Magnum Spider 8.1 Urban
[MAG-ESU81]

This is the first of three reviews on Magnum boots that I will write, so I thought it might be a good time to lay out my ground rules and assumptions. I have always been a Lowa boot man, apart from a slight affair with Hanwags, Meindles and Altbergs, and look for support and durability from my boots. If I’m spending over 100 tokens then I want to get a lot for my money. The cheapest I found these boots online was £100, which puts them way up there in terms of cost. You could get a pair of Altberg Sneekers, Lowas or Bates for the same if not less. I was intrigued to see how good they were.



They do look the Gucci boot part, which I guess for their target audience is desirable (Allyness saves lives don’t you know…). The laces run through a series of plastic loops which, whilst looking difficult, is fiddly when the boots are dry and clean – a nightmare to replace with cold hands as I found out, but that could be due to my sausage fingers. The boots are well padded throughout, but I found that this meant that it was hard to get the laces tight to ensure the boot felt secured. I found that in the heel it often felt loose, which is not ideal. I had to keep stopping to tighten the boots only for it to start shifting about after a few hundred metres. For a boot that is patently aimed at the military market it doesn’t feel particularly robust, the leather seems very soft and supple already and I think that given hard use would fail fairly quickly. The boots are definitely not waterproof, which isn’t a drama, but do dry out very quickly.

I didn’t realise that the plastic bit on the top of the tongue was for securing the laces away, I thought the plastic just wasn’t attached properly. I agree with his judgement that they are effectively pointless, and can get stuck on the sides of the boot when tightening them. The laces tend to stretch, which makes tightening a padded boot harder than it ought to be. I kept finding that when out running it would feel like the lace has come undone, but no it was just the stretchy laces being stretchy. The sole seems grippy enough (I went cross country running through all the puddles in my local wood, and it seemed to keep its grip better than I thought it would). The sole has a “fast-roping” system built into it, but I wouldn’t like to guess if it would be an advantage over a normal sole. However whenever I’ve roped anywhere I’ve always been conscious of my ankles when I hit the ground, usually like a sack of shit, so I’m not sure I’d like the lightweight nature of the boots.

For cutting around camp, driving, assault courses and the like these boots are good. They are lightweight, comfortable and generally practicable. If you want a pair of boots to mince around in though, £110 will give you a lot of choice. I have a pair of Altberg Sneeker Microlights (who thinks up these names eh!) that I bought for £115 a few years ago, they saw me through P-Coy and other courses with no dramas but are, with a little bit of tlc, practically waterproof, seem to be harder wearing and offer more ankle support than I believe these do. I took these for a ten miler round Bath and was always concerned about twisting an ankle. If they were significantly cheaper than I believe that they would be a real option, but for what is essentially a gimmicky, more padded jungle boot that is suitable for light duties £110 is too much for a boot that doesn't seem particularly robust.

Date Added: 25/11/2010 by Arrse Reviews