I'm a contractor, Outdoorsman and 51 year old male who purchases a lot of outdoors clothing/boots for my business and hobby. I have a variet of items from different manufactures like Rocky, RedHead, Cabelas, Timberland ect. Timberland was one of my favorites since I was a boy and bought my first pair of Timberland boots for hunting. Their brand name always instilled a feeling of value, quality and durability that far exceeded other brands. Recently I purchased a pair of Timberland Pro Series boots for construction work from Bob's Clothing on Long Island. I have never purchased a piece of unadulterated inferior crap in all my 51 years. In no time at all the very thin leather wore off the boot tips. Next, all the eyelets are fabric, not reinforced nylon or steel. One by one they tore thru until I only have two or three eyelets per boot to use for the laces. They aren't used hard or abused and very shortly I'm going to throw a good expensive pair of boots in the trash can. The only thing I can think of is that Timberland is purchasing Chinese junk and slapping their name on it for the big profit. I'll have to look long and hard before I buy another Timberland product- very sad after being a lifetime customer.