………….and to add to your rhetoricals: Who takes responsibility for defective pins? If you’ve purchased an (expensive) Alfa boot and have to send it back to Alfa because of the pins, do you get: “Not us, mate. We only make the uppers. For anything to do with the sole assembly you’ll have to go to Rottefella – they’re the ones who make that”.
Just kidding, of course: The responsibility to repair/replace the boot under warranty has to lie with the boot manufacturer, but it seems a bit odd that Rottefella put out a video showing how to maintain an Alfa boot when there is no such reference on the Alfa website. It’s a bit like one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. I haven’t found any equivalent Xplore maintenance instructions on the websites of Alpina or Lundhags.