Edward
Bartender
- Messages
- 25,074
- Location
- London, UK
It's a full weight leather and here's the best pic they have posted showing how it looks.
View attachment 9844
Gorgeous shoes! I'd love a pair of those.
It's a full weight leather and here's the best pic they have posted showing how it looks.
View attachment 9844
It's a full weight leather and here's the best pic they have posted showing how it looks.
View attachment 9844
I'd like to ask your opinion on some boots I'm considering.
I want to order some White's Nomads in black CXL, soft toe, brown edge treatment, double midsole and Vibram 700 1/2 half soles with a 1/4" heel lift. The Mister Freedom Road Champ is my inspiration.
A couple questions - my thought is to go after a more 30/40s style with the soft toe. I suppose it would be more accurate to just have leather soles but I want the functionality of rubber outsoles. Any "authenticity" problems here? Also, I'm very indecisive about whether to bother with Cat's Paws. I think they are really cool, but who the heck ever sees the bottom of your boots? It could also be a pain down the road when it comes time to resole. I'm buying the boots to wear, so a big part of me thinks to go with modern Vibram.
Thanks in advance.
Those sound rally nice - are Cat's Paw heels already available through Baker's? I believe a lot of the Cat's Paws you see these days are reproductions, so it is more of a stylistic choice than a functional one. You do see them every time you sit and cross your legs. White's will use a Quabaug heel in conjunction with Vibram Half soles, and technically their half soles are a cut down Vibram 700, not a true 705 half sole. It's roughly the same thing, just achieved a different way.
I am no expert on vintage, but I believe leather soles would be more correct. Marineabilly would be your best bet for vintage engineer boot questions - his Vintage Engineer boot blog has a lot of info. I wonder if Whites would do double midsoles with a thick leather half sole.... That would be sort of a best of both worlds option. Marineabilly had Hukurokuju do that on a pair of Road Champs, and it looked great.
I ended up picking up some Frye Arkansas Engineer Boots through ebay. As I mentioned previously, I thought I may dip my toe in the engineer boot genre before I commit to a pair of high-end engineers. I like the brown midsole and heel against the black boot. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Horween stamp inside one of the boots. They look nice IMO and I hope they wear well.
Can you tell me more about these? If they are using Horween leather, I might be interested in trying out a pair - I think these could be really nice with a custom resole.
I am mainly curious about fit, leather thickness, and your impression of the overall quality.