Review: GORUCK MACV-1s

I picked up a pair of GORUCK's MACV-1 jungle boots about three weeks ago, just before we went into the shelter-in-place. I've managed to put about 15 miles of rucking on them (about 6 miles at any one time) with 30+ pounds each time; other than that, I've basically lived in them.

Why?

I've been looking for a good all-round pair of boots: I've got a pair of La Sportiva Nucleo High GTXs that I've been using for hiking, a pair of Red Wing Iron Rangers for around town, and a pair of CFF Mk19 for every day wear to replace my Chuck Taylors. The La Sportiva boots are nice, but waterproof so they get hot quickly - but they have great ankle support and are fairly light. I've taken them on a lot of trips and they're solid - but I'm finding more and more that I would prefer not to have waterproof boots. The Mk19s are quite comfortable but they have no ankle support (something I would like) and aren't great for carrying weight. I've worn them on light hikes and around a ranch, though. The Iron Rangers are solid, but heavy and mine have no tread; I wouldn't wear them outdoors at all.

In the Army, I never really wore jungle boots - in fact, I don't think I ever did. I did get a pair of both 6 and 8" Oakley assault boots - which I loved, if only because the other boot options I found were so bad. The 6" ones definitely got me in trouble when we back into Camp Taji and the green zone, but damn were they comfortable.

Ideally, I'd find something that worked okay for whatever I wanted to do to simplify, just grab and go, don't have to really think about it.

One motivator for this is that I had applied to the Mt. Whitney lottery and I realised that a desk job with a 1-2 hour commute each way was extremely not conducive to training for that. I needed to find ways to sneak more training in. Rucking fit that bill, so I needed some kind of footwear that could carry my intended weight (~30-40 pounds) - which makes the Iron Rangers and Mk19s untenable. The MACV-1's don't look super fashionable, but they also don't look like urban hiker chic.

Initial impressions

Right out of the box, they're pretty comfortable; I wore them for a couple walks around the block with a 5kg weight vest (the only packable weight I really had). I didn't have much in the way of discomfort. They look simple, clean.

I've dinged them a little; there's at least one gouge in the leather and some scrapes. This does cause a little voice in the back of my head to wonder how they'll hold up under real stress. They do clean up pretty well; throw some polish on these boots and they'll go back to looking pretty good.

The treads are decent. From what I've heard, the previous generation had some issues, but these seem to work just fine.

The only logo or branding is a small spearhead on the heel, as well as one on the tread.

The first ruck

I wrote about it in the ruck log for the day; long story short, my old habit of wrapping my laces around the top of my boots doesn't work on these boots and left me with a raw, popped, bleeding blister on my heel. Other than that, they were pretty comfortable. I expect they'll be even more so in the future.

I'll try to remember to keep this post updated as I continue to wear them. I expect I'll put a great many miles on them.