These boots are the safest for US wildland firefighters. Fewer and fewer can afford them

The handcrafted leather boots are a century-old tradition – but with money tight, the cost of up to $800 is harder to justify For 18 years, one of the most important relationships in Luke Mayfield’s life was with his boots. As a hotshot – one of the US’s elite firefighting crews sent deep, on foot, into wildfires – Mayfield hiked a thousand miles a fire season in his boots, stood in them 16 hours a day and slept near them on assignments that lasted weeks in terrain no truck could reach. Like every wildland firefighter, he learned the rituals of their upkeep: how to grease them, how to lace them, how soon before the season to break in a new pair so the blisters came during training instead of on duty. Continue reading...

Andy Vasoyan with visuals by Rajah Bose · Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 8:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

These boots are the safest for US wildland firefighters. Fewer and fewer can afford them

The handcrafted leather boots are a century-old tradition – but with money tight, the cost of up to $800 is harder to justify

For 18 years, one of the most important relationships in Luke Mayfield’s life was with his boots. As a hotshot – one of the US’s elite firefighting crews sent deep, on foot, into wildfires – Mayfield hiked a thousand miles a fire season in his boots, stood in them 16 hours a day and slept near them on assignments that lasted weeks in terrain no truck could reach.

Like every wildland firefighter, he learned the rituals of their upkeep: how to grease them, how to lace them, how soon before the season to break in a new pair so the blisters came during training instead of on duty.

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