I have owned 4 pairs of Keens work boots, spanning a period of years. I recently purchases a pair of their California boots, and this is the current state of their design, manufacturing-- and their Company's INTEGRITY. Let me also say that over the years I considered Keen's a quality product. Here is why i no longer believe that:

The second time I laced them on, the metallic cast grommet at the top of the lace panel snapped, simply by applying light pressure from the lace. No biggie, right? That small manufacturing flaw meant the boots could never lace again properly. THE MAJOR DESIGN FLAW  in this boot (II have an engineering background, and in a 34 year career have designed products across a wide range, so I KNOW about design...) is simply that every boot has a tongue, and that tongue should be connected to the boot securely by a gusset, which holds the tongue in place under the laces-- and also prevents water from entering the boot and soaking your foot. The designer of this shoe, forgot all about that, as did the company's design supervisor. This boot got made on a totally LOUSY, flawed design. At M.I.T., we would call that last sentence 'product assessment'

We just got done with a big hurricane is my town, and I have spent 6 consecutive days, 12 hours/ day on average, on different cleanup assignment. The 2 days on which I wore these boots ( you need to rotate your boots under wear and work...) -- well, on those 2 days my feet got soaked. After the first time, i applied weatherproof goo, highly effective at waterproofing leather. After the second day of totally wet feet, I made another  discovery-- the boots actually leaked water through the top of the synthetic sole, rightnwhere it attachednto the leather. This is an enormous quality control flaw.

So, with these plain fact I called the company's Customer Service ( I have contacted the 3 times in the past week) asking them for a return  authorization ( Amazon, LlL Bean-- any company with any integrity-- would do this instantly. But Keen flat out Refused-- and the customer service person was extremely snide, and had a thick, in my opinion conceited and lazy-- ATTITUDE. To date, I have had no response whatsoever-- from 3 follow-up emails.

To may knowledge, the hurricane did not strike Portland, Oregon. What did seem to strike Portland was a complete refusal to take any responsibility to badly flawed design, third-rate materials, no quality control in Manufacturing, and a Corporate stone wall. I define responsibilty very simply: it is, precisely, the ability to Respond. Again, I have heard NOTHING  from Keen, not even a request to me to send the boots back so they might actually learn something about the current state of their product. Nada. Zilch. Nothing....

Meanwhile, I have learned 2 other facts. 1)Keen has recently shifted 98% of their mfg to China, so good-bye to American made. Bain Capital must be their new ruler, because they have just had an enormous executive shake up, and their new president, from Nike, is now using the same sweat shops, paying the same meagre wages, that Nike does. And this shows, in their product. Workers paid well, treated with respect, do not produce the garbage Keen is churning out currently.

So, these are facts and you should take warning. A once strong company that once made a good product, and stood behind it -- has turned mediocre, third rate (probably Chinese) manufacture-- and like a big chunk of corporate America-- really could give a small pile of excrement where their customers are concerned. I give you facts, be warned.