Willie's Leathers / Willie's Handmade Boots (Phillipines)

[Drzdave58]

Some QC photos (very funny now jodhpur boots are shaped initially..)
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Willie is done my engineer boots .Shipping out today.

 

[Drzdave58]

Just received my boots from Willy after about 4 months . They are horween brown cxl. The craftsmanship, quality and details are top notch.

 

[TartuWolf]

Those look sweet @Drzdave58 ! Very similar to mine apart from the last. How's your CXL? Hopefully more substantial than mine. And hows the fit? I'm still slightly disappointed with mine.
He also took more time than agreed upon with mine and therefore offered free shipping to compensate, which is a great gesture from his side. Respect. Already shipped out, eagerly waiting.

 

[Drzdave58]

Those look sweet @Drzdave58 ! Very similar to mine apart from the last. How's your CXL? Hopefully more substantial than mine. And hows the fit? I'm still slightly disappointed with mine.
He also took more time than agreed upon with mine and therefore offered free shipping to compensate, which is a great gesture from his side. Respect. Already shipped out, eagerly waiting.

Hey...the cxl is substantial enough imo for this boot. Pretty much what I was expecting and the same as The Flat heads I had in natural cxl I would say. The shaft circumference is narrow so they fit easily under all my jeans. My foot slides in with a slight pull and the fit is slightly snug on my foot which is good cause once the insole relaxes and molds to my foot and the cxl stretches a bit over time the fit should be really good. I have low volume feet so I had to add insoles or wear thick socks on all my previous engineer boots. I should be able to wear these with thin or medium thickness socks. The midsole are 2 layers of leather and with the Dr sole outsole produces a very stiff feel under my feet right now of course so it will take some time to break these in I think. Im going to wear these every day for awhile to get my feet worked into them. Good luck with yours , hope they work for you. Ordering boots is always going to have a risk factor especially with engineers and similar designs. I like that Willy takes all the necessary foot measurements and find that it results in a better fit. Willy is a good guy to deal with as well. I’ll give an update on mine in 2 or 3 months.

 

[TartuWolf]

Got mine yesterday. I'll write a small review when I find the time, but overall I'm very pleased with how they turned out apart from the neon green stitching (asked for matching dark olive stitching, I guess should have asked for brown or black). The fit is fantastic. Curved heel cup makes a night and day difference compared to my engineers - no heel slip whatsoever. The last looked at from above may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but I absolutely love the toe space.

 

[Drzdave58]

Got mine yesterday. I'll write a small review when I find the time, but overall I'm very pleased with how they turned out apart from the neon green stitching (asked for matching dark olive stitching, I guess should have asked for brown or black). The fit is fantastic. Curved heel cup makes a night and day difference compared to my engineers - no heel slip whatsoever. The last looked at from above may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but I absolutely love the toe space.
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Hey they look great. What leather is it?

 

[TartuWolf]

Willie's S5 Jodhpurs in Maryam horsebutt - Initial impressions / mini 1-week review​

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TLDR:​

Anatomical last / wide toe box Maryam horsebutt jodhpurs for ~550$.
More rugged, practical/ functional than the traditional dressy jodhpurs.
Great price for a fully custom pair in this premium leather.
Communication is rather poor, but not awful.
Took around 4 months, 1 month longer than promissed.
Due to delay the maker covered the expensive 120$ shipping themselves as an apology. Respect for that.
Most custom requests were taken into account.
Overall the combination of great price for such premium leather, the well through out jodhpur design with fantastic heel lock and the wide toe anatomical last is what convinced me to order a 2nd pair from Willie despite the 1st pair going anything but smooth and not really ending up as a success at the end.

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Longer version:​

Leather : Olive Maryam horsebutt. Premium stuff for sure, first time I'm experiencing horsebutt. Fan for life, love the stiffness. Even got some nice variation / striations / scars / stretch marks on one of the boots. 9/10, could only be better if it had more marks on both boots. Which I did request.

Last : Absolutely love this last, extremely comfortable. As a barefoot footwear enthusiast (but to stubborn to give up on "real" boots) I'm delighted. By far the main reason I chose Willie in the first place and came back to him for a 2nd order. No other makers that I know of that would make premium boots with an anatomical last at this price. Yes William Lennon could be mentioned here, but I am not a fan of his work aesthetically and in terms of (default) leather choices.

Model / design : 95% of the jodhpurs that I've seen to this date seemed very meh to me and never attracted me. Seeing Willie's jodhpur pair was the first time I got instantly pulled in. Something just seemed very RIGHT about them compared to the other ones I've seen. I still can't quite put my finger on it.
But seeing these convinced me instantly:
https://www.instagram.com/williesleathers/p/DRyISNWEqkh/?img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/williesleathers/p/DR0Z0DrEtfI/
https://www.instagram.com/williesleathers/p/DWw-yquk2yo/
And I guess I figured that mechanically these would solve the usual engineer (my favorite boot type) issue of heelslip, just like tanker boots should on paper.
And it did NOT dissapoint.
No heelslip at all, the heel lock is fantastic.
It does seem to come mostly from the beautifully curved heel stays, but the straps definitely do help a lot as well.

Insole and arch support :
The engineers had no arch support and an unusually pebbly leather non-removable insole.
Here I requested a veg tan slab insole with arch support.
And surprisingly I got what I requested!

Outsoles :
I'm 100% convinced that for urban use you can't go better than leather midsole + easily replacable topy. For fault wet weather I still prefer more rubber, but for everyday use I'm sticking to this combination as my favorite.
Got a nice matching Vibram 2340 Explosion heel cap and topy.

Comfort :
10/10, could not be happier. Even though my engineers are the same last and same size they still feel more cramped than these in the toe box (not to mention the heelslip from a lack of heel backstay curve). There is some pinching in the front bend area when I kneel or go down stairs, but that's completely expected based on the design. Should go away as they break in.

Cinching :
Similarly how some crazy folks think that engineer straps are for looks I think it is more or less expected that jodhpur straps are also a decoration. Not in this/my case. I specifically asked him to make the straps very functional as I intend to properly tighten them all the time. Extra thick / wide strap please. Don't know if it was made extra thick / wide, but it definitely does it's job and allows me to REALLY lock in. Love it, fantastic feeling. As close to a laced up feel as you can get without using laces IMO.

Heel :
Asked for a lower heel than my engineers, just to get a little bit closer to the zero drop barefoot philosophy and avoid the sliding down/forward feeling that higher heeled boots tend to give you, especially if they don't have arch support.

Lead time :
Promissed 3 months. Finished in 4. Free shipping as compensation for the delay. Can't complain here.

Communication :
Not very good, similar to previous order time. But acceptable.
The most annoying part was having to send 3-4 messages to finally get an answer about the delay only when I got really official and serious about cancelling my other. In all cases I saw that he has seen my messages, but choosing not to respond with anything. Very frustrating. But in the end it worked out okay with some stress along the way.

QC:
A few things misaligned slightly visually here and there.
Some glue residual here and there that could have been cleaned up. Pretty major glue smell initially that quickly faded off.
Not the cleanest edges, especially where the lining leather stich through.
Not perfect for sure, maybe rushed a bit due to me putting pressure with my messages.
But the stitching is clean and consistent.
Overall solid.

Adherence to custom specs :
These are fully custom boots made just for you based on your specs.
That's very important to mention in my opinion.
I'd say I got ~90-95% of what I ordered and expected.
Notable cases where my request was NOT met:
- I asked for matching stiching but got high contrast neon-y green stitching. Why?
- I asked for a dogger/cuban heel instead of a logger one, did not get it. He offered to re-do to a cuban heal after they were finnished but I didn't see the point and said skip.
- Asked for the topy to get tacked up, did not get that. Again - they could have done it after they were finished but I said fk it skip it.
- As with the last pair I asked to skip the celastic on the toes, but I guess they simply can't so they still put in a really soft one that I later just smash down.

Flexibility with value declarations (for customs/import) and paying in mutiple installments :
100% satisfaction here. Paid in 3 parts over the 3 months. 0 import tax.

Final thoughts:
Overall Willie did not dissapoint. Especially if I keep my expectations realistic.
This pair went better than the last one (even though I still wear and enjoy my engineers a lot as well, shame about the heel slip) overall.
And Willie showed great politeness by offering free shipping as apology for the delay and poor communication.
Yes I would recommend Willie for a pair of boots, without a doubt. Engineers not so much, but jodhpurs and lace ups - for sure. Fantastic value in my opinion. And always great to support small business, while getting a kickass custom pair of boots at the same time.
Maybe next year I'll think about a pair of waxed flesh 8" soft toe packer-like (without the pointy toe box) lace ups.
Although I suspect that Willie might not want to deal with me anymore, we'll see.

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments.
Fist bump @Drzdave58 - Willie's ambassadors on TFL.

And the "goods" in my usual "collage" photo style:

 

[Drzdave58]

Hey Tartuwolf. Thx for the detailed review of your latest purchase of boots from Willie. Im glad these have worked out better than the first pair. For MTM boots his prices are very reasonable imo. I've been wearing my engineers every day since I got them 2 weeks ago and are breaking in nicely. My boondockers in Maryam toscanello are about 2 years old now. I have been fortunate that Willie nailed the sizing on both pairs. I would love another pair in olive toscanello, perhaps next year. Cheers.

 

[TartuWolf]

Man, those are SWEET.
Really glad both worked out for you.
I'll be wearing both pairs, even if the engineers fit (strictly in terms of heelslip, the 2nd part of the last fits great) less than ideal.
Willie is the man at the of the day, despite all pitfalls.
Respect to him.
If he agreed to work with me again I'll also potentially order one more pair next year.
Currently I'm at 2 pairs of Willie's, 2 pairs of White's and 2 pairs of Sendra boots. Maybe I shouldn't think about ordering any more boots..
Cheers!

 

[Drzdave58]

Man, those are SWEET.
Really glad both worked out for you.
I'll be wearing both pairs, even if the engineers fit (strictly in terms of heelslip, the 2nd part of the last fits great) less than ideal.
Willie is the man at the of the day, despite all pitfalls.
Respect to him.
If he agreed to work with me again I'll also potentially order one more pair next year.
Currently I'm at 2 pairs of Willie's, 2 pairs of White's and 2 pairs of Sendra boots. Maybe I shouldn't think about ordering any more boots..
Cheers!

Yes..Im the same in that respect. I have 2 pairs of Willies, I pair of Whites, 1 pair of Viberg and 1 pair of Wolverine. I m comfortable with 5 or 6 pairs of boots at a time.