Grant Stone Edward Boot

A couple years ago, I got a pair of color 8 CXL engineer boots from the scratch and dent section of Standard and Strange to celebrate a new job. The patina was vastly different on each boot (I believe the listing described one as aging like The Rolling Stones and the other as aging like Aerosmith). Since then, in the back of my mind, I've wanted to give color 8 CXL boots another go and develop the patina from new (and try for a pair of Rolling Stones). The Thunderdome provided me with the perfect excuse. I primarily work indoors (office chairs are a killer on the heel), but I was pretty happy with how the boots aged. Wanting to put some miles on the boots gave me a good excuse to take walks at lunch to stretch out and enjoy an escape from my desk. Overall, I think my favorite part of participating in the Dome was feeling empowered to not try to baby the boots and letting them age normally without fixating on every new crease and mark on the leather. I had to come to terms with not keeping them looking brand new pretty quickly as, tragically, I accidentally knocked them off a rock immediately after taking the initial set of pictures. A good brushing was definitely needed after that. I had a pretty hands off approach to boot care. I'd try to give them a quick brush after each wear, but otherwise, I mostly just slapped some shoe trees in and called it good. I did condition them once with VSC.