply. More time has now passed by and I think there is probably little I can do, but I was truly disappointed at how quickly those soles disintegrated because I really wasn't expecting it to happen. I wonder if anybody from MBT will read this???