I was in the store Any Mountain last weekend and tried on a pair of hiking
boots. I have an older pair of Vasque Alpine before GTX, which I've had for
eight years now. The new boot I tried on was an Asolo powermatic 200 and I
was amazed how comfortable they were right out of the box. I also looked
over the other brands of high end hiking boots, such as Vasque, and Montbell
which they too seemed to be comfortable. I remember it took me a long time
to break in my older Vasque Alpine. I didn't purchase the Asolo or any
other hiking boots, just going to run mine into the ground, but I was amazed
how far hiking boot technology has come.

Someone mentioned smartwool socks, instead of double layering and I'll have
to agree. I did purchase a pair of Dahlgren backpacking socks, and did some
mild hikes the last few days, and was also amazed in the new technology, no
more double layering.
fwiw,
-tom