Finally last summer my boss saw me in them and invited me to buy some new waders as it was plainly a bad look to have me flying VIPs around in the terrible patchwork quilt of destruction wrought by that dastardly ferret. However, I wasn't still wearing them because I was unwilling to replace them. For the previous year or more I had been trying to figure out a way to get a new set of waders in size 14. Now, of course, you can get stockingfoot waders and buy overboots to put over the top of them. The wader companies started that 30+ years ago, which makes sense for some applications. Mostly places where a business is stocking waders for guests, as that way you can just have an array of wader sizes and boot sizes, as it reduces the overall number of actual waders needed. But a good wader with a good boot is better. In my opinion. However, in the case of using them for flying, there is no way I want the added hassle of having to strap on overboots in addition to getting the waders on. Especially on a day when I am jumping back and forth between planes and throwing the waders on and off to do it.
But when I looked through the Simms website, there was no listed availability of size 14 bootfoot waders anymore. And the previous time I had bought them, I had to go through the custom build section of their website. But now, there was no indication on the custom build form that larger boots were available either. Contact with Simms verified that indeed, they were no longer building waders with size 14 boots in any fashion, custom or not. So I had kept using the wounded pair, and now I was being asked/told to find new ones. So I figured, well, since they made these, surely I could send them back for refurbishment.
So I again contacted Simms. Once again, no they wouldn't make waders with size 14 boots, but ALSO, they would not repair their own waders if they were on size 14 boots. The people in the relevant portions of their business informed the poor customer service guy that they just weren't set up to work with boots that large and couldn't accommodate my request in any fashion.
Sigh.
So I looked through all the online options. Turns out if you want a size 14 bootfoot wader you are mostly looking for cold weather hunting waders. Which I didn't want. But I kept looking, and found some that might have been serviceable from Sitka, though they looked a bit on the overwarm side as well. But in a moment of 'just in case' I decided to check KUIU, because I had recalled that last fall while trying to find somebody, anybody that would make the right waders, I went to check there and found that while they had indeed had waders in size 14, they were now out of stock. So I check back, and voila! There they were!
So I ordered new waders and they just arrived today.
And here is the rest of the story.
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