Why We Chose The Zamberlan Virtex GTX Boot: Classic Italian heritage, durable leather build, waterproof protection.
The needs of UK hillwalkers are relatively simple; we generally tend to lean towards durable, waterproof boots that provide all-day comfort. We also gravitate towards the kind of boot that you’d be able to pull on every weekend in all but the most wintery of conditions. To top it all off, it’s always nice when that pair are on the right side of £200. With the Zamberlan Virtex GTX all of those boxes have been ticked.
“After 90 years of boot production, Italian boot makers Zamberlan are now onto their third generation of family ownership.”
Zamberlan are now onto their third generation of family ownership, with Marco Zamberlan now continuing their legacy of boot making, one that goes all the way back to 1929 when Marco’s grandfather, Giuseppe Zamberlan, founded the company in the foothills of the Dolomites.
It all started when Giuseppe managed to strike a friendship between the founder of sole manufacturer, Vitale Bramani aka Vibram. This led to Giuseppe joining his artisan boot crafting skill with Vitale’s cutting edge sole design. The rest, as they say, is history.
With an upper built from a mixture of super tough ‘Hydrobloc’ leather, Zamberlan’s latest offering, the Virtex GTX, is a real high quality, durable walking boot. Previous versions of the Virtex have used Cordura in certain section around the ankle, but with this iteration we’ve gone for a complete covering of full grain leather, with a Gore-Tex lining underneath for when you inevitably find yourself plodding through a bog, and then a dependable rubber toe bumper.
