Cold Feet

This summer I introduced my Lamilite boots to the market place with my Lamilite socks. I am pleased to say both items are selling well. During the past 6 months I have had the opportunity to speak with numerous people both on the phone as well as here at the factory about footwear that they have and why they would be far better off investing in the Lamilite boots and socks. In almost all cases they have made a purchase.

The one thing that I have heard from virtually every person I have spoken with, and it is not news to me—as I have heard the same thing for years, is that not one of these people has ever had warm feet when the temperature has gotten into the low teens and below. As I wrote in my April 2014 newsletter “Do You Have Cold Feet?” the basic problem that people are dealing with that is the cause of cold feet is the lack of ability for the moisture coming out of their feet to get away from the skin (surface) of their feet. What we have been wearing on our feet is the problem. I’ll explain.

When we dress, our shirt and pants are generally lose fitting so the moisture that is leaving our body as a vapor has a chance to get away from the surface of our skin, but that is not the case with our feet. We put on socks that fit close to our feet and we put on footwear that we close with laces generally that we secure close to our feet. The moisture we generate from our feet is now absorbed by the socks we are wearing and some of that moisture will pass through the socks to the inside of the footwear. But keep in mind that the socks will have absorbed the moisture so they are never dry. Physically what is happening is that both the material the socks are made of which is probably wool, and the moisture absorbed by the wool are acting in concert to absorb the heat coming from our feet. If the footwear has been made with a Gore-Tex film it, the Gore-Tex is NOT ALLOWING the moisture to get out of the footwear. I do not care how many times the Gore Company has published that their film once applied to a fabric will act as a way for moisture to leave your body and not allow moisture from the outside in, it is a bogus claim. Now add to the footwear Thinsulate as a supposed insulation and it is also not going to allow the moisture from your foot out of the outer footwear, and what is the end result, moisture is trapped in the footwear. All of that moisture will start to cool and once that happens, it cannot be reversed if you are outside and the temperature is below the freezing point of 32 degrees F or 0 degrees C, unless of course you go into a heated building and take off not only your outer footwear but socks as well so three things can dry, 1- your feet, 2- the socks, and 3- the outer footwear. And that is why everyone wearing footwear made with these two components in them will have cold feet. If you examine the Thinsulate used in footwear you will find that it is as dense as plywood. There is no air space found between the fibers that make up the Thinsulate which I believe is 100 percent polypropylene. No air spaces no insulating barrier.

To have warm feet you must have socks and outer footwear that do not restrict the flow of moisture coming out of your feet to move away from the surface of your skin. The Lamilite insulated boots can be worn as I have written before when the temperatures vary between 40 degrees F and 100 degrees F. without socks, why do I say that, easy because I have been wearing the boots that were originally made for my by Herman Survivors and Wellco as well as the Belleville boots for over 10 years now, all were made with Lamilite insulation and I do not wear socks. Below 40 degrees F I wear the Lamilite socks. Last winter when I started making the Lamilite socks I wore them in the boots outside when the temperature went to -15 F as well as all day in my office where the temperature is in the 70’s. The end result is all cases was the same; my feet were warm, dry when I took of the boots and socks. What was different? What I had on my feet were footwear items that DID NOT stops the movement of the moisture coming out of my feet. Lamilite has for 28 years shown that it DOES NOT inhibit the movement of moisture away from the source. Therefore, the moisture readily moved through the Lamilite socks. Now we come to the boots which are also lined with Lamilite and the moisture moved through the lining till it gets to the leather which DOES NOT have any sort of film such as Gore-Tex glued to it. Leather is a porous material so the moisture moves out of the leather as well. One of the early buyers of the Lamilite socks wrote to me that he wore them with Gore-Tex lined boots and found that the moisture from his feet went through the socks only to accumulate on the outside of the sock and inside of the boot. He further said his feet were warm. So the Lamilite socks will make any footwear work better, remember you do not wear any other sock inside the Lamilite socks. Nor should you if you wear Lamilite socks in any other boot.

Over the years I have read many articles and reports of methods tried to keep feet warm in extreme conditions. The researchers who have made or tested the boots were always trying to compensate for the moisture buildup in the footwear thinking that they could not possible get rid of it without having footwear that was less than adequate for the extreme conditions. Today I confidently state that the combination of Lamilite socks; Lamilite insulated boots and Lamilite insulated Muk Luks i.e. Joe Redington Muk Luks will keep your feet warm if you are otherwise properly dressed for 60 or 70 below 0. I can speak with authority as to how well the Muk Luks perform when the temperature was 30 to 50 below 0 caused by wind chill when I was lost in the mountains for 3 days in a blizzard. When I had that experience I did not have on my Lamilite socks or Lamilite boots because they did not exist, so I am as confident as one can be as to how well the products that I make will perform in extreme conditions.

There are two activities that footwear is made absolutely water proof and if used the Lamilite socks will help to keep your feet warm even though the moisture does not get out; 1- is stream fishing. You wear neoprene waders which are waterproof (sometimes I see that some manufacturers of these waders are using Gore-Tex. Do these manufacturers really believe the perspiration is getting through the material? Probably not but they like to get advertising dollars. What a joke.) So whatever you wear on your feet should not absorb moisture and help to allow it to get away from the skin surface; enter Lamilite socks. 2- Skiing, I have skied for about 50 years and used leather lace boots to the current plastic boots. Moisture from the outside just doesn’t get in but moisture from your feet doesn’t get out so by using the Lamilite socks the moisture can now get away from your feet. This applies to both downhill as well as cross counter skiing.

Always remember that the nylon taffeta fabric lining that goes against your skin will warm to the temperature of your skin and stop absorbing heat until it loses some and then the absorption stars again. This action is very similar to a heat control in your house controlling the thermostat.

The key to every single insulated product that I produce is and always has been the Lamilite insulation. Over the many years that I have worked in the field of insulation and insulated products I have seen just about everything the industry has tried to market and nothing that has ever been grown on a bird or produced in a laboratory has come even remotely close to continuous filament fiber which is what I use to make Lamilite as an insulation. All of the other products being used by marketing companies such as the Thermoballs used by The North Face (TNF) don’t work except in north Florida in July. But the product is heavily advertised and TNF is the recipient of advertising dollars from I believe Primaloft Company who is also a marketing company. To the best of my knowledge neither of these companies actually has a factory where they produce any product they sell. They are all about perception and if any of the people employed at these companies actually used the products they market in the conditions they talk about in their advertisements they would be shocked at how poorly they perform even in mild conditions.
So if you want to have warm feet the answer is Lamilite socks and Lamilite boots.