"If I buy you these boots for an early xmas gift, will you wear them for 6 months?" -Me to my dad

uriandriesabout 1 year ago
Grant Stone Diesel BootHorween Crimson Chromexcel
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Use & wear

Outdoor Activities

They were largely worn working retail, so lots of time standing and walking, but also a good handful of wilderness hikes around mid Michigan. Our winter here was pretty gentle this year, but they certainly went through plenty of snow and puddles.

Leather

Horween Crimson Chromexcel
Care Routine
Durability

The CXL has held up great to my dad's relative abuse. They only really got a cleaning/brushing about once a month for the photo shoots and I was always impressed how much better they looked afterwards. The only conditioning was an application of VSC at ~4 months of wear.

Fit

Length Feels Right
Volume Feels Right
Ball Feels Right
Satisfied with the Fit

Luckily my dad and I have the same length of feet, but his are much wider/larger volume than mine so going with my size but a EEE instead of a D width and it seemed to be a spot on fit.

Craftsmanship

Grant Stone Diesel Boot
Stitching
Clicking
Design
Finishing
Durability

The design is great, a very handsome yet simple boot. The stitching is very tidy on the uppers and welt. Certainly not the best clicking of CXL on this pair, but not the worst either. There were a handful of bits of the plastic shoe covers from the factory still sticking out of the welt that I pulled out with tweezers. Apart from the soles, they seem to be quite durable and built to last so far.

Sole & heel

Durability

Both of the toes of the soles had peeled back from the midsole after a hike less than a month into wearing them. I know these aren't exactly advertised as hiking boots, but I was a little disappointed by that. The one boot lost it's chunk of toe rubber back to the welt stitching a few weeks ago and the other is seemingly soon to follow. I've seen a good handful of similar problems on other Grant Stone boots on here and r/goodyearwelt and r/askacobbler so maybe they need to get a better contact cement or outsole source? My dad walks pretty heavy on his heels so the rubber caps are nearly worn through to the leather on the outer edges. I'll probably look into replacing the heel caps with something tougher/thicker, maybe the sole as well.

Final thoughts

Good Value

Great style, durability, and construction for the money. I probably wouldn't recommend a model with the Dainite style sole unless you're pretty gentle on your boots.

Written by uriandries
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