Is there a more quintessentially booty boot than a black Chromexcel MP?…. Nah, I think not.

This pair is pretty darn close to perfect for my low key Pacific Northwest lifestyle. I wear chinos in a casual office setting where I’m on my feet a lot and these fit right in. Evening dog walks, bird watching (even through some pretty heavy brush), light duty hikes….. perfect. Weekend warrior remodel projects, gardening, up and down ladders pruning fruit trees…. Right on. The CXL on these is so nice and supple with a sugary break that is just right. I wore these about 5 days a week through out the dome, with the off days being the occasions when I wore scrubs to work….. while they go with just about any fit, I couldn’t make them work with scrubs (although I tried it one morning…. Quick veto from the wife). They got soaked through, but only a couple of times…. Wet grass walking and the one snowy weekend we got this year in southern Oregon and, after a day to dry out, they bounced back and were all the better for it. So easy to wear, so versatile, understated but special….. after six months of near daily wear I still look forward to putting them on. Thanks to White’s and Horween…. For making products you can be proud of. What a special thing that this kind of craftsmanship still exists in the world. There may not be one perfect pair of boots….. but if I had to pick one pair from my collection (small compared to some of you hard core aficionados), these would be them….. hands down.

I’ve had other items in CXL…. chukkas, a pair of chelseas, a belt, and I’ve enjoyed them all. That said, this pair made me really really get “it”. Now I understand why CXL is the standard by which other boot leathers are measured. The oily suppleness, belying the care free toughness, with the ability to be quickly wiped down and brushed to a nice easy glow in about 3 minutes make these boots so easy to love. I heard good CXL break being described as “sugary” on a podcast I like, but didn’t really know what that meant until I had these boots….. truly beautiful in the way only really useful and effective things can be. Break in was no problem…. At least not enough of a problem that I can remember it now 6 months later. Perhaps a little stiff for a week or so. A little rubbing on one little toe for the first few wears, but truly nothing worth mentioning. Easy going and non-fussy is what these boots are and it extends to their care…. At least how I approached it. I’d wear them all week to my clean office job and not think twice about them. After tromping around and getting them muddy and scuffed up all weekend, I wipe them down with a damp rag and then brush them for a few minutes and they’d look fantastic again . So simple…. Fun even. That’s the care routine. I put a dab of VSC on them midway through the dome because I thought it was the right thing to do…. But honestly I think they were fine without it. I made sure to dry them out well with shoe trees and give them a day off if they got wet, but other than that they didn’t see the shoe trees and haven’t seemed to be asking for them. Easy, Breezy, Beautiful.

I’m crazy about the fit on these. I’ve got very low volume feet with long toes (heel to toe Brannock longer than heel to ball) which makes sizing a challenge. And these are spot on for me with thin to medium socks at 1 size down from Brannock and up one width (same size I take in the 55). I can see how if you had a higher volume foot you would want to go up a size or a width in the 5050 vs the 55, but for my skinny foot the fit on these is excellent and achieved having the ball of my foot in the right spot without a ton of extra volume and the facings touching which I often find to be a challenge. That said, thick socks don’t work for me at this size and I’d probably go out to an EE if I wanted to be able to wear them (which I don’t—- big fan of thin wool socks over here). Support is great, as White’s is famous for. I’d say slightly less arch support than my pair on the 55 last, but still extremely supportive and profoundly comfortable. Also, much more versatile from a style perspective (love the 55 as well, but have a hard time making it work with chinos). I haven’t tried all of Whites lasts, but if you are considering the 5050, I’d go for it. Very well designed indeed.

I live in the PNW and have my whole life. I grew up wearing Nike sneakers and Nike sneakers only….. I’m a proud Oregonian after all. I grew up going to Nike town in downtown Portland and drooling over the expensive footwear. I didn’t have the money to be a good sneaker head but my dad had a pair of original Jordan 4’s that he kept in perfect condition and I used to go sit in his closet and just look at them. I’ve always loved shoes…. I got that from my dad. Despite that fact, I didn’t know that there was real footwear history right in my back yard. That PNW history, once I learned it, is what got me excited about quality footwear. My first real pair of boots were bounty hunters on the 55 last, and the quality is just so palpable when you hold a pair of White’s in your hands that I fell down the rabbit hole right away. I’m still pretty early in my boot journey, but this is my second pair of White’s and the brand has a special place in my heart. The construction and attention to detail on this pair is spot on.

I don’t really think about the sole on this pair….. and I think that’s a compliment. Do I love the Dainite sole? Not really…. but it is absolutely functional, doesn’t track too much dirt in my house, and is low profile and works with the esthetics of the boot. That said…. I’ve yet to have a pair of boots with a leather sole, and when a resole comes due on this pair I’ll go that direction. Pretty excited to see how that works out.

Thanks for another great Thunderdome! This is my 4th go at it, and I’ve had fun every time. That said, for the 4th time in a row, I feel like I haven’t fully given the boots their due with my iPhone photography which clearly isn’t up to the level of many of the amazing domers. C’est La Vie…. I hope that even my mediocre pics show off the understated brilliance of these boots. More than any of my previous pairs I feel like these embody the daily wearing, do everything, ethos that I associate with the dome. Blessings to boot lovers everywhere!