This leather is so tough and ready for anything. It changes with every brush, and it takes to brushing and conditioning like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s slow to soften up at break-in, taking almost four months before it was feeling soft as butter all around, but this is a testament to its strength. Consider conditioning these regularly after the first few months. The Veg tan will thank you. It goes from a golden blonde to a burnt orange in a few months, especially when brushed and exposed to the elements.
Grant Stone did so well on these. The separation that happened between the midsole and sole under heavy slush conditions was user error. Don’t kick concrete, mkay? The leather is seriously one of the all-time greats, and this batch was the best I’ve seen of it.
This was my second pair of Grant Stone Diesels in the Badalassi Carlo Saddle Tan Minerva leather. The first I got in late 2021 or early 2022. They were on my feet when I defended my dissertation and traveled with me that summer for adventures across Europe. So I knew a little bit about this Badalassi Italian Saddle Tan leather: it darkens to orange, and then to an almost red at times with nothing more than wear and brushing. This stuff loves the brush. You can almost watch it transform as the bristles do their work. My previous pair creased at all the right spots, giving a worn-in, world-weary look, like a saddle from a spaghetti western. Rugged with refinement beneath the surface. When I had the chance in early 2023 to buy a pair with a studded rubber sole and unstructured toe from a one-off make Grant Stone did, I was amped: these two elements would make it darn near my perfect boot. Leather soles are sleek and classy, but I didn’t want to spend six months in Wisconsin snow navigating leather soles. The results were beyond my imagination. The soles held their own in the slush, and the toes were unreal. Beyond that, the clicking on this pair was unique: the left foot had some of the characteristic creasing over the toe box, but the right toe box had more flex to it and a touch less burnishing on the surface. Neither creased like I expected. Instead, about six weeks in, the rolls started coming, and they just kept at it all the way through. The defining moment was in November: Filling my tires one day I saw a dimple on the right toe as I knelt there. A portent of things to come. In Jan, disaster struck: after a rowdy snow walk, I kicked slush off and caught my right toe on concrete, hard. The sole tore away from the soaked midsole. There wasn’t time for a resole before photos were due, so I got creative with the glue at home and made it work for the duration. Smooth sailing from there, clear to dome base. The leather responds really well to conditioning. I let it ride for the first three months with only brushing, but once the snow started falling, I used Bick 4 to clean and condition, some mink oil for a first attempt at waterproofing the veg tan, and I followed up a few weeks later with Sno Seal, which I reapplied a month later. Most of that waxy Sno Seal rubbed off with future Bick 4 applications. I finished up with another mink oil treatment on the toe box, and a light application of Bick 4 in high traffic areas. I wore these mostly for desk work and regular neighborhood walking, but I took them off road in the snow as much as I could. A week in OKC where I was traveling without a car proved to be an opportunity to put some serious miles on the soles. I walked to every destination under two miles, and they really took on a little bit of the dustbowl terroir that week. I did a lot of squatting near my kids’ beds for reading time and tucking in that doubled as chances to strengthen the toe rolls. Our third child arrived in November and added some late night pacing to the parental patina project. People always say it’s not about the competition, but the friends you make along the way. Is it ok if these boots became my best friends? If only I could roll with the slush and flexes of life so well. I have a lot left to learn from you, old buddies.