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Boots / shoes to wear with your flight jacket s...

Smithy

Smithy

Well-Known Member
Had the service shoes out today as the snow has gone. Bloody love the things. Pic of the old clogs to follow once the missus has hit the hay - I just can't be bothered with the whole "Why are you taking photos of those old boots?" crap ;)
 
Shanghai-Mayne

Shanghai-Mayne

Well-Known Member
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CombatWombat

CombatWombat

Well-Known Member
Chandler said:
Do/did you usually wear sneakers/trainers before trying out a heritage style boot? That could be why the RWs took getting used to.

I've worn all forms of boots regularly since I was in high school, so I didn't have trouble with the Iron Rangers out of the box. But yeah, broken in now they're even better.
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I ,like yourself, grew up wearing boots......IR's are too flimsy and soft which leads to me rolling an ankle lol
I love my White's that I got customised (got rid of the goofy Cuban looking heels and multi stack forefoot) and my ancient swedish marching boots (look like IR's but lace higher on the ankle and have this insane grain on them except the toe cap and heel cup)
 
CombatWombat

CombatWombat

Well-Known Member
Dumpster D said:
I don't wear Military boots like this anymore...Maybe just once or twice, mucking around in the mud.

These are MK IV boots. I bought a well-used pair of them in 1999. They lasted 20 years. That's like a dollar a year for a pair.

I once tried the newer 'Wet-weather' more modern versions of these. They have different Tread that makes them look like Frankenstein boots, and you needed special 'boot paste' that is no longer available to maintain them. The sole completely split apart on a brand new pair of $90 modern boots after only 2 weeks. The Store owner let me pick out another pair to replace them, which was very nice. Then, as soon as the weather turned cold, I slipped and fell flat on my bottom walking through the parking lot one night. I felt like tossing them over a telephone pole, and went back to the MK IV's.

They've never let me down, and taught me, that modern ways are not always more reliable than the old ways.

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From my experience......the older Canadian (pre CADPAT) was built to last yet be comfortable.......the newer stuff is pretty disposable

*says that as a guy that loves my pair of these after using the " Squishy sole moonboots" made by Boulet*
 
CombatWombat

CombatWombat

Well-Known Member
My collection of "dressy boots"
The Dress Boots would not too out of place in a suit
the Swedish Army boots are flexible enough to be semi-formal in the right situation and clothing
the William Lennon boots are purely a outdoorsy/re-enactment boot which cant be dressed up lol

Swedish Army boots (1951 and still bulletproof)
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William Lennon "ammo boots " with full iron set and leather lined
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And my old dress boots from my time in the military, still mirrored and lined in a fantastic glove leather (I "pocketed" them from a RAN bloke, since they had Aussie made boots while the Army was getting horrible jokes made in Indonesia)
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CK90

CK90

Well-Known Member
mulceber said:
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Here’s my contribution to the thread. For a while now, I’ve been thinking about trying a nice pair of boots, but I fence-sat for a while. While all the ones I’ve seen looked great, I’ve frankly never had a pair of boots that I considered particularly comfortable (and I’ve owned a pair of Alden Indy boots!) I love the idea of “heritage boots,” but I’d never had the experience of owning boots that I ENJOY wearing.

Nevertheless, because of the fine folks here and, even more, because of the boot community on youTube (especially “Rose Anvil,” “Bootlosophy,” “Stridewise,” and “Carl Murawski”), I was feeling the itch (no, it wasn’t athlete’s foot).

What I was looking for:
  • Great arch support. That’s apparently not very common with boots, but my doctor has told me I need it, and I wear inserts in most of my shoes. This is probably why Alden was a flop for me. I really wanted a pair of boots that wouldn’t require inserts.
  • A streamlined look. I know that the bulbous toe of Iron Rangers is the way boots actually looked back in the day, but I don’t care about accuracy when it comes to boots. I’ve never really liked the rounded toe that you see on actual old-school boots, so Iron Rangers were a no-go.
  • Preferably made in the USA, but at least made in a first-world nation. Where possible these days, I like to support our home-grown industries.
I watch a lot of youtube videos when I’m at home, so I saw reviews of a lot of different companies - Thursday, Grant Stone, Parkhurst, Viberg, some of the Indonesian brands, and of course the Pacific Northwest (PNW) brands in and around Spokane, WA. It was the PNW brands, like White’s and Nicks that caught my eye: everyone talked about the phenomenal construction - not only made in the USA, but lasted by hand. The PNW brands are famous for a couple of quirks in their construction: instead of the typical cork midsole and steel shank, they opt for several layers of leather in the sole and a leather shank - apparently they have some oak bark tanned leather that might as well be wood and they use that instead of steel. The multiple layers of leather will mould to your foot like the cork midsole. The difference is that cork can eventually start to move around to create uncomfortable hotspots, where a leather sole won’t. At least, that’s the theory.

More importantly, at least for me, both Nicks and White’s are famous for having great arch support. These two makers are a bit on the expensive side, ranging from $500-700, but I really liked the look of them, and I’ve already had the experience (with jackets) of buying the budget option when you want the deluxe option, and having it not really scratch the itch. So I figured, “what the heck - get the boot you want the first time.” Besides, I’ve had good luck buying my leather jackets from the state of Washington. ;)

So that effectively narrowed my search down to White’s MP service boot, and Nicks’ Americana. The Nicks were cheaper, but they had a longer wait time and the pictures made them look like they had that bulbous toe I don’t like. White’s seemed like exactly what I was looking for. Even better, they frequently have sales that will bring the cost of their service boot down to the same ballpark as Nicks.

I heard good things about their cinnamon waxed flesh (basically a Horween rough-out that’s been so packed with waxes and oils that the rough-out starts to resemble the surface of regular leather), and it looked great to me, so I went for that. After a bit of angsting over the size (tbh, I’m still not sure what my Brannock size is), I bought a pair in 11D in November and sat down for what I expected would be a wait of 2-4 months. Nope! They arrived in just about 4 weeks.
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First Impressions:
  • They smell fantastic. Stridewise had quipped that his MPs smell like a candle. That makes me think of Yankee Candle. I just think they smell intensely of LEATHER.
  • White’s includes two pairs of laces - one pair of leather, and one pair of waxed cotton laces. I picked the waxed cotton, since I thought they’d be more versatile, and let me say, they are SERIOUSLY waxed. The first couple times I laced them up, they were shedding residue. That isn’t a complaint! I just took it as a sign that White’s isn’t messing around.
  • The arch support is excellent. For this reason alone, I’d buy PNW again.
  • The fit was great - I think it could stand to be a LITTLE more snug. I’ve heard some boot people recommend going a half size smaller and a size wider than White’s size guide recommends. I could probably have done that, but this is a good fit. And it’s got just enough room for me to wear a second pair of socks for breaking in, and for cold days. They advised me well.
  • The cinnamon waxed flesh is darker than it looked on my computer screen. I was expecting what we would call a light seal brown, and instead it’s a dark seal. Oh well, no big deal. It’s also a bit less versatile than I expected. I definitely wouldn’t wear these in even a semi-formal setting. Jeans, chinos, and HBT, that’s pretty much all I would wear these with. That said, they look pretty awesome with all of the above.
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I started out wearing them a couple hours a day, with a second layer of socks, and worked my way up. I’m now at the point where I can wear them all day with a single layer of trail socks. These are my longer-term thoughts:
  • I’m told the waxed rough-out is easier to break in. When I got them out of the box, they were already pretty stiff. I’d HATE to imagine trying to break in a pair of their boots in Chromexcel. I think I made the right call going with waxed flesh.
  • One downside of the cinnamon waxed flesh is the tongue: the process of the laces rubbing against the tongue as the boot flexes causes the waxy layer on the tongue to be removed very quickly, resulting in the tongue looking all kinds of chewed up, even though it’s structurally fine. This doesn’t damage the boots, and it isn’t really noticeable when you’re wearing them, so it isn’t a big deal, but I do somewhat wish that they had made the tongue out of a regular leather so it wouldn’t look so chewed up.
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  • They are very supportive, and pretty comfortable, but not in the way a pair of sneakers are, where it feels like you’re walking on a cloud. Instead, it feels like each part of my foot is getting the support it needs. I still don’t think I’ve broken them in yet, but they’re well on their way and getting a bit better each time.
Overall, they’re really first-rate. I don’t have anything to compare them to, except my old Alden, but I’d absolutely buy from White’s again.
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Late response on this one sir, but lovely break down. I fell for PNW boots a few years ago myself, slowly building a collection (mainly Viberg so far) but would love to try a pair of Whites some day. Once you start wearing well made boots, you don't really want to wear anything else. Highly recommend you try a pair of Viberg's next! Pricey certainly, but worth every single penny.
 
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