In the wake of a striking new review of Canada’s military, and promises of a 20-year vision for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the Department of National Defence has confirmed a new, high-tech, painstakingly engineered form of transportation for soldiers in the field. After years of niggling displeasure, CAF members can anticipate a sigh of relief.

The department is buying new boots.

“We’re aiming to get the solicitation on the streets by the end of August,” Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Edwards, director of soldier systems program management for the CAF, confirmed to The Star. It’s been just three years since the government signed on to $11.7 million in contracts for their current footwear.

“The Land Operation Temperate Boot doesn’t seem to have met the needs of the soldiers the way we hoped that it would,” Lt.-Col. Edwards admitted. The new boots have elicited a range of complaints, from material breaking down to zippers breaking apart in harsh weather.

While the army conducted a user trial prior to purchase — “which is probably one of the first times I think we’ve done it for boots,” Lt.-Col. Edwards added — the then-positive results haven’t held up.

“There’s no test that can be as good as wearing those boots in operation for one year, or nine months,” Major Patrick Lottinville, the director of Land Requirements 5-4/DLR 5, noted. The boots haven’t presented an issue so severe that an immediate switch was required, but Lt.-Col. Edwards ceded that there have been “lots of emails and discussions” dedicated to the topic.

Boots, as it happens, have a complex history in the Forces.

Prior to the new contract in 2013, the DND sought to remedy boot-related issues that emerged primarily in Afghanistan. Though the DND supports more than 50 types of footwear for its 160,000 regular and reserve military members, as well as department civilians, Lt.-Col. Edwards says it’s still tricky to cover the needs of every individual unit.

“Some users might say, ‘I want the lightest possible boots I can have, which is good for my job’,” Maj. Lottinville said. “But when you put those boots on a soldier in Afghanistan, with 20 pounds of backpack and ammo and everything? It hurts their feet.”

The new contract gave CAF members a choice between two pairs of brown boots, which had favourable results in camouflage testing. The lightweight material was intended to improve breathability, compared to the previously used full-leather black boots.

When the new deliveries came, however, early issues arose with manufacturing quality — to the extent that swaths of boots needed to be replaced in 2015. According to Lt.-Col. Edwards, the issue was resolved, but gathering data from the field when issues arise “takes a little while.”

Often, complaints aren’t formally communicated. In the army, a briefing note can be passed along through the chain of command to address issues, but other issues remain informal chatter within a given unit.

The older designed General Purpose Boot is fully-leather, black, and laced-up rather than zipped. The height of the boot has been raised from the current 6-7 inches to 9 inches to protect the leg. The department is aiming to deliver 40,000 pairs by August 2018. At the time of publication, DND was unable to provide comment on how much the new boot contract will cost.