Columbia Men's Newton Ridge Plus II Hiking Boots

I bought these boots a couple of years ago and and have been hiking the AZ Trail with them. I'm a 165 lb male with very thin feet. I struggled with them at first as I was getting a lot of blisters. After adjusting socks several times, adding duct tape to the bottom of one foot, and eliminating my orthotics, I finally figured out a combination that resulted in no blisters. By then (about 80 miles), the heel tread was gone. The rest of the tread was still OK. I mostly used them to hike with a bun pack. Two hikes were done with a 35 lb pack. Overall, I thought the sole was too thin. I could easily feel rocks and consciously avoided rocks where I could. Even so, I was about to give a 4 star review when I discovered the leather upper had a cut in it. On further inspection, I found the leather to be cracking in multiple places! I used a pair of calipers to measure the leather thickness and it was .010 inches-about the thickness of three pieces of paper. I didn't know you could cut leather that thin. I only have about 120 miles on these. Hiking boots, even cheap ones, should last at least 300 miles. These are already on their last legs. I'm very disappointed and won't buy any more Columbia boots. Too bad. I was just starting to like these.