Sidi Crossfire boots seem to have quality control issues in recent years, and we suspect it may be linked to the manufacturing moved from Italy to Romania. Long term riders will know that some formerly high quality brands have changed over the past 20 years. They move manufacturing to a cheaper country, or just opt for cheaper parts and rely on their former reputation. Or they just get sloppy with their quality control. So lets get into our Sidi Crossfire boot review. And how to choose the best motocross boots
We are concerned that this could be happening with Sidi Crossfire boots. I have experienced this. So have quite a few guys I ride with. A dealer stocking Sidi Crossfires recently told me his national distributor for Sidi was shocked by the number of complaints, returns and warranty claims in recent years. And on line discussions show many riders around the world with the same concerns.
So lets start with my boots. My original Sidi Crossfire 2 boots bought six years ago? Amazing. After five years of abuse, an estimated 300 rides, the boots still offered great protection. The original soles were still intact. A leather seam had finally parted but that was it. I decided to make these Sidi Crossfires my back up pair and bought a new set. Sadly the new Sidi pair were looking very ragged in just over a year. A toe cap fell off quickly. The plastics were pulling past the screws and also away from the boot carcass itself. Both soles were starting to separate from the boot, and wore through much faster despite using the same footpegs.
Tim Coleman had this failure with brand new Crossfire SRS boots in the recent Sea to Sky race. Chris Perry told me his first two pairs of early Sidi Crossfires were awesome. But He said his recent two pairs were shit, with soles continually peeling off and various other bits failing or peeling away too. He says he's seen quite a few guys with their Crossfire soles fall off.
On line you can find quite a few complaints about Sidi Crossfire SRS soles falling off (and TA soles too), sometimes in as little as three rides. In other cases it might be after 50 hours of use or a 150 hours of use and usually outside of the one year warranty. For many brands of boots this would be reasonable, but I suspect many riders are disappointed because Sidi Crossfires are widely seen as the second best boot after the Gaerne SG12s, and this is reflected in their high price too. It's extremely rare to see complaints about the Gaernes, but unfortunately complaints about Sidi Crossfires appear to have increased dramatically in recent years. Sidi soles peeling off seems to be particularly an issue with the Sidi Crossfire SRS boots, but also occurs with the stitched TA soles too. I asked riders for feedback on Facebook and got a pile of similar reports from other Crossfire users. So why is this happening?
It could be because Sidi moved most of the manufacturing from Italy to Romania. When? We aren't sure, but it was first reported in this 2012 article. One rider pointed out that his boots came with a tag saying "Handcrafted in Italy" and yet the boots are actually made in Romania. I checked and found I had the same tag on my new Sidi Crossfire boots too. Interestingly another Italian company, Forma, seem to be indulging in some word play on this issue. These don't get raised in motocross boot reviews.
I emailed Sidi's head office about this, as well as the USA and United Kingdom distributors. I asked a few other questions as well.
When did manufacturing move to Romania?
What is their response to an apparent drop in quality in recent years?
Will any support be provided to Sidi owners with problems just outside of warranty period?
There was no response to I then asked these questions on Sidi's Facebook page, with no answer. I then sent a message through Facebook and they said to contact my dealer. If any other replies are received I'll keep you posted in this Sidi Crossfire boot review. In fairness, some guys have said their Sidi Crossfires purchased in recent years have been great, so if there's a drop in quality control it's only affecting some boots.
A few years back I produced a video about how to choose the best motocross boots, and said that my research indicated that Gaerne and Sidi were probably the top two boots. Sadly I'm dropping Sidi from that list and have annotated my Sidi Crossfire boot review accordingly. The good news is Gaerne is still manufactured in Italy and if you do some quick research you'll see they still have sterling reputation. So when choosing your next boot, google around for known issues and problems. Don't rely too much on superficial Sidi Crossfire boot reviews or best motocross boots vids. And check our choosing the best boot vid for some suggested tests for protection.
#crosstrainingenduro #sidicrossfire #sidi #sidicrossfirereview
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