These are my work boots. I do a lot of projects around the house, and I am a hobbyist woodworker. I needed boots that could go from landscaping to indoor construction to the woodshop without issue. They have primarily been used to build a new shed in my backyard from the foundation up and have done the work with acclaim. Slamming shovels, kicking framing, gripping roofing, zero complaints.
I'm a sucker for burgundy leathers, so this is a winner in my book. Though it's completely misnamed, because "tan" it is not. That quibble aside, this leather is tough stuff. I hadn't had a PNW boot before so it took some getting used to leather of this thickness. For a brief moment I actually thought there had been a mistake because I could barely squish the toe and I had ordered unstructured. But no worries, collapse it did. Break in was a bit tough in the shaft and I needed to lace skip some laces around my ankle bones for a week or so while that softened up. The leather takes direct shots from kicked rocks, shovel swipes, and toe dragging when on my knees with zero issues. The patina that's starting to come through is fantastic. Nothing but regular brushing and wet towel wipe downs and it's holding strong.
These fit my feet very well, which is a surprise because very few boots do. I took an 11.5D, with true length and a width up. Even at true to length and up a width they are about as narrow in the toe as I would ever go. Amazingly the facings have a good amount of space between them, which none of my other boots do. These are much lower volume than I was expecting. I don't think folks should be afraid of going up a width. Arch support is OK. I wore them with delta arch half insoles for a few weeks, but that was too much for even my high arches. I guess I'm not a 55 man. I wear them with medium weight darn toughs and they are basically a heavyweight foot glove at this point. Overall these are definitely making PNW boots accessible to the Metatarsal Mafia.
These are classic six inch work boot and I have zero complaints. The pattern is nice with the single piece backstay, construction is rock solid, and the finishing was on point. They do exactly what they are supposed to do and will for a long time.
I wanted some squish for walking on concrete in my shop, and these answered the mail. I easily walk on concrete for extended periods of time with no issue. I was always leery of PNW heel heights, but the ThurmanNW is not over the top, if still the tallest heel I own. I've slipped a few times in mud, but that's not unexpected. I would have preferred a hybrid wedge, but the max wedge was not available when I ordered. I will probably resole to that when the time comes.
They live up to the hype. Classic PNW bombproof build, now with toe room! Looking forward to projects with protected comfy feet for years to come. Huge kudos to Nicks and their ever expanding designs.