Mostly worn walking city streets and during work in restaurant kitchen.
This leather maintained a consistent coloring through wear. Stains from cooking oils and cleaning agents as well as normal dust and dirt blended in fairly evenly over time. I found that using a swatch of smooth leather rubbed over the oil stains to create a little heat from friction dissipated the stains fairly well. The finish on this leather would come back to a decent shine when brushed for about 10 minutes with a horsehair brush. The break in was easy particularly once the corded soles relaxed after about a week of wear. The leather itself was pliable from the start.
This last worked particularly well with my very high arches and mind toe splay. I would have chosen a 10.5 in this last had I known better from the start. The fit is excellent with very thin socks. The ball placement is slightly shorter than perfect for me.
The construction, design and finishing are very good with this pair. I think that a different leather selection would have improved the overall quality. It is possible that the vamps could have been clicked better to avoid as much creasing, but that feels very minor when considering the boot overall.
These soles are heavy duty for sure. I have never had much luck with true non-slip in a tiled professional kitchen environment, but these were certainly adequate even compared to soles designed for that work. They may have been more comfortable over time with a midsole, but I think that these are best suited to boots without a midsole because they do not want to flex much at first.
The 2040 last is very comfortable for me and these boot will certainly hold up for a long time to come. They get some compliment when shined up, but don’t hold that shine long. The leather is a little dull but very utilitarian.