Alpinestars Campeche Drystar Boots (Sold Out)

These boots are sold in men’s street shoe sizes. We found the boots to run to their stated size and the fit to be very much like other Alpinestars boots. The width is “D” or “E”.

Ok, first off, what is “Campeche” and how do you say it? Pronounced kahm-pe-che, and it is a state in SE Mexico, on the peninsula of Yucatán, a seaport in and the capital of this state. Now that little voice in everybody’s head as they read about this one will be saying it the same thing!

The Campeche Drystar boot is a new design which bridges the gap between a traditional street boot and the more rugged Adventure tour boots. I think everybody has seen typical street/waterproof boots, and by adventure boots, I mean the Alpeinstars Coroza, the Forma Adventure boots or the TCX Drifter boots. All those can be viewed here.

The Campeche is a bit shorter than the adventure styles and has a less bulky top, and it doesn’t have all the external buckles. But the heavy leather upper materials and the heavy duty soles are the same. So generally speaking, this boot has the same height, convenience and comfort as other street boots, but is much more heavy duty in construction and materials.

I think a lot of people will like this boot. They might ride street a lot of the time and go on dirt roads some, but really don’t want to bulk of the big heavy adventure boots. And you can wear ordinary pant legs over these boots without an extra wide pant leg or other reinforcements in the pants to keep the buckles from wearing into them. And those looking for a bit of sole height might really like this too. The sole is more heavy duty and so the heel height winds up being a bit thicker than most. Check our photo gallery to see both the inside and outside heights.

I’ve reviewed a few new 2018 boots lately and I’m seeing some common new features that might go unnoticed unless I make mention of them. The new features I see on this this boot are 1) the new new “dual density” protection on the inside of the ankle, 2) the new cut to the toe area, 3) the elasticated main zipper arrangement. The protection foam on the sides of the ankle are now a dual density soft material rather than the hard round discs (the outside of the ankle of this boots is still the round disc arrangement). The softer armor is, uh “soft” and be easy to break in. The new “cut” to the toe area is subtle and hard to spot just looking, but when I try these on, I find that the toe flexes more easily behind the shift protector. In past designs that shift protector took some break in because it is stiff and would tend to dig into the top of your forefoot when walking, but these flex easily and are very comfortable right out of the box. It’s kind of a tiny thing, but Alpinestars is using a zipper arrangement where one side of the main zipper is sewn to the boot with a 1/2” stretch elastic piece. This makes the boots a little more forgiving to fit different thicknesses of feet and also it flexes at the ankle more readily.

The soles of this boot are plenty thick (as mentioned above) and they are reinforced by a shank in the instep area. The shank will allow you to do off-road riding maneuvers where you are standing on the pegs without the boot’s sole trying to fold up. A boot with heavy duty materials like this can be less than comfortable for street wear, but I see another feature to add comfort when walking. These boots have large flex panels in front of, and behind the ankle bone, so right out of the box, they flex pretty easy. And being all-leather, I bet they’ll break in to be very comfortable to wear. And although the boots are not insulated against cold, they feel like they’d do pretty well in colder temps because the interior padding of the boots is quite substantial. And of course the boots are made waterproof with Alpinestar’s Drystar waterproof/breathable liner.

I think this new style is great so that those who do more physical riding can have a boot that will hold up to the activity, but be reasonably comfortable and practical for everyday use. :: Paul, 10-09-17