I remember well the day I started coveting someone else's wading boots. Summer 2011. I was shooting a film about the Dolores River in Colorado. Trout Unlimited's magazine editor Kirk Deeter stepped into the Dolores after attaching a new sole and clicking a dial. I was scrambling on shore in little boy boots with worn out soles and standard laces hoping to have my camera rolling before Deeter hooked up.
Fortunately for me, it took him a while to warrant a set, but long after that video shoot wrapped, I was still thinking about his boots. Korkers with changeable soles and without laces. I wanted them. Bad.
Korkers didn't make women's boots back then, even though I begged, and I wasn't even close to fitting in their smallest men's size. I had to wait.
In 2016, Korkers released a women's boot, but no BOA. Not good enough, so I held out and kept wading in my beat up, little boy boots.
This summer, my patience paid off. Korkers unveiled the first women's wading boot with BOA at the International Fly Tackle Dealers show in Florida. It's called the Darkhorse (you can read our review of the men's Darkhorse boot here) and sells for $179.99 with felt and rubber soles or $199.99 with rubber and studded rubber soles.
"We have a proven track record of bringing industry firsts and cutting edge footwear to the fishing industry," says Brian Chaney, Korkers CEO. "As a market leader, our consumers are asking for more and demanding more from us."
I demanded more, but my demands weren't met for years. Korkers with BOA for men came out ten years ago. With that decade weighing heavy on my mind, I picked up the Darkhorse at the show and blurted out, "It's about damn time." Korkers agrees.
"We have learned how important performance traction is to female anglers," says Scott Doty, Korkers Eastern sales manager. "Since Korkers pioneered the BOA(r) Lacing System for men back in 2007, we decided it's about time women should have access to the same technology in a boot made specifically to fit a woman's foot."
I saw Deeter on the show floor after playing with the BOA dial and swapping soles and I was giddy with news of the new. He doesn't remember me eyeballing his boots way back when, but I was sure to remind him. Maybe I'll figure out how to test these boots in the first place I saw them, the Dolores.
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