About a year and half ago when the M3 first appeared, I bought a pair. Very comfortable boot, very nicely engineered. I wear them for day hikes daily, only a mile and half onb cleared trails, not strem fording and very little wet grass. In six months, the soles were leeling off both shoes. I contacted Black Diamond at EMS,s suggs=estion, and they promptly replaced them. This was nearly a year ago. I still have the same pattern of activity, still treat them regularly with Nixwax taking care to leave a bead of wax on the sole/boot union. Yesterday I noted bith soles just starting to pel away, perhaps 1/3 of each. Not a sign of anything resembling adhesive to be seen. I hate the thought of these boots being discarded and am tempted to just get someone to resole them, but resent paying for this myself. Plan to call Black Diam,ond in minutes and get it thrashed out. I note one review paragraph suggesting that this problem has been licked. We''ll see

Customer Service

Black Diam,ond right on the mark with the first replacement. Haven''t yet contacted them about the second.

Similar Products Used:

Wide variety of European made day hiking boots over many years.

I found these boots to be incredibly comfortable on long hikes.

I didnt find them too slippery on the rough stuff, but then, I dont hike in Tasmania!

They were going great guns till the sole started to separate. This was about 3 months after I bought them.

The retailer has promised to replace them in 24hrs.

Cant complain about the service, though I do have to break a new pair in!

Customer Service

Service was great.

Similar Products Used:

None

This is for the OLD SL (Grinta sole),which is now the DELTA/CADORE GTX.

The old SL rules! The new one has had probs with sole delamination- or so I've been told by disappointed consumers. -- they've got the bugs worked out now.
The Delta,or the Cadore GTX is what I'm going to end up buying again. they may not look 'high-tech',or as sharp as the new boot models out there,but they're proven,already! They're bombproof!!

Customer Service

Distrbt'd by Black Diamond now,not Fabiano.

Similar Products Used:

I have: Asolo Globaline Parallel GTX;
Lowa TIBET GTX;Asolo Globaline Meridian They're all excellent boots! But my OLD model SL's are my favourites! I wear them exclusively at work!

Five star ratings for both categories! -But this is for the old SL's,which are now the DELTA/ CADORE GTX models.

I purchased a pair of the new model SLs with the M3 sole. My advice: don't bother. They are the slipperiest boots I've ever worn on wet rocks, I'm talking mega slippery here. They also wore down really quickly. In a total of 14 days walking they lost around 1 to 1.5mm of rubber out of the middle of the tread. They are a classic case of letting a fashion designer loose on an enginneers task. Yes, the new tread looks more "high tech" than the old Grinta sole, but why change something that works. I think the faults come from: (a) Putting too much bevel on the edges of the tread blocks. This has resulted in there being no sharp edges to grip rocks with (b)spacing the middle tread blocks too far apart so that there is only a small amount of rubber on the ground. This has resulted in the excessive wear.
I complained to the importer here in Australia and they have replaced them with a pair of Deltas with the old sole. The improvement in grip is phenomenal.
Having said that the uppers were phenomenal, the most comfortable I have ever worn and very water proof. But comfortable feet aren't much use if you've fallen on your butt.

Customer Service

I must say that the Australian importer was very good about my problem. They replaced them with a pair of the old model Deltas which I'm much happier with (I don't slip over every 5 minutes!) and gave me a credit at my local retailer.

Similar Products Used:

Scarpa Deltas (Grinta Sole), Blundstones, Rossi Eagles