Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Im usually not one to write scathing reviews, as I generally take my time in purchasing decisions by checking out reviews in many locations, etc. In this instance however, I truly feel it is my duty as many others before to warn potential buyers to avoid this product. After quite a bit of research, I settled on this pair of Keens. As a replacement to my Columbia boots that ive owned for the last 4 years. While the columbias are great and waterproof, they have been just a touch light for winter hiking and snowshoing. I wear a size 17, and my options are significantly more limited than the average person for footwear. After hearing about Keen for a number of years, and reading many of the reviews, I settled on these boots as a gift suggestion for myself, for the holidays. After I passed the suggestion along to a relative, I began delving into the more recent warnings and reviews of the Keen brand: notably about how their manufacturing and product standards have changes, and the newest products over the last year or so have been of a far lesser quality than the products they had previosly sold to gain the positive reputation that Keen holds. I read these negative reviews, saw the hundreds of other 5 star reviews, and noted that my size 17 boots are likely not hot sellers. Considering this, I thought that even if the manufacturing had been outsourced to china resulting in a lower quality product, it would be unlikely that a new batch of size 17s were made there, with this new process. I thought these boots would be a great piece of gear. I could not have been more wrong. I have now owned them for 24 hours, and one of the lacing eyelits just ripped straight out of the boot. The eyelit is the second up from the toe, and after inspection, Im not even remotely suprised that this happened, given the way it was stitched together. The stitching pattern gives the impression that these eyelit straps are laced through the leather, down to the sole from the upper. This is not the case. The strap was tucked under the leather upper by maybe 3mm. Likely less. I will post photos of the break, to further detail this review later this weekend. Tl/dr: awful, cost cutting manufacturing processes have ruined this brand. Do yourself a favor and avoid this boot. If anyone from amazon sees this: please consider creating a new listing for these keen boots. It is obvious that the product has changed, and the positive reviews from years past are terribly misleading.