Altberg are over-rated. To put it mildly.
I visited them to order a custom pair of motorbike boots. They measured me up, took my money, then I returned a fortnight later and couldn't even squeeze my feet into them with no socks, even a plastic bag (their offering) to try to make my bare feet slip inside.
So they said that they would "stretch them" and fit very thin insoles (horrid, no vibration absorption, and should not have been necessary.) These were bespoke boots, supposedly built to my exact dimensions, and I paid a premium for them, not off-the-shelf. Returned 2 weeks later to try again. Well unsurprisingly that didn't work either. Utter refusal to refund my money (should have used a credit card). They sort of fit my girlfriend with thick socks, but that was not the idea.
To make matters worse, I also took in my extremely good Scarpa climbing boots that were ready, after several years, for a re-sole.
They destroyed them, ground off the top quality vibram soles, ruined the shock absorbing layer, only stopped once they hit the steel shank, then glued on some crappy "commando" brand soles that wore out within, I'm not joking, 50 miles of hard walking on Skye, slipped as soon as there was any rain, and were already peeling off in places.
So I took the Scarpas to an official service place, they took one look and told me that they were ruined, they'd never seen such shoddy work and poor materials. What made it worse was that they could have re-soled them to original standard for £25 less than Altberg ripped me off for their shoddy job.
Altberg: a truly dreadful incompetent company that somehow seems to trade on some long ago reputation, maybe when people from Catterick camp just wanted something better than issue boots and didn't know any better. Customer service, technical expertise or standing by their reputation ? None-existent, they treated me like dirt, once they realised that they had effed-up twice. Surprised that they are still going.
Lessons learned: The Italians know how to make good boots. They may initially seem expensive, but are worth it. Vibram soles are still the best, that durable yellow label is very reassuring.
I visited them to order a custom pair of motorbike boots. They measured me up, took my money, then I returned a fortnight later and couldn't even squeeze my feet into them with no socks, even a plastic bag (their offering) to try to make my bare feet slip inside.
So they said that they would "stretch them" and fit very thin insoles (horrid, no vibration absorption, and should not have been necessary.) These were bespoke boots, supposedly built to my exact dimensions, and I paid a premium for them, not off-the-shelf. Returned 2 weeks later to try again. Well unsurprisingly that didn't work either. Utter refusal to refund my money (should have used a credit card). They sort of fit my girlfriend with thick socks, but that was not the idea.
To make matters worse, I also took in my extremely good Scarpa climbing boots that were ready, after several years, for a re-sole.
They destroyed them, ground off the top quality vibram soles, ruined the shock absorbing layer, only stopped once they hit the steel shank, then glued on some crappy "commando" brand soles that wore out within, I'm not joking, 50 miles of hard walking on Skye, slipped as soon as there was any rain, and were already peeling off in places.
So I took the Scarpas to an official service place, they took one look and told me that they were ruined, they'd never seen such shoddy work and poor materials. What made it worse was that they could have re-soled them to original standard for £25 less than Altberg ripped me off for their shoddy job.
Altberg: a truly dreadful incompetent company that somehow seems to trade on some long ago reputation, maybe when people from Catterick camp just wanted something better than issue boots and didn't know any better. Customer service, technical expertise or standing by their reputation ? None-existent, they treated me like dirt, once they realised that they had effed-up twice. Surprised that they are still going.
Lessons learned: The Italians know how to make good boots. They may initially seem expensive, but are worth it. Vibram soles are still the best, that durable yellow label is very reassuring.
