Image 1 — First pair of Danner Boots - Mountain Ridge (made in japan)
Image 2 — First pair of Danner Boots - Mountain Ridge (made in japan)
Image 3 — First pair of Danner Boots - Mountain Ridge (made in japan)
Image 4 — First pair of Danner Boots - Mountain Ridge (made in japan)

First pair of Danner Boots - Mountain Ridge (made in japan)

Just picked up a pair of Mountain Ridge boots on a recent trip to japan! This took me two trips to japan to find, its truly a scavenger hunt, old school fun since "online sales" is not nearly as common there. Cost for the mountain ridge shoes was ~$220 USD, tax free since i was there as a tourist.

I had read about a line of Danner shoes that were made and sold in Japan, and upon looking through the catalog I loved the way the Mountain Ridge shoes looked, and I preferred a "low" cut for daily wearability (did not want to be the guy that wears hiking boots everywhere lol).

What surprised me is the fit was quite different than the synthetic danners i own. My other pair is size 9.5 so I asked the sales associate right away for a 9.5 - and when I first put it on I felt like i was wearing a shoe that was 2 sizes larger.

Went down to a size 8 which seemed like a "very snug" fit but after about 20 minutes of debate, and switching back and forth I went with a 8.5, "slightly snug". I wasn't a fan of how the stock insoles felt (frankly a slight disappointment for a premium line) but easily solved with aftermarket danner insoles they had in the store. After the slightly thicker insole the fit became "moderately snug" with the thought that the leather will hopefully break in and loosen up a bit.

I have around 25 miles on the boots now, mainly paved city type walking, with 2-3 miles of actual hiking, and 1 downpour.

Initial thoughts

Trying to break it in while walking around the city, slightly uncomfortable but can get thru a whole day of walking (6-8 miles) no problem, slightly sore at end of day. Had a sudden downpour and the traction was great, and feet stayed dry.

I did a small 2-3 mile hike through mostly unmaintained trails (photos above) thru snow, streams, over rocks big and small.

The part that was most surprising is the "leverage" from the rigid and wide outsole (on low cut) while walking over uneven rock, that leverage puts a bit of pressure on the ankles. However I'm not too worried at this point since I feel there is plenty of miles of break in ahead (I do hike about 10-15 miles a week on bunny slopes with tame gravel trails)

Thats pretty much it! So far so good, any comments from seasoned veterans i'd greatly appreciate it!

And dont mind the sloppy shoelaces

u/Accomplished_Two_502 — 13 days ago

New datapoint for IEEPA refund - CAPE submitted 4/25 some refunds received 5/15

Submitted saturday 4/25 and received ach friday 5/15. However, not all accepted entries were refunded, only saw some of them on the REV603 report.

- Only 3 of 14 entries (throughout 2025 and 2026) were refunded

- All the refunds were liquidated entries.

- There are still some liquidated entries that did not get refunded.

- Appeared to have ~5.5% interest baked into it.

How many of you have received second wave of refunds?

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u/Accomplished_Two_502 — 2 months ago

Chase Travel... shady business practices while modifying return tickets

CSR+CSRB holder. I booked a $3,500 Business Class roundtrip between US and Asia on a star alliance airline using the "points boost" feature. Not a travel rookie by all means, this is my third trip to asia this year and i've bee playing the points game 15+ years.

Due to unforseen circumstances I needed to delay my return by 10 days. Called the chase rep to do it, they quoted me $320 to change it. Seemed reasonable, I told them to proceed. Chase charged my card, I see the updated flight on the airline app, and hung up.

An hour later, the same rep called back saying the change was "unsuccessful" and told me I needed to pay an additional $1,700 to complete the change... WTF?? When questioned, i just got really standard boilerplate answers "ticket change subject to updated fares, yada yada yada" and he even tried to lecture me saying if i dont keep original ticket "of course i need to pay". After a few more snarky answers from the rep..... lets just say coworkers came by my office to check if i was ok.

I found out here, when Chase travel was calculating the "change fee" they were literally taking a full fare, one way business class ticket (one way ticket more expensive than roundtrip ticket i paid) then deducting the unused portion of the original fare. Basically booking a second, one way ticket and applying the first unflown value of roundtrip ticket.

And no matter how much I explain that it doesnt work like that, they just kept replying with boilerplate answers. What makes matters worse, the rep said they cannot change the ticket back because the original date is no longer available.

Long story short TL;DR completely defeated by stupidity, I decided to give the airline a shot. Called the airline, told them Chase completely wrecked my booking. Fortunately I have star alliance gold status with the airline so they pushed me over to a supervisor who not only fixed the booking, but put me on the date I requested, and charged $170 fee (instead of $320).

2 hours wasted with the chase travel rep (he called the airline two or three times during the call). Plus 15 minutes with the airline to fix it. My only hope is that Chase doesnt get cranky with the unilateral change with the airline.

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u/Accomplished_Two_502 — 2 months ago

Two "direct deposits" in, the "one time" hit in cashflow that they suggest is absolutely BS way of selling something that should never have been pushed out. What were they thinking??

This new disbursement policy is an absolute joke and terrible policy for small sellers (probably a majority of sellers) busting their ass on this platform..... While Amazon is sitting on billions of dollars of cash they decide they want to sit on seller money for 7 more days, what gives?

Cashflow for a seller is just as important as profit, it allows us to reorder and HOLD inventory, pay suppliers, and pay employees. DD+7 means less inventory availability, probably a step backwards!

I just dont get why they feel like clawing 7-days of cashflow from seller makes sense when sellers are already squeezed for margins. That's the difference between making payroll, restocking a bestseller before it goes out of stock, or straight-up surviving the month. And the infuriating part is they'll announce some phony new seller "benefit" with one hand while quietly killing cash flow with the other... one step forward, three steps back, every.single.time!!!

They know exactly what they're doing. Longer holds mean Amazon keeps that capital longer, collects the float interest, and tightens their grip on sellers who are already completely dependent on their ecosystem with nowhere else to go.

This gives me much better validation of developing and promoting a Shopify store as a PL seller. Shopify/Paypal deposits are so fast compared to Amazon. This crap amazon is doing is totally predatory.

/End Rant

- Low 8 figure seller

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u/Accomplished_Two_502 — 2 months ago