These were worn constantly. No activity or condition deterred that. From the office to jobsites, from sun to sleet, these were on foot. Significant mileage was racked up walking the streets of NYC (the heels tell that tale), a significant amount accompanied by my never-tired Blue Heeler on our daily long walks. My phone tells me I’ve walked/ran 1,100 miles over these past 6 months. Outside of a recent reentry into running, all of those miles were lived through these boots.
It’s been a lot of fun to see the leather evolve on these. I had a general expectation for how it would go based on wearing the same leather (albeit coated/glazed) last year, but was surprised by the differences between the pairs. The leather has patinated into a really complex, red brown from its nearly orange origin. The hues truly look different from every angle, in every light. No one picture can capture the full depth that becomes apparent in various conditions. Care routine was fairly simple. I believe they were conditioned 3 times. Twice with Bick 4, once with a light coat of VSC. I wanted the color change to come from wear, not product, so I kept to these conditioners. Outside of that, a regular brush and the occasional damp towel wipe down pretty well sums up the routine care. More than anything, these were worn hard. Really hard. Sun, rain, or snow, these were on feet. I made no considerations for the elements that we sometimes shy away from with a light shell. This approach is what lead to the drastic development of these over the past 6 months.
2030 in 12E is a great fit for me. I can wear them all day comfortably. I do have a tendency to heel strike a bit unevenly. This is apparent in these boots and the heel wear. That said, I’ve put a ton of miles on these Dr Sole supergrips and have been very happy with their durability. The semi structured toe box has significantly flattened but not collapsed. This is what I expected, and a look that I like as it accompanies the pinked cap toe. Unstructured toe boxes are best suited for plain toe boots in my opinion.
Currently they’re great. It just took some work from Unsung House to get there. The initial Lactae Hevea soles were unfortunately a huge disappointment. I had heard they were good over a variety of surfaces, but I did not find that to be the case. They had noticeably degraded over just a couple weeks of city use, and had worn completely down to the heel leather stack after 7 weeks. This was with a conscious effort made to not wear them during particularly corrosive conditions (wet concrete). After Unsung swapped out the soles and heels, these truly became go anywhere, do anything boots. The remainder of the construction has all held up very well, and I’ve been happy with how they handled the huge quantity of wear.
This was my first experience with Dr. Sole Supergrip; it will not be the last. It’s a perfect low profile, city sole in my opinion. All of hard wearing qualities of Dainite with superior grip/slip resistance and a more interesting aesthetic.
Unfortunately LH soles do not meet my needs. They wore quickly and degraded in big, crumbly pieces. The only time I could foresee going back to LH is for a house shoe or slipper.
I was a huge fan of this make up when it was released. The enthusiasm for this boot has not changed. It took some time (and money), but they’ve become everything I wanted them to be when I placed that pre-order. That said, I can’t wait to start wearing some of my other pairs again!