Great and comfortable right out of the box. Tough and ready for adventure.

I'm a roadie/sound tech living in Cabo. I've been wearing my boots to work almost every day. Though the beach is far from their natural habitat, they performed excellent. I was lucky enough that the competition took place during the "cooler" months of the year, and I didn't have to endure the overwhelming summer wearing 10 inch leather boots. I've walked to work, I rode my bike, and I never had an issue.

This leather has aged beautifully. Some very nice rolls formed early in the process, and helped develop a rich patina. At one point, I wanted to wax the heel counter and the vamp, to have different color and textures of an all roughout boot. I ended up experimenting with beeswax on the heel counters and loved the finish. I'm still tempted to do the vamp.

I really like the classic design of these logger style boots. I generally prefer the lace to toe look, but these were the ones available when I made the purchase. Construction-wise, these are double stitched down to a veg tanned leather slipsole, and all the way through the Vibram 100 fire and ice sole. There are also screws securing the sole. For my particular use, I would prefer a softer Honey lug sole, but I understand these boots were designed for fire combate, and thus come with the adequate sole for that function.

This sole is very hard, and not the best sole if you're standing on concrete. I know that's not what it was designed for, but that's just my experience. Also, it's super slippery on wet tile. So far, it had a very noticeable wear on the lugs. If I were to keep using them almost exclusively, I believe lugs would be all flat and gone within a year from the start date.

Right out of the box, they were pretty comfortable, albeit a little stiff, I never felt a true break-in period, which I was mentally ready to endure. This pair is my first PNW style boot ever. I got 'em off the "Final few" section of the Drew' s website, and couldn't find anything wrong to justify why they were on sale, until I realized the stitchdown double stitches were overlapping on the front of both boots. Also, they are "woman size" which means I had to convert from MEX to US size, but then also consider women's sizes are different, and then also the fact that sizing is all over the place, and unlike any other boots I ever bought before. So, all and all, they were still maybe half a size too big but I kept them (couldn't do anything about it anyway). Even though they were 40% off, they were still twice as much as I ever paid for boots before. By the time the competition started, everyone I know knew all about it. It was the main if not the only thing I talked about. Being neurodivergent meant everytime the subject came up in conversation (I brought it up) I would lecture the poor soul I was talking to into different boot styles, leathers, soles, boot construction, lasts, etc. I wore these boots to work (almost) everyday, wore them in the sand, mud, on the beach, I walked what seemed endless miles, I rode my bike. One time I even slept with my boots on! Not everything was perfect, though. Maybe about a couple of months in, my left boot started to squeak. I had read about it, and heard it mentioned in YouTube videos, but had never experienced it before. At first it was at random times, then it just never stopped. I swear it even became louder, to the point where friends from work started teasing me about it, telling me to DW-40 my boots. (Dragon Ball fans will undestand the reference when I say I sounded like Cell when he walks). At times, the right boot would join in the squeaking, but that was intermitent, and never stuck permanently. I posted about it on a Drew's forum, and they were very fast to reach out privately to address a possible solution or have them repaired. I had to turn them down since I was affraid I would miss an update Windows, and be kicked out of the competition. I realized that if I got them wet, they would stop squeaking for a day or two, so I started doing that every now and then. Now that it's over I might reach out to Drew's to see a possible solution, though I believe the only way to eliminate boot squeak is not just to resole, but to rebuild from the insole down. I may have to pay as much for that as I paid for the boots in the first place, so I'm still on the fence about that. Speaking of that, the one change I would probably make if rebuilt or resoled is that I would go for a Honey lug sole instead. I would definitely recommend them to anyone willing to spend this much on a high quality pair of boots, knowing that being hand-made also means there could potentially be imperfections. I believe the argument that you get a higher value because you can resole/rebuild these boots multiple times is only valid if you work in an extremely hostile environment which would thrash regular footwear (like firefighting). If you want them for lighter work, camping, hiking, etc, you might as well get the same life out of a pair of good $200 dollar boots. Overall my experience has been super positive, and I can't wait to do it again next year!