How did I get myself into this? The thought comes all too late as I find myself alone in a dark alley, somewhere in one of Sydney's inner industrial suburbs. Steam rises from a nearby vent. There's the piercing screech of cats fighting and the clatter of bins somewhere in the blackness.

I approach a heavy steel door with the crude but threatening silhouette of a spider etched into it and hammer three times with my fist. The hollow report echoes between the grimy brick walls of the alley and up into the night. A moment later, a slot in the door grates open and through it I see two dark eyes, staring into me.

"Password?" A voice booms.

"Nick sent me."

The slot closes. Silence as I watch the steam of my breath trickle out into the cold air. Then I hear a bolt released. The door opens slowly, menacingly, revealing a small entryway that leads to a narrow flight of stairs. The lighting isn't strong enough to spill out onto the street. The carpet on the floor is at least three decades old and probably hasn't been cleaned in almost as long. A light flickers occasionally.

The surly doorman gestures up the steps with a nod of his head and peers suspiciously into the night as he seals the entry.

There's a door at the top of the staircase with light streaming out from its edges and the muffled sound of shouts and laughter drifting through it.

I push open the door and the sounds grow clear. The room is bathed in a yellow light, made dim by the thick haze of smoke hanging from the ceiling. At a round card table fat men with moustaches drink whiskey, smoke cigars, talk in bellows, chortle hysterically and tip semi-clad women from fist-sized bankrolls.

This is the place - the Redback factory, where men like these, made fat and rich off the pain and suffering of soldiers, sit and cook up schemes to make the worst combat boots money can buy.

In case you were wondering I made that up, all of it. The Redback factory - actually situated on a busy main road - is not so sinister and the people responsible for manufacturing the Terra boots are not so evil, despite what the popular negative sentiment might suggest.

Redback presents itself as a world leader in the field of lightweight work boots and a walk across the factory floor certainly supports this position. It operates the latest robotics and computerised dual-density soling equipment, millions of dollars worth, for producing their range of footwear.

The marketing manager for Redback Australia, Mark Cloros, says one of the biggest problems that has and continues to plague the boots is that of incorrect fitting. It's a frustration for him and those he works with that so many of the people who've suffered in the boots have simply not been correctly fitted, but the blame falls on the boots and subsequently, the designers. It's a problem he's been trying to fix for a long time, supplying Q-stores with posters, instructional CDs and even a video, but to no avail. This time he thinks he might have cracked it.

"What we're looking at doing is, in each geographic area, having one key fitting place that we know, through DMO, is kept up to speed," he says.

"It's unrealistic to expect that every Q-store is going to be a specialist fitter."

Education is still the key though. The specialist fitter would only be for cases in which the soldier had found the boot unsuitable. Mr Cloros says Q-store staff need to know how to use the sizing equipment and not rush people through the process.

It's understandable that he would be frustrated - a recent visit by JMA to one unit revealed 32 out of 56 soldiers measured had been issued with the wrong size boot.

"There are 43 sizes and with the different foot beds, five different options give you 215 fitting combinations.

"These sizes cover all the volumetric sizes of commercially available combat boots ... so from a volume point of view everyone should find a boot that suits them.

"There would be a few people with exceptionally narrow feet, or people with medical problems who may need made-to-measures or special boots."

You guessed it - quite literally, no two feet are the same. In an Army of almost 42,000 people, the size range is a big issue.

There would be a few people with exceptionally narrow feet, or people with medical problems who may need made-to-measures or special boots

While many of the problems soldiers experience with the boots are related to improper fitting, Mr Cloros and the others involved with the project are quick to point out instances where inadequacies have been identified by soldiers. One alteration has fixed the tendency of the sole on earlier versions to collect stones and shell casings.

Issues relating to water getting in and out of the boots are also being looked at. Enter Geoff Davey from Reflective Images - the company that produces the new wet weather ensemble - with a design for a one-way valve, the first ever in a combat boot.

"The [current drainage] system is a problem," Mr Davey says.

"It's a vent and it actually vents both ways. The gauze that's on it, even though it's very fine, will allow water and dust in.

"When the dust gets in and the water gets in you get a whole lot of clag in the bottom of the boot."

The combat boots need a drainage system because of the requirement for soldiers to cross rivers and work in environments where water will get in, regardless of the precautions taken. Some boots have no vents at the bottom, a design that comes with its own host of problems in getting water out.

Mr Davey's design of a rubber valve that works in combination with the in-sole to purge water from the boot seems like a viable solution, but he's not promising anything yet. Because it's a world-first, the design has to start from scratch.

"The thing is whether we can make this valve work and whether we can make it strong enough to stay in the boot in a combat situation, that is still to be proven."

Another feature in the earliest stages of consideration is an inner lining, currently under development by Queensland-based Packers Leather, which reacts to high temperatures and actually draws heat away from the foot. There may be some way to go yet, but the samples at the factory seem promising.

The Australian Army combat boot is well ahead of everything else on the market and Mr Cloros and his team are quick to point out the number of foreign militaries that have shown an interest.

He says Redback does work with Defence to improve the original design, but that Defence ultimately calls the shots on such matters.

He says the boot is a complex, advanced system that depends on all elements to remain integrated so it can work to its full potential.

With a trial of new socks underway, the campaign for correct fitting making progress and the quest to find the next step in the evolution of the boot continuing, there may come a time when the boot conspiracy theories are silenced once and for all.

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