I recently bought a pair of NW Gran Canion boots and when fitting and tightening the cleats, one of the threads in the shoe stripped. I also have some Cannondale shoes and fitted new cleats at the same time. I was able to tighten the cleats in the Cannondales to what I normally would without a problem but applying less tightening to the NW shoes stripped one of the threads in the shoe.

The big problem is that I can't replace the plate in the NW shoes as the inner is goretex and sewn in.

Is this poor quality manufacturing by Northwave or are most shoes prone to this?

P.S. Used a standard 4mm allen key to fit and tighten the cleats.

One of my Notrthwave boots stripped a thread too, it appears their threads are made of cheese. Pretty poor on an otherwise top notch boot.

My cleat has stayed in with a bit of threadlock as i stopped as soon as i felt the thread "go", and i left the other threads looser afetr that.

well take them back. If people just struggle on they'll never know the weakness in their design

Yeah - when it initally happened I phoned my LBS and got the most unhelpful employee ever who basically said that stripped threads weren't covered by warranty.

Anyway, I loosely fitted the cleat to the 2nd set of holes in the boot and took them into said LBS for them to tighten. I actually spoke to someone who knew what customer service was about and he tightened them up and said that if they fail they would sort them out.

So basically, I'm gonna use them and see if they fail. If they do, I'll be getting my money back.

However, this doesn't excuse the shite quality steel that Northwave are using on an otherwise excellent boot.