Lowa Boot failure question

[Rob Allen]

So  my wife bought me a pair of Lowa Boots  they  area leather and canvas hiking boot with Gortex liners  from a thrift  store  for 15 bucks  what a  steal  right???

not  sure  what  model that are,, or  rather   were   they looked  as  though  they might have been worn  one  time  no wear on the soles  at all...   well  i  wore them  for about an hour  and took them off..  then put them on this morning and  tightened the laces a little more  within a minute  the soft rubber  compound and glue attaching the soles to the uppers  completely disintegrated
and the soles peeled off  they would have fallen off if i had kept walking..

I am only out 15  bucks   so i am not worried  about that  i am just curious  what the heck happened!!!???   I  know by reputation that Lowa  makes  great boots   so  something is up!

I was  thinking maybe a wildland firefighter wore them once as a backup and the retardant  chemicals  destroyed the  foam rubber parts and they simply came  apart  after i  tightened the laces..

now  when she picked these boots up they looked  great!! nearly new!  but 12 hours later they fell apart

  anyone  have any ideas???

[X-Force]

Any pictures?

[Rob Allen]

here  we  go



sorry not much a photographer  but here  you see the boot which just a few hours before seemed to be in near perfect condition  appeared to be  worn  a few  times maybe..  notice  though that the   sole is  peeling away from the upper..



 here  you  see the massive  failure of the lamination between the upper and the sole... i could   literally peel the sole off the boot with nearly no effort...



again  I  know  Lowa  has a great reputation as a boot maker.. I  don't think they are to blame  i think something happened to these boots  that was not visible  some  kind of chemical contamination leading to the corrosion of the rubber  is   the only thing  that make sense to me   but if  others  have  theories i am very curious..  I just  don't  believe that lowa  would put out a boot that did this...