Dear HMK,
We have just received your latest HMK snowmobile boots and have written what we (Race Gas Magazine), believe is a fair evaluation between your boot, and the Chill Chasers boot made by Buster Brown.
My grandpa always used to say, “If the boot fits, wear it.” I never understood that until we did this huge, comprehensive, all-encompassing, calculated, well planned shoot-out.
Enough said; Lets get down to the business of boots.
Water Test
We’ve heard from one source that people stand in water with their snowmobile boots on during the middle of winter…In cold water. Sometimes it’s deep, sometimes it just gets the bottoms wet. We really didn’t measure how much water we put the boots in, we just put them in the water.
It was too cold to stand in water outside, so we did it at home in the bathtub. We chose a blue bathtub because it looked like the water would get colder in it. We also compared water in a white tub and it looked warmer. So we chose the blue tub. We turned the cold water knob on and filled the tub with some water. After standing in the water for what seemed like three hours, our tester got bored and played with his son’s rubber ducky. Our tester had so much fun with the duck, that he slipped in the tub and hurt himself. We decided that the HMK boot is slippery when you stand in a tub full of cold water. Because the test turned dangerous, we bypassed standing in water with the Chill Chaser brand boot from Buster Brown. Winner: Buster Brown
From the tub, we tested in the Magic Water Disappearing Zone for Turds and Potty™. The clockwise flow of water seemed to clean the HMK boot quite thoroughly. This test seemed to be a breeze for our tester, so we went ahead with the Buster Brown boot and quite frankly, this boot Busted. Because of its tiny size, it magically disappeared.. Lucky we have two feet, so we had a spare boot. Winner: HMK
The next test was in two different sinks. One was ceramic, the other, stainless steel. This time we didn’t try to stand in the sink, we just threw the HMK and Buster Brown boot in each and the outcome was the same. The boots got wet when we turned the water on. After drying them out for 36 hours, we tried the test again to see if we got different results, but it was the same. The boots got wet. We saw alarming results when filled directly from the spigot. Winner: TIE
Finally we tried putting the size 15 HMK flipper in the freezer. Problem is, HMK makes big boots, so if you do a freezer test, you’ll have to remove items like last years back bacon and the fawn chops from this years Minnesota deer opener. We didn’t have to remove any items for the Buster Brown boot. Winner: Buster Brown
Finely, we tried the boots on. Our tester had a size 15 ski, so the HMK fit flawlessly. The Chill Chasers boot from Buster Brown didn’t fair so good. Our tester claimed that he could barely fit three toes into the rim of the boot. After much debate, we figure the Buster Brown boot is best suited for a Toddler with a foot smaller than size three. Winner: HMK
Conclusion
It was a tough test, but in the end, we couldn’t make a decision. We wouldn’t make a decision anyway because HMK is one of our advertisers, and we are currently chasing Buster Brown for a 2-page spread. I guess we’ll have to stick with Grandpa’s advice, “If the boot fits, wear it.”