By TangibleLily929 • April 6, 2025"Tough and durable, is how I describe W&C. I did not condition them at all these six months. I did a true testament of the leather’s stock capabilities. It felt like the massive amounts of oils and waxes in the Wicket & Craig protected and reinforced the leather greatly. I think now that the competition is over, they are surely due for their first good conditioning.
As a dancer, the term break-in goes to a whole new level. I’m not just walking, climbing and bending. You have to add spinning, twisting, lunging, toe-pointing, side crossing, and many other unique movements in the cha-cha, Waltz, country, Latin and line dances that I teach, compete and social dance in. I pulled, pushed, stretched and squished these babies to lengths and small spaces that they have never seen before. Don’t get me wrong, logging is hard work, but the amount and styles of dancing I do every day isn’t a walk in the park either.
Since this was my first pair of nicks, I do believe I ordered a whole size too large in length. This created an extra set of challenges due to extra leather around my feet and empty space in the back of the heel. Since I do point and extend my toe, along with stepping sideways in a rolling in-and-out fashion, the extra leather had to go somewhere as I stretched and pressed the boots in odd shapes. My left boot’s heel counter started to unfortunately curve inward and began bruising my heal immensely. I don’t believe this would have happened if I chosen the correct size for me. I still pushed through the pain, but after seeing the bruising getting worse, I couldn’t risk injury. If I would have continued using my boots dancing an average of 13 hours a day, it would have ended in an achilles tendon injury for sure. I had no choice but to remove some of the leather that was three full grain layers thick at my achilles. After I modified and sowed a patch on myself with thin leather I purchased, I was able to relieve the odd pressure and heal my foot and continue wearing the boots. The necessary modification gave me the relief I needed to dance another day. If I would have had more time, I would have taken it too a cobbler, but desperate times…
Since I wore my boots constantly, I would go home and brush the floor wax, dirt and grit every night. Sometimes I would do it multiple times a day if necessary. A handful of times I used water and a cotton cloth to clean. I never conditioned, fully expecting the stock wax and oils to deliver enough protection...."Read the full review
