It's not so much that the quality of the boot went down.
It's that LL Bean made the decision to become much more focused on retail clothing and much less focused on outdoor gear. The result is a limited selection of outdoor gear compared to their competition, and a great selection of fashionable clothes if you want to enjoy the woods from a public park or some form of apple orchard.
They built a brand and are banking on it, good for them, but the boots and most of their products in general are not the top-line outdoor gear that the company was founded on. Not saying you can't buy outdoor gear there or anything, I routinely do, but noting they're more of a fashion brand than an outdoors store now, and the boots are a key symbol of a top product that never evolved but looks cute.
guethlema t1_iqml7e1 wrote
Reply to comment by BigCarry1978 in Do you think LLBean boots are worth their hype? by Gilbert221
It's not so much that the quality of the boot went down.
It's that LL Bean made the decision to become much more focused on retail clothing and much less focused on outdoor gear. The result is a limited selection of outdoor gear compared to their competition, and a great selection of fashionable clothes if you want to enjoy the woods from a public park or some form of apple orchard.
They built a brand and are banking on it, good for them, but the boots and most of their products in general are not the top-line outdoor gear that the company was founded on. Not saying you can't buy outdoor gear there or anything, I routinely do, but noting they're more of a fashion brand than an outdoors store now, and the boots are a key symbol of a top product that never evolved but looks cute.