These boots went pretty much everywhere with me and did whatever I needed them to do, and did it well. They were great for just tossing on to run out to do a quick errand, work and stand on concrete for eight hours, walking 10+ miles in, hiking on trails, dancing cumbia and bachata on the dance floor, and so many other things. They handled everything well. Water was never an issue with them either, as they on several occasions held up and kept my feet dry in nearly calf deep water during some extremely heavy rain. I walked over 650 miles in these boots, wore them 161 out of the possible 183 days, went dancing 20 times in them and they just took it all and looked good while doing it. They will continue to see many more things, including in May they will be on my feet as I graduate from college, plenty more shifts at work, and of course more dance floors.
To put it simply, I was completely blown away by this leather. I had a feeling it would age well, but the amount of change they underwent was shocking. These aged gorgeously in my opinion, and the leather barely looks anything like what it originally did. The leather gained a lot of beautiful reddish brown tones as it aged, and lots of dark contrasting burnish points as well from rubbing against my pants. The break in was great, it’s not super supple but I never felt like it was stiff at all. After two months I gave them a conditioning with Bick 4, and followed up on the 3rd,4th and 5th month, with the 5th month the leather receiving saphir renovateur instead of Bick 4 as I felt I was having to condition so often due to the Bick 4 having little lasting effect. Within two weeks the leather would feel dry again, but since using the saphir the leather has felt great and thankfully the darkening that occurred lightened back up almost immediately. I brushed them about once a week quickly, and if they got especially dirty one day I’d give them an extra brushing. This leather took a lot of beatings, but handled it all really well overall.
The Jalak last I found to be very comfortable to me, but if you are someone who likes vertical toe space it is not for you. It has a very sleek, low-profile toe box. It does have plenty of side to side toe room so I found that nice. It doesn’t have much in the way of arch support, but that was remedied with a DeltaArch insert from Nicks. It was comfortable without it, but that definitely improved the comfort. My heel feels very locked in place, and the instep was good, and the instep strap is actually pretty functional on these boots so I was able to tighten them perfectly to my instep. It’s got a heel on the taller side, which is something I personally prefer. The sizing was perfect, going with a 42.5 EU which for them translates to a 9 US, putting them at a half size down from brannock for me. Ball of my foot is perfectly aligned, heel locked in, plenty of toe room, this was an incredibly comfortable last to wear these last 6 months.
I really loved the design of these boots, it was very much a love at first sight when I saw Fortis post a pair of them on their Instagram. They had the exact silhouette I was after when I was looking for my next pair of engineers. I love the low profile toe, the slimmer boot shaft, the slightly chunkier woodsman heel, and the subtle details like the signature loop stitch patterns featured throughout the boot. Speaking of stitching, the stitch work overall was incredibly neat, tight, and uniform. Construction too was really great, as these got a lot of wear and beatings but held up tremendously. Finishing was also excellent, I had no issues with the boots at all in those regards. Again these are overall a very well designed and built pair of boots.
I’m a big fan of leather soles, and as someone who dances they are also the best sole for that and they performed great! They will definitely need a resole sooner than had I gotten rubber soles, but they would not have performed to my needs as well. I also never found them to have inadequate traction, having never once slipped at all in these boots. They saw a lot of action, and a lot of time on concrete and this wore down these soles a lot, but they still have some life in them for sure. It’s neat to see from all the times I danced in them they developed a unique wear pattern as the areas I push off to turn while dancing wore down more than other areas. Just another part of our unique journey together the past six months. I’m glad I chose leather soles, and when they get a resole they will stay on leather soles.
I can’t recommend these boots enough, I haven’t been able to shut up about them for the last six months and I don’t plan to any time soon. They are an incredible value, and are just absolutely stunning. I could not have asked for a better pair to wear for this year’s Thunderdome. They were truly perfect for me. After a few weeks of owning them, I began selling off the majority of my boot collection, because I knew even after the dome I was going to keep wearing these all the time. I started the dome with over 40 pairs of boots. As I sit here now writing that number is down to 14 pairs, of which most at this point will remain due to sentimental reasons, and that change is due to how much I love these boots. It made me go from wanting to collect everything, to truly appreciating owning, wearing, and caring for a select few special pairs. I made a lot of great memories in these boots, saw lots of new places, worked many hours in them, danced to many songs, and I am gonna keep on making many more memories with them, hopefully for the rest of my life.