A Tale of Two Booties, pt 1

Author:
Jenna Leder

So originally, this post was going to be titled “Costuming 101: Stay Away From Ren Boots!”, but they’re trying to do right by me, so I’m going to be reserving judgement until this whole thing plays itself out. Part 1 is a little long-winded, but the next few updates to the story should be fairly short. And hey, there’s a Ron White reference!

Last summer at the Tuxedo, NY Renaissance Faire, I was on a mission: A mission for boots. Something that would suit my costume, be comfortable enough to run around in for days at a time, and cost under $300 (actually, I set out with an under $200 goal in mind, but that quickly went out the window). I assumed durability would be intrinsic to cost. Oh how I was to be schooled….

I won’t bore you with details of the whole search, only with what I finally settled on: A pair of lace up Strider’s from Ren Boots. Yes, many people were trying to steer me towards Catskill or Son of Sandlar, but those were all either WAY out of my price range or the completely wrong style. And yes, I was hearing ominous griping from several sources about Ren Boots; that their quality wasn’t as it once had been, that the soles of the shoes had a reputation for, as Ron White would put it, “falling the #&$^ off”. But the style was good, the price was… acceptable… and damned but if I didn’t look hot in them (especially after we threw a few decorative buckles on).

At a Knight Realms event a few weeks later, I had my first opportunity to put my new purchase to use. Friday night, I wrapped them up tightly, gave a few little hops, and I was off to the races. Man, did they look good.

But Saturday morning, something resembling gaps appeared on the bottom of the left shoe.
By Saturday night, half of the sole was flapping ominously.
Sunday morning, it fell off.

It fell off.

IT FELL THE #@^&^ OFF.

*ahem*

Deciding — rightly so — that the bottom falling off of a $275 shoe on its very first wearing was probably the textbook definition of “unacceptable” (not to mention the leather had scratched and stained horribly), I gave the good people at Ren Boots a call. They quickly agreed to repair, polish, and waterproof the boots free of charge, if I’d care to send them back. That seemed pretty acceptable, so I went with it.

It was a long time before I saw the shoes again — apparently they’d been placed on a worktable and forgotten for weeks. But to the owners credit, once she realized what was going on, damned if she didn’t do everything in her power to get them to me in time for my next LARP event, only 2 days away (And managed it, might I add) — and I wasn’t entirely thrilled once I saw them. The leather was still a bit ragged, though I guess I couldn’t expect them to do much about it, but it was also still rather filthy, meaning that if they HAD actually waterproofed them (and I’m still not sure they did), the dirt was now sealed in. But hey, the sole was on and secure, and they’d gotten the shoes to me in time for the event, and that’s all I really cared about.

That weekend, the other sole fell off.

Resolute, I managed to get my hands on some Shoe Goo, and resigned myself to a future of regular repairs. Not too big a deal I figured… they were expensive shoes, and I’d want to polish and clean them regularly anyway: I’d just chalk it up to maintenance. And hey, the glue repairs really seemed to do the job. For the next two wearings (both at indoor, low-impact conventions), they held up quite nicely. Then came the next Knight Realms.

The first weekend in March was an exceptionally wet one at Camp Sacejawea. Things were just starting to thaw from the massive February blizzards, meaning that what parts of the roads weren’t muddy death pits were instead 6″ of slushy snow sitting on top of 4″ of barely-above-freezing slushy water. Fun.

One night of slogging through puddles was all it took: the water rushed in through the lace holes, attacking the (apparently cardboard?) bottom lining of the shoe, the glue dissolved almost instantly, giving the slush a second angle of attack, and my barely worn $275 boots all but unraveled themselves and fell off my feet.

Shoes literally in tatters, likely unrepairable (not that I’d bother), I decided enough was enough. I called Ren Boots. And here’s where the company starts to redeem itself.

I spoke to one of the other owners, explaining my situation to him. Not only did he have the good graces to be absolutely mortified at my experiences, but I’d barely even finished speaking before he was coming up with ways to, as he said, “make it right”. That’s the benefit of buying from artisans, you know: a quality one stands behind his work, darn it. I’d called them expecting a battle (I’ll talk about my phone call with CS Designs another day, once I get THAT situation settled), and was instead met with an owner who takes pride in his business and in customer satisfaction. And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is why I am NOT standing before you today saying “stay away from Ren Boots!”, despite the issues I’ve had.

I sent the owner a followup email after our phone conversation yesterday, and I’m hoping to hear from him soon. I’ll be posting updates as they come, so stay tuned. If, you know, this is the kind of thing that interests you. But really, at an almost 1000 word-count, if you made it all the way to the end, I’d be surprised if you weren’t. Interested, I mean.

Meanwhile, feel free to posts in the comments about any exceptionally good or bad costuming/customer service experiences you’ve had. Man the stuff I’ve heard on the Knight Realms forums about some of the garb companies out there…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 21:47 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.