Alt-Berg Hogg motorcycle boots from Silverman's

Due to old age, decrepitude and a recent leg injury I decided I would buy a pair of lace up motorcycle boots.

Back in the 1990s several of my friends made "loads of money" dispatch riding and could afford the best bike
gear. It needed to be very rugged for their use. I met an old dispatch rider mate at a motorcycle event a couple of
years ago and noticed he was still wearing Alt-berg Hoggs and thoroughly recommended them.

Alt-berg boots are made in Richmond North Yorkshire and the Hoggs seem to be only available from their factory
or from Silverman's in London and mail order. I like to try shoes and boots on so a few weeks ago before the rail
and postal strikes became endemic I set off to Silverman's in London.

Silverman's is a rather loverly if a little strange shop. There are two largish show rooms and the two very nice
owners (?) said they had a very large warehouse in the same building. They used to (decades ago) do army
surplus stuff, but now seem to do new army stuff. It's all online, but I wish I had picked up a brochure.

And in the Silverman's shop with their shoe display there is a Norton Commando parked up next to the shoes
and a rack of jackets - See photo below.

The website for Alt-berg shows they have a very few motorcycle boot types and their main business is hiking
and military boots.

The very good thing about Alt-Berg Hoggs is come in half sizes and several widths. This is excellent.

The nice people in Silverman's got out the sizes I wanted to try on then left me alone to try them and walk
about. It was nice not to have the pressure of a shoe salesman hanging over me.

Note - It is best to phone before going there to check they have the sizes you want in stock that day.
Silverman's web site says it is not accurate on stock.

Once I had nearly decided on the size I wanted but was not quite sure, I asked to try on a second pair of
the same size. The owner was happy to get me another pair. These fitted like a glove and I bought them.

The quality of the Alt-Berg Hoggs is fabulous. I have/had several boots of various makes: Sidi, Triumph,
Prexsport, Frank Thomas, Alpensport....and of course "monkey boots" from "Millets my Tailor" !
The Alt-Berg boots are superior.

The Alt-Berg Hoggs are so good that, like my recently painted fire-flake blue tank, are far to good to be used
on my old clunker motorcycles. I have used them three times to do the ironing and they are most certainly
fit for that purpose.

Sorry for the long "story", in summary fabulous quality boots in half sizes and width
variants from a shop with a Commando and loverly people.
And of course ..... Made in England

I went down over the summer in a low speed, 10 mph, incident while wearing my 8 year old Alt-Berg Clubman boots. (First time I've been down when it wasn't my fault.) They absolutely did their job, as did my knee and elbow armor. Despite suffering minor abrasions on the toe box the boots are still usable. I also purchased them at Silverman's where I had an equally positive experience. Absolutely quality product.

An interesting place, bought a fair bit of stuff from them over the years. Found them very helpful when I was buying a new leather jacket - trying them for size and fit. Bought a Vanson jacket, top quality stuff.

If you can it’s worth going to the factory for measurements. They measure both feet, stood up and sitting down. Turned out I had a half size difference when I bought some walking boots from them.

My Altbergs are laceless, ie lots of velcro on both the Clubman and the Skywalk.