10 shits we all hate about SAF combat boots, from the old to the new ones

Last Updated on 2016-05-19 , 1:37 pm

If you’ve been in the army during your NS period, you’ll be familiar with this pair of shoes: the combat boots. On the surface, it looks cool and anyone who has not worn it before will think that it’s some kind of special boots meant for soldiers, but here’s the thing: I absolutely hate it.

Yes, in the forest, it can protect me from many things, or even save my life, but hey, as a Singaporean, and as one who has worn it for two years and is still going to wear it for two weeks every year, I need to complain, right?

New unseasoned boots would cause pain in every part of your feet
This is especially true for the latest version: during my pervious ICT, everyone, after getting the new boots, was complaining about the pain. And to think we all bought it for our route march as we thought it will be more comfortable, but it made our march even worse.

Washing with water always give us false hope
Kee chiu if you’ve once run the boots under a hose, and when you see the muddy boots becoming shiny black, you walk off happily, only to realize it’s false hope as they’ll turn white when they dry. Why they so like that?

When water goes it, it never comes out
Depending on which version yours is, some of ours would be a pool if water managed to get in. And when that happened, it’s pretty much pointless to drain the water out—it’ll get back in again.

There’s no shortcut in kiwi-ing the boots
You think you can use liquid kiwi? Yeah, of course you can. They’re like Godsend, but soon, you’ll see your boots having hairline cracks. Trust me, everyone who has once used liquid kiwi will understand. Now you know why Tekong instructors have always told recruits not to use liquid kiwi.

They’re so big, you can’t carry it with your bag
Actually, you can. Just that if you slot it into your bag, they’re the only things in the bag. This is the reason why some people would book in in their uniform even if they don’t need to—it’s all because of the boots.

There’s a pair of boots called parade boots, and it’s also combat boots
Get it? There’s a Smart 4, and also the Smartest 4. Only people who have been in the army would understand, and only people who know about parade boots will hate parade boots.
Because it’s so tempting to wear a parade boots out when you’ve woken up late.

They’ll go mouldy, like seriously
Could someone tell me the similarity between a piece of bread and a pair of boots? Here’s one: both will get mouldy.

Driving while wearing those shows is a pain in the ass
Especially if you’re driving a manual car. So, the solution is to remove the boots right? The thing is, it takes quite a while to put them on…

You’ve to wear thick socks with them
Because they’re pretty high and rough in the inside, you need those SAF-issued green socks to go with them. And those socks have a strong smell after wearing them for a while. You can imagine how the house would smell after you’ve just taken off the shoes…

Garters
Okay, maybe this is not so related to the shoes themselves, but they’re still part of the attire. The thing about garters is that you’ll lose one every day—so much so that going outfield means bringing lots of garters.