My "off the shelf" Limmers are over 20 years old, have been re-soled 3 times and are still in great shape. Truely a life time boot. Put a lot of miles on those boots and my sore knees are proof of that! I would not recommend doing a thru-hike with them.
I only wear them now when I want bulletproof feet and nothing sticks to wet, 30 degree incline, granite slab like those old Vibrum lug soles. Like when I did some of Maine, fall of '08, but they beat up my knees so bad I had to quit after 75 miles and most of that was slack packing. Guess I'm just getting old...