Boots chosen at random, worn with purpose.

I am finishing my apprenticeship to become an electrician this year. These boots have been on the largest project I've ever been a part of. They've seen miles of crawling through service tunnels under a church, time spent in the bell tower, up and down scaffolding, bent thousands of feet of conduit, hours in scissor lifts 30 feet in the air, and tons of kicking myself for my mistakes. They've taken it all in stride and have been a wonderful constant in my work life

I think since the uppers are leather lined I'm missing out on some of the typically soft tempur of the Bison, but I really have no complaints. It took a long while to get much character at all on them, but they gave way just fine and formed right to my ankles. I was sort of worried that the bison may be a less durable leather, but those fears subsided pretty quickly. I have no doubt that a full bison boot would hold up just fine to the work I do.

Now this is where I've been super impressed. Initially I caught a bunch of flack for how good looking the walnut was. People saying they didn't belong on a job site. That's dead wrong; double stuffed can absolutely handle abuse. Sure, it takes dings and light scratches pretty easily, but those small things just disappear with a brush. Sure, these have gained more than just small dings and scratches by now but they've also been subject to some pretty harsh stuff. Crawling on my hands and knees or army crawling on super rough concrete for example. And I mean miles of it. And they are totally solid still. I'll throw some grease on them soon, but they haven't looked dry or in need thanks to all the oils and the general double stuffed process. The color has morphed pretty heavily as well. I crouch and bend down a lot, and the toe area has lightened quite a lot with all the bending and stretching. The heels have remained the cool dark mahogany, almost burgundy brown/red. Its a beautiful leather in both forms.

I never want to wear anything else. The 55 last works very well for my feet and the arch support is a total game changer. I have slightly wide feet, but nothing crazy and i find the toe box perfectly fine. I may try the thurman last in the future, but I don't feel cramped in them at all. I spend 10-12 hours per day in these boots on concrete, in a lift, on scaffold, in a ditch, tons of time on ladders and they are by far the most comfortable boots I've ever worn.

All the decisions for this build were made by rolling D20 dice by the Nick's staff. I had no part of the build and I really got lucky with the choices. It's an awesome two toned combo. I've been wearing moc toes for a few years now and really like the look, at this point it's pretty much all I see in construction sites and Nick's makes a beautiful moc toe. Construction and finishing on these is honestly pretty much perfect. I have found any flaws.

I really like the 430. I have a pair of boots with a v100 and while the traction is good, I can not stand how much dirt and gravel and general stuff gets caught in the treads. It makes me not wear them. The 430 on the other hand doesn't suffer the same problem but still has pretty good tread. There were a few days I spent doing underground where I could tell I wasn't in lug soles, but not in a detrimental way. They've also held up extremely well. Like nowhere near a resole.

Big fan of the moderate heel height with the 55 last. Might be what stick with for future pairs. I feel super stable and balanced. I wouldn't go with a block heel again though. I already strike pretty hard with my heels when walking and the block just exacerbates that issue. Having a taper like a digger heel I think is the way to go. Because of the heel strike I've really worn through the Cats Paw heel caps. I'm going to get some new put on very soon and will probably change it up to the matching 430 cap if possible.

I simply can't go back to big name, cheap work boots. It's the 55 last for me.