[Modern Firepower] Technothriller gear for secret DHS team in 2017

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

No, the newer high-tech ones like Rockys are hard to re-sole. As I said. But most can be, and are. Corcorans are still popular, for example. (Though no longer in black.) I have a pair. Also as I said, there is a guy who comes to the Fort Carson PX every now and then and re-soles boots.

Boots cost over $100. Some approach $200! That's not cheap for an E3 with a family!

And actually, I hadn't considered cowboy boots. There have to be cobblers who re-sole some of those more expensive boots.

But, yeah, your timeline seems tight.

There's technically time for resoling, it's just that most of that time is outside of normal opening hours for civilian storefronts.

If the DEA, ICE and other agencies connected to the law enforcement facilities at Fort Bliss have an arrangment with someone who comes by to repair boots (a whole lot of federal LEOs in Texas, whether undercover or not, seem to wear fancy boots), our new team lead is local and well-thought of locally. She'd probably be able to convince someone known to her to work late on Monday to finish a quick re-soling job.

And if somebody military or former military is making some extra money by repairing boots at the base, maybe advertising at the PX, I'm fairly confident of Taylor getting a decent Reaction Roll and/or making the necessary Diplomacy and Savoir-Faire (Military) rolls to make a new friend who'll be prepared to do the work Monday evening. With the Reaction bonuses for Talents combined with good looks and Charisma, the kind of soldiers who respect fieldcraft and quiet professionalism usually take to Taylor.

It's just if the stores I can find on Google Maps are the only options, it's a no go.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by acrosome

No, the newer high-tech ones like Rockys are hard to re-sole.

Right. Hang on... my 'military boot knowledge' days are 20 years out of date and relates only to grunts. The boot of choice back in those days was Altama, which 'cannot' be resoled (it's a single sole and to resole one is almost the cost of buying a new boot - it ain't worth it).


The Rockys Jumps look to have the same sole as my Altamas, and yeah, the Rockys Tacticals look 'impossible' to resole too.


All the guys I've known from the Army, they never resoled their boots... because they didn't wear good boots. They all wore Altama... so... yeah, I bet there probably was a cobbler who'd hit base or was set-up near or right off base for anyone buying better (Corcoran was the premium boot back then*) boots.


* Still is as far as I'm concerned. Corcoran makes a good boot.

[Kalzazz]

I like Under Armour

My mom only buys Rocky's* and since they do not sell them where she lives I end up buying them for her every few months because the soles come unstuck from the rest of the boot

Is that the sort of thing that can be fixed?

In Huntsville TX (prison capital of the free world, and home to very many CO's with limited means and a desire to wear black polishable footwear that is very often boots) there is a store that advertises 'Need a little sole? Shoe and boot repair'

*not the military version. Black polishable side zip tactical boot model

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

A penalty to Climbing would have been undesirable. A penalty to Stealth is pretty much unacceptable.

Something you could have done would be to simply buy a pair of moccasins. Having them with you doesn't help if you go straight from the bike into combat with stealth, but if there is any preparation time, putting them on doesn't take long, and they're +1 to Stealth.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

The boot of choice back in those days was Altama, which 'cannot' be resoled (it's a single sole and to resole one is almost the cost of buying a new boot - it ain't worth it).

Yes- still sold. And yes those are among the more modern "sneaker-like" boots I referenced, like the Rockys. Hell, both Nike and Reebok make combat boots nowadays, and they look exactly like you would expect.

Oddly, the boots that I always see the cobbler working on are various makes that look like the old issue jungle boots, like the McRaes. (And the Corcorans, too.) Maybe they're just damned cheap and easy to re-sole? Lord knows that the soles are soft and wear flat fast.

Originally Posted by evileeyore

* Still is as far as I'm concerned. Corcoran makes a good boot.

There is a reason that I still have my black Corcoran field boots even though they haven't been wearable on-duty for almost a generation.

... damn, I'm getting old.

[Þorkell]

All this talk about boots made me think of this.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Right. Hang on... my 'military boot knowledge' days are 20 years out of date and relates only to grunts. The boot of choice back in those days was Altama, which 'cannot' be resoled (it's a single sole and to resole one is almost the cost of buying a new boot - it ain't worth it).


The Rockys Jumps look to have the same sole as my Altamas, and yeah, the Rockys Tacticals look 'impossible' to resole too.


All the guys I've known from the Army, they never resoled their boots... because they didn't wear good boots. They all wore Altama... so... yeah, I bet there probably was a cobbler who'd hit base or was set-up near or right off base for anyone buying better (Corcoran was the premium boot back then*) boots.

* Still is as far as I'm concerned. Corcoran makes a good boot.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I like Under Armour

My mom only buys Rocky's* and since they do not sell them where she lives I end up buying them for her every few months because the soles come unstuck from the rest of the boot

Is that the sort of thing that can be fixed?

In Huntsville TX (prison capital of the free world, and home to very many CO's with limited means and a desire to wear black polishable footwear that is very often boots) there is a store that advertises 'Need a little sole? Shoe and boot repair'

*not the military version. Black polishable side zip tactical boot model

Originally Posted by acrosome

Yes- still sold. And yes those are among the more modern "sneaker-like" boots I referenced, like the Rockys. Hell, both Nike and Reebok make combat boots nowadays, and they look exactly like you would expect.

Oddly, the boots that I always see the cobbler working on are various makes that look like the old issue jungle boots, like the McRaes. (And the Corcorans, too.) Maybe they're just damned cheap and easy to re-sole? Lord knows that the soles are soft and wear flat fast.

There is a reason that I still have my black Corcoran field boots even though they haven't been wearable on-duty for almost a generation.

... damn, I'm getting old.

The actual cowboy boots that Taylor received were probably either signed out of storage (if clothing is ever seized as vehicles and other expensive stuff is in smuggling cases) or bought by an agent used to supporting undercover operations, to approximate the outfits of the real C.J. Everett on any number of pictures they have of the guy.

The real Everett wore cowboy boots whenever he was off duty, including when he rode his bike. He also wore them for social occasions, dancing, dining and running errands. I'm guessing that the real Everett had a number of pairs of cowboy boots and at least one of them was fairly comfortable to wear.

The real Everett was in debt, credit cards mostly and the financing on his bike, and lived considerably above his means, which most likely was a factor in his agreeing to the straw purchase of the rifles. So he might have had some nice brands of boots, being fairly vain and putting a considerable importance on flash-looking things.

Is anyone aware of a make of leather boots that has the classic Western / cowboy look, ideally with a fancy patterning that at least looks like ostrich, alligator or something exotic, but are comfortable, sturdy enough to ride a bike in, but not hopeless as general purpose footwear either?

Basically, what do you wear when you want to look fancy, but do not want to suffer any penalties to action-adventure stuff for your footwear?

Originally Posted by johndallman

Something you could have done would be to simply buy a pair of moccasins. Having them with you doesn't help if you go straight from the bike into combat with stealth, but if there is any preparation time, putting them on doesn't take long, and they're +1 to Stealth.

Are moccasins something that seem likely as a choice of footwear for Taylor, raised in Luverne, Alabama, and then a career in the US Army, living variously at Ft. Bragg, NC, off-base on Georgia for a while and in Afghanistan or a variety of Latin American locations?

I'm genuinely ignorant of the prevalence of moccasins among US soldiers, Southerners in general or in Central or South America. Taylor's former unit, the 7th SFG(A), speaks Spanish, are immersed in the cultures of the Latin American countries where they spend much of their time training allied military units and there is allegedly a pronounced tendency among the soldiers serving with it to marry girls they meet on their assignments to various countries in Latin America, so anything that is popular in Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Belize, etc., might be expected to be adopted by the soldiers.

I know that the cowboy boots cannot be the only footwear Taylor has with him. At minimum, he runs every morning, so he'll need running shoes. Probably a pair sold at the PX, for less than $80 (the allowance the US Army issues for the purchase of running shoes), because that's what he'll be used to. And not a new brand, either, something popular before 2011, when his service came to an end. That seems to have been mostly Asics and New Balance running shoes.

[acrosome]

I'm unaware of anywhere in the US that moccasins are actually common. (Including on the rez other than regalia in ceremonies, actually.) So that seems unlikely, from a cultural aspect, for your character. Many slippers are moccasin-like, often lined with (synthetic) sheepskin, but that's all I can think of.

Military guys seem to just wear their running shoes when they need something comfortable or somewhat destructible off-duty. And the Special Guys all wore trail runners or mid-height trail shoes when I was in Africa (I still have my Keen Voyageurs) but that's probably because mud was not a serious threat where I was in Africa. Deep mud would suck those right off of your feet. (This is the main advantage of boots- that they don't come off in mud.)

If he's seriously into the Latin American thing, how about huaraches? Or, huaraches? :) I have a pair of the latter and find them rather handy- easy to pack in a backpack, since they are flat and take up little volume. They're both more Mexican than Central American, though a quick google of "Guatemalan shoes" shows something essentially identical to the former. Neither is really what I would call combat footwear, though.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

All this talk about boots made me think of this.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

Sir Terry was a keen observer of the human condition and gifted with a way for wryly expressing his observations with rare warmth and humour.

That being said, I doubt many PCs, whatever their wealth, enjoy the economic unfairness of their expensive gear lasting longer than disposable cheaper items. In my experience, adventuring is extremely hard on equipment, no matter the quality.

Not to mention that there are some substances that one might not even attempt to clean from one's clothes. Once you've been bathed in the blood of friends or waded in their viscera, you might just want to throw out your clothes and footwear. I imagine the same might apply for the rotting flesh of the walking dead, Shoggoth secretions or unnamable ichors.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

I'm unaware of anywhere in the US that moccasins are actually common. (Including on the rez other than regalia in ceremonies, actually.) So that seems unlikely, from a cultural aspect, for your character. Many slippers are moccasin-like, often lined with (synthetic) sheepskin, but that's all I can think of.

Indeed. Of course, there might be some appropriate modern footwear that has the same game stats as Moccasins (p. HT68), as the stats are noted as applying to any light, functional shoes.

Originally Posted by acrosome

Military guys seem to just wear their running shoes when they need something comfortable or somewhat destructible off-duty. And the Special Guys all wore trail runners or mid-height trail shoes when I was in Africa (I still have my Keen Voyageurs) but that's probably because mud was not a serious threat where I was in Africa. Deep mud would suck those right off of your feet. (This is the main advantage of boots- that they don't come off in mud.)

Taylor likes to be outside, at least in decent weather, and enjoys running anywhere pretty*, so I expect that he might have owned trail running shoes during his active service. Due to the circumstances of his incarceration 2011-2017 and the presumably clandestine nature of his assignment to Onyx Rain, however, he doesn't have any gear that isn't specifically arranged for this mission. Even if his ex-wife has not thrown out of all of his old stuff, there isn't any way to get any of it.

So, I'm guessing that aside from the cowboy boots for the cover identity, he gets his choice of one pair of running, hiking or athletic footwear from the PX, as long as they are no more than $80 there.

*Though he prefers green, rolling hills, forests and creeks to harsh, mountainous terrain.

Originally Posted by acrosome

If he's seriously into the Latin American thing, how about huaraches? Or, huaraches? :) I have a pair of the latter and find them rather handy- easy to pack in a backpack, since they are flat and take up little volume. They're both more Mexican than Central American, though a quick google of "Guatemalan shoes" shows something essentially identical to the former.

That's a really good idea. Similar footwear seems to exist in several Central or South American countries. And as Taylor has one deployment to Mexico, several Tejano friends (and one former girlfriend) and has served with a decent proportion of Mexican-American soldiers, that would be fairly plausible, culturally.

Assuming that getting his hands on a pair was easy and cheap, I think that Taylor might have taken a pair as a handy change of footwear to carry with him on the bike.

Originally Posted by acrosome

Neither is really what I would call combat footwear, though.

No one was interested in issuing Taylor with combat gear, per se. Officially, any equipment he is issued or allowed to obtain is primarily to support his cover identity. And given that the real Everett didn't wear military style boots unless he was on duty and required to do so, Taylor won't be wearing any AR 670-1 compliant footwear.