The recent NATO military exercise, the largest since the end of the Cold War, took place in snow, cold and extreme weather conditions. According to the Slovenian Minister of Defence, Karl Erjavec, this could be a cause for the problems with the soldiers’ footwear. At least 17 soldiers had boots that were falling apart due to its soles coming off.
Erjavec has now confirmed that he has already received a report in relation to this issue. In his words, nothing can be concluded from the report. On the one hand, everything is supposedly okay with the shoes, but on the other hand, the report draws attention to certain irregularities, the minister said in a statement to the press after Friday's session of the DeSUS party, which had been organised to discuss the current political situation.

JSI Institute no longer cooperates with the army
Military shoes were developed from 2004 to 2007 at the Jožef Stefan Institute in cooperation with the Alpina shoe factory. As Igor B. Mekjavić from the institute said at a lecture, that winter shoe was "one of the best in Europe, if not in the world". Mekjavić does not know what has been going on in terms of military boots development since then, since the institute is no longer in cooperation with the military.