GEAR | Peter Storm Women’s Gower Walking Boot

April 10, 2016 Suse Hammond-Pears

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What Suse tested

A pair of Peter Storm brand women’s Gower Walking Boots, purchased from Ultimate Outdoors.

Fully waterproof
Designed to be more comfortable for women
PU upper
Rubber cup outsole
Metal ski hooks
Buy them here

The lowdown

As you may remember, I recently reviewed my aged Quechua Arpanaz snow boots, that have been faithfully standing in as walking boots for the last two years. You may also recall that although they had made it to the end of their two year guarantee, I mentioned that they were reaching the end of their useful lifespan. At the end of February this year, we went to Ultimate Outdoors as my husband needed new boots. I did that thing where I wander around, find something reasonably priced, and pick them up.

I picked up a pair of Peter Storm Gower walking boots. They caught my eye with their promises of being waterproof, their smart two tone brown leather-look exterior, and when I tried them on they were nice. I bought them.

I quite liked them in the shop.

I quite liked them when I got home, too.

Compared to the Arpenaz that my feet are used to, these are heavier and stiffer. This is slightly offset by the raised toe, which makes the foot movement from step to step just a little smoother and apparently helps to prevents some of the regular creasing due to wear around the toe. The raised toe, incidentally, made driving in them very strange the first time.

They are warm and they do fit my feet well. They are not very breathable but they have kept my feet warm and dry even in mildly wet conditions.

I quite liked them right up until the morning of day 36 of ownership.

At the time of writing this review I have worn them on a short hike twice, as well as to the park and back with the dogs thrice. Twenty miles if I’m very generous. And that’s it. While lacing them for the second of the short hikes, one of the rivets that hold in the eyelet just completely popped out of the upper under normal lacing pressure.

The verdict

These boots looked smart although scuffed fairly easily. I found them to be fairly heavy on my feet compared to the other footwear I’m used to, however this was offset by their other benefits. They were certainly quite watertight, rather comfortable to walk in and there was never any concern that I would get blisters from them.

They are at the low end of the market, currently retailing at about £30.

Unfortunately I can’t recommend these boots as they developed a dramatic fault that I would not have expected to see in a brand new pair of walking boots, and I’ve opted to part exchange them for a different brand. If you’ve had a different, or better, experience with these boots I’d love to hear about it.

About
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Suse Hammond-Pears

Suse is thirty-something. She juggles an enormously packed life, holding down full time jobs as a business analyst, parent and wife. She is a published scifi author, is about to start a small business upcycling clothing, is working towards a degree, and still crams an amazing amount of activity into the rest of her time including camping (which is how she met Shell). She lives in Nottingham, UK, with her husband, small daughter and a retired racing greyhound.

Suse will contribute to the site by writing articles about how to prepare for camping on an already packed schedule, and how to cope with going camping with a small child in the group.

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