On a recent trip, I had a chance to reconnect with my brother, Nick, for a day of fishing in Door County. One of the perks of having a brother in the outdoor industry is that sometimes he's kind enough to send some gear my way. This was the first time I joined him on a work trip, and to my surprise, he had a new pair of shoes for me! I was familiar with LOWA, but have never owned a pair. I put on the Maddox Lo (luckily the size was perfect) and we took off for a day of fishing. The first thing I noticed is how comfortable they are. Sometimes it takes a while for shoes to break in but these were comfortable all afternoon on the day one. Another nice feature was the speed lace. On a hot day, I like to kick off my shoes and stand in the water to fish, which means that my shoes were on and off all afternoon. The speed lace makes this a non-issue. The fact that they're waterproof also came in handy. We were scrambling around on rocks trying to hit different fishing holes, and occasionally a foot ends up in the water. Once again, not an issue with the Maddox. My feet were comfy all day long. They didn't get sweaty, and they didn't get sore. I was glad I had them along on our marathon fishing day all over Door County. We covered a lot of ground from sunrise to sunset and I still had energy left at the end of the day. Two thumbs up from me for the LOWA Maddox Lo.