Mysterious and excellent. Great boots. Super fun experience.

The idea was that starting October 1st these would be the only thing I put on my feet for 6 months. That didn’t last a full two months. 90% of the wear on these were in an office at a warehouse. During the first month of wear I also took them an almost-daily mile and a half dog walks and wore them everywhere. In month two the dog walks ended in these boots - a hurt heal helped that decision. Switched up to some super dad-style running shoes for the dog walks. By month three I was only wearing these to work. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss all my other boots. I made it a point to wear others outside of work. These took a bit more beating than someone who works in office would give them as I do work in a warehouse and, although most of my time is in an office now, I do get out on the floor and do some work. They may or may not have rubbed against a pallet or 7.

This is interesting leather. I don’t know what it is. It is definitely horsebutt, but tannage and tannery, I have no idea. Having personally worked with russet horse-butt strips from Horween, the leather is very reminiscent of how that leather feels, looks, and acts, but it is different. The temper is not nearly as stiff as russet horse butt that I’ve worked with, but the way it moves, patina’d, the way the flesh side looks and burnished, etc. it must be close in type. Additionally the way the edges of the uppers have burnished (they were not finished out of the box) this is definitely veg tanned leather or, potentially, combination tanned (though I haven’t seen combination tanned leather burnish this cleanly). The leather was very dry and stiff out of the box. I did give them a couple light coats of neatsfoot oil before first wear. In the first weekend of December I was in Chicago walking the city in very wet conditions and I did get a water stain on the toe of the right foot. This was unexpected as I did not believe they needed to be conditioned, nor had I seen this level of water stain. It was not just in color, like you normally see in leather, it actually raised the grain like you’d see in a water stain on wood. That raised grain is still present now if you look closely. When I returned home they got the full treatment. A cleaning with saddle soap and then I treated them the same way I finish leather goods I make from tooling-style veg tanned leather - a coat of neatsfoot oil followed by a hot stuffed coat of Smiths leather balm (smiths applied liberally and then soaked into the leather using a heat gun). I did not have wet weather issues after that. The leather was definitely hand dyed by the maker olive green and done very well. And while I expected them to get brown with wear, they went further to the brown side than I expected. The heavy conditioning in December helped in that journey. This leather is robust, strong, and very durable. The hand dyed finish was fragile and scratched easy, but the leather itself could take a ridiculous beating.

The fit is excellent. One of the best fitting boots I have. I have slightly different sized feet - my left foot is a bit bigger around the middle of the foot and causes the left boot to be tighter than the right. This can cause some differences in feel and in wear patterns, rolls, creases and such on each foot. I am very impressed by how symmetrically these boots wore in and how great they feel on each foot.

Fit and finish are excellent. Stitching is great and has held very well. Nothing seems out of place or “wrong”.

Fantastic. Really impressed with the Dr Sole soles I have on these and another pair.

All in all very impressed with the fit, feel, and look of the boots.