Inov-8 – Good eggs!

I just wanted to post a quick note extolling the excellent customer service I received from Inov-8 recently. I’m quick to lambast those kit manufacturers and stockists that seem to make it their life’s work to make things difficult and awkward for us customers, so it’s only fair that I should blow the trumpet in praise of one that goes that little bit extra to help us.

In the past I’ve had a pair of Inov-8 Terrocs and I loved them. In fact I loved them to death. I wore them a lot, on a lot of walks, over boggy ground, over rough ground, over the toughest ground possible – the West Highland Way – I basically wore them into the ground. The heel started flapping one day and then next day the sole broke in two and I laid them to rest in a peaceful corner of my wheelie bin.

I decided to try a different pair next time and I bought a pair of Roclite’s in August last year. These I also wore quite a lot, although not so much as the Terrocs, but simply because of the time of year. We had no summer from August 2008 onwards and it was winter boots for me, from October to March, so they were used sparingly.

Despite this, one of them started to shed parts of its sole, the little lumps started to peel away – not catastrophic, but obviously not right. Then the place that my heel sat in the right shoe started to wear alarmingly and this gave me a sore heel at the end of any kind of lengthy walk. I decided that this wasn’t right at all and took them back to the place I bought them.

It had only been 6 months or so that I’d had them and I’d done next to no mileage in them, but I thought I’d better take them back now rather than continue to use them and possibly run out of warranty.

The shop were great (The Adventure Centre in Warrington, sadly no longer in business), they returned them to Inov-8 and just over a week later I got a call from the shop saying that they’d been sent a new pair in replacement. I was quietly impressed. The wear on the shoes could be construed as fair wear and tear by a more miserly manufacturer, but Inov-8 just sent me a new pair. Many thanks Inov-8.

I still have concerns about the longevity of Inov-8 shoes – they are light and comfortable, but I just don’t think they are made to last. I don’t know that I’ll be buying another pair, I’ll have to see how I get on with these new ones. The Terrocs lasted about 15 months and then fell apart, the last Roclites may have lasted the same length of time, it’s hard to tell. At £50 – £60 a time, I don’t know that I can justify the spend every year, despite how good they are.

I plan on using the Roclites on as many days as possible during the C2C walk which I start in a couple of days – I will feedback experience as I go along.