I have received this question from numerous friends and sponsors and thought I should share the story and some photos.
The expedition races I do involve us usually crossing ALOT of sand. We sleep on it, run on it, it finds it way into our food & water, and migrates to every nook of your body (BTW: Hydropel is a must!). In my experience sand is the #1 contributor to blisters. You can have the nicest socks and slather your feet in goo and tape like crazy but if sand gets into your shoes it becomes a constant abrasive, tearing your feet apart. Thus the funky gaiters I wear. They are made out of lightweight ripstop nylon and have velcro around the bottom and 2 elastic drawcords to cinch them down after they are on. I can put them on or off without having to remove my shoes and they do not get as hot as they look while wearing them. The second part of the gaiter is the velcro that gets applied to the shoe. Most people only use an adhesive to attach (I useShoe Goo but am exploring 2 part epoxy for future races) and this is a MAJOR mistake. A combination of heat, the grit of the sand, and the constant flexing of your shoes as you run/walk causes the adhesive to fail. So in conjunction to the adhesive you have to have them sewn onto your shoes as well. Most local shoe repair shops can do this but I decided to try to do it myself. I got the finest drill bit I could find and used a Dremel to drill holes all the way around my shoes through the glued on velcro. I then took high-strength, waxed nylon thread, and threaded it into the hole and tied EACH STITCH. The reason for this is that if one stitch failed all the others are still tied, so no unraveling. Once all the stitches are done I superglue the knots and put more adhesive on top of all the drilled holes.
And there you have the reason why I look like I have Moon Boots on in the middle of the desert.
