True Love!

There are many Mr Lou boots but I am confident this is the only pair that has been to the bottom of a trout hatchery raceway. I had zero experience with natural leather boots so I was babying these with walks to and from the office until I fell in chasing an angry toddler’s thrown sippy cup. After that introduced some fascinating stains and patterns it was off to the races- these have busted through snow at 7,000 feet and soaked by a hose-happy toddler multiple times. These took me to casinos, logging conferences, daycare walks, office meetings, back country road trips, wildlife photography expeditions, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, trips across 4 different Sierra passes, and dozens of family walks. I took these on steeper and rougher ground than I’ve ever worn engineer boots and they were fantastic every time

This leather absolutely blew my mind and continues to change constantly. This was my second pair of horsehide engineers so I knew I was in for a break-in fight but this leather continues to be stiffer and heavier than I expect! The real story on these has been the color change- the transition to deeper caramel tones has been fantastic to watch and I really am blown away by how dramatic it has been. I had to soap off the fish hatchery smell after the fall in early December and I followed that up with a very light coat of bick 4 but other than that these haven’t needed conditioning. I was not shy about getting these wet after that first incident and I think that has driven a lot of the asymmetry on the darkening that has happened- between walking back and forth to daycare rain or shine and some very hot days where my son was playing with the hose these were hit with more than their fair share of water. As these has darkened they have gotten harder and harder to photograph accurately too- the patina looks strikingly different depending on even very imperceptible changes in lighting. It’s been fascinating to watch and I understand now why people buy these natural leather goods just to watch them completely change.

This is my third pair of Mr Lou and I am still a lover. I think they are the best looking engineer boot made today. Many other makers make boots with a higher level of finishing and clicking than the Wescos but they miss something of the soul of an engineer boot. The construction of these is rock-solid and they have been put through the wringer. Currently these have reached the perfect slipper fit that a broken in slip on boot can achieve- you can’t ask for better than that. These are so comfortable I forget to take them off until it’s time to head to bed at night!

I’ve owned many boots over the years and grown attached to a lot that have seen me through some very gnarly, dangerous work. Somehow these have become my all time favorites because it has been such a fascinating process to watch these change and mature in real time- I’m really happy I got the opportunity to enter these late and take this trip with them!