I live on a boat, so I don't have room for lots of different pairs of shoes. A good pair of chelseas covers all the bases. I'm not really a 'shoe guy', but when I saw this boot in this leather I thought: "OK...Let's do this!"
I have a pair of size 10 in the 2050 last I picked up at a warehouse sale in Victoria. Figured 2030 would be similar.
Division Road were great!
I wore these boots literally every single day of the dome. I wore them in the woods, on the beach, on deck and in port, in soaking wet and freezing cold and desert heat. They went from BC to PEI twice and from the Arctic to the Antarctic. I wore them in six provinces, four states, seven countries, five continents and across three oceans.
This leather is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Unbelievable character. It's thick and sturdy, but it molded to my foot like a slipper. It is totally raw - full of stretch marks and natural imperfections. It started off bone white and then just slowly turned a golden honey brown. I brushed daily, and used VLB about once a month. I applied a touch of pure lanolin to the creases to keep them from cracking a couple times throughout the dome. The leather has become buttery soft and supple.
These boots fit great.
I bought these boots for the leather, and it's really something. Construction was good, clicking was wonky but that's okay. Definitely quite impressed overall.
These soles were wild. Super comfortable, super flexible, ultra quiet... but not so durable. I think I like them though! If it wasn't for the cost of resoling, I don't think I'd ever go back to anything else.
I thought it would be cool to start with the rawest and most natural leather possible and just see what happens. When I saw this pair in undyed, untreated, uncorrected, full grain half shoulders, it was just what I was looking for. I work as a field biologist and I wanted something that would be comfortable and practical, but would also hold up to heavy use. I wore these boots every day in some pretty harsh conditions and the leather looks better after 6 months than it did on day one. Also, FWIW, I love the scalloped welt 🙂