The McRae jungle boots promised earlier this year are now out for sell.
McRae Footwear has manufactured a run of Green Jungle Boots with Panama Soles. The only cosmetic difference between these and the ones issued from the 60s through the 90s is the inclusion of barrel lacing rather than traditional eyelets. –Thats not exactly true. The panama sole was later in the Vietnam war and the canvas is not correct for Nam era. I won’t get into the lacing eyelets.
This is the only U.S. made olive drab jungle boot on the market manufactured with the same equipment used during the Vietnam War. OK but so? I would be more impressed if it was same equipment from Vietnam era making exactly the same spec boots. Still, this is the only place to get even a modern US made jungle boot. If you want one that is nearly identical tot he Nam era boot, moore militaria has you covered.The McRae boots are 172.00. Trey’s actual Nam era correct spec junge boots are 165, See Trey’s boots pictured below
I prefer the original and Trey’s repro but not everyone is a spurg like me. If you like your jungle boots more modern, you can go to the link below.
They have most sizes in stock at www.mcraefootwear.com/product/vietnam-era-jungle-boot/7189, but they’re selling fast! More sizes are coming in the next 2 weeks.
Scattered Shots 
The Panama sole came in at the end of the Vietnam war? Relatives who were in the USAR used to second me jungle boots in the early 90s and they had the old-fashioned sole. But I didn’t realize the sole was THAT old-fashioned.
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I think the Panama first started showing up in small numbers in 68. But its not like they just swapped everything out, just entered the system so there were a lot of vibram all the way through. I find the vibram has better overall traction but does collect a lot of debris in the grooves
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Why couldn’t they have used regular eyelets all the way thru like God intended? That just looks dorky.
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“progress”
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I still remember back in the late 80’s when I was still a private, the green issue jungle boots cost a whopping $34 at the military clothing sales store on base.
I loved the original green ones, since the uppers were made of rigid green canvas. The stiff canvas made a small difference in preventing ankle injuries during parachute landing falls.
When they switched to black jungle boots, they went from canvas to nylon uppers that stretched, so there were a lot more ankle injuries. In the mid 90’s at Ft Bragg, they had us experiment with these ridiculous external ankle braces for jumping. They were a failure and the airborne just went back to training proper PLF technique to reduce ankle injuries.
I still rate the green jungle boot as the best combat boots out of the 9 different boots I got issued over a 32.5 year career.
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in warm/hot weather. I agree
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