TartuWolf
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,659
- Location
- Tartu, Estonia
What I will be talking about in this thread:
I dedicate this thread to @MrProper, who is the original avengelist (if I may hyperbolise) of this brand and who introduced it to TFL (and me) first. Thank you!
TLDR:
Best heritage (stitched, good leather, resoleable, quality soles) + barefoot friendly (wide toe box, near zero heel drop, no arch support) brand I've found so far. Fantastic value for the money, especially if you can get them gently used. Great Austrian quality!
Some background first:
I got into "heritage" or stitched footwear after I was told that my nice leather shoes cannot be fixed because everything is cement constructed and therefore non-resoleable.
This got me into researching goodyearwelt, blakestitch, stitchdown and similar constructions, what is considered good leather, what are different soles good at and how important proprietary vs commonly available sole options are.
10+ Red Wing pairs moved through my hands, 10+ pairs of Sendra boots, 3-4 pairs of White's, some other well known brand specimens as well.
Currently in rotation : White's semi-dress in their best 9338 last, White's C350 in the 55 last, Sendra 13416 engineers, Willie's engineers in the S5 last and Willie's jodhpurs in the same S5 wide toe anatomical last.
Big far of this style of footwear!
On the other hand my whole family (wife and 3 kids) are strictly sticking to barefoot style footwear, thanks to me as well. I also wear barefoot style footwear in the summer (not boots) and for skating. I think it is objectively the superior and correct type of footwear for the majority of the population.
Some generalizations about each (assuming high quality specimens/brands)..
"Heritage" footwear pros and cons:
+ High quality natural materials, especially full grain or top grain leather, veg tan insoles, rubber or leather outsoles.
+ Resoleable therefore very sustainable, maintainable and trustworthy companions in our life journeys.
+ ****** in terms of style and aesthetics, nothing else can compete in my opinion. The heels might not be the healthiest choice but ****** > health in this case.
- Poorly (in terms of foot health) shaped lasts 95% of the time, main focus being toe box. You can argue that it's fine but most people are simply used to being cramped as therefore feel it is fine.
- The actual resoling can be a challenge, highly dependent on where you live. Either because there are no coblers that would do it or because it becomes very expensive.
- Footwear becomes a hobby too easily. All the beautiful models, leathers, brands, "patina", brush after every wear bs, etc..
"Barefoot" footwear pros and cons:
+ Anatomical and healthy lasts. No discussion can be had here in my opinion. That's the whole point of this footwear. Prevents long terms foot structure deterioration (wide toe box), promotes arch muscle strength (thin soles), fixes posture (zero heel drop).
+ Light and nible due to the more flexible soles.
+ Much more affordable compared mid-higher end "heritage" footwear.
- Cemented construction makes them disposable. Thin soles that wear through very quickly make them even more disposeable. So complete sh*t in terms of maintanability and sustainability/ecology.
- Usually use pretty poor materials.
- Harder to come by, only in specialized shops. Less so these days as it has become more popular.
- Need to get used to them and have to be much more careful with them. You can easily wrech your feet if you just throw them on and go on a long hike or run a marathon or do a 12 hour shift.
- Looks lame/uncool, especially after hundreds of years of societal conditioning convincing us that pointy toes are the only stylish option. Clown shoes! Duck shoes!
- Perhaps biggest drawback of all - it's a one way street. Once you try and get used to wide toe box / barefoot / anatomical footwear there is no way you're ever going back to "normal" footwear so 95-99% of footwear no longer works for you. You're "vendor locked" by the barefoot merchant.
Waldviertler
Let's get to the point of this thread. I am only talking about their boots or heritage style shoes, I have no experience with their sports shoes or sneakers.
It's a relatively unknown brand from Austria.
If you google for reviews then you will find 2-3 hits and some reddit posts, that's it. Although rose anvil did mention them in one video!
I've been fascinated by them and hunting for budget pairs for the last several months.
One thing I'll say off the bat is that only the latest generation of their footwear in terms of outsole choice seems worth attention to me.
I've seen a few older generations of outsoles and I'm really glad they finally arrived at the current solution.
Here's a few examples of the older style outsoles:
The current generation uses what I would guess is rebranded Vibram lugged glued-on soles and the uppers stitched down to the midsole.
Which is a fantastic compomise as far as making resoles much easier.
Overall here's how they are bringing the best of both worlds ("heritage" and barefoot) with their boots:
1 . Stitched construction with non-proprietary high quality and high grip rugged lugged outsoles. Better than usual barefoot stuff.
2 . Thick long lasting outsoles instead of thin ones. Sacrifices "ground feel" and some foot muscle building, but again better than usual barefoot stuff.
3 . Relatively high quality materials. Some leathers are nicer than others, but overall pretty good. Leather lines as well. Bonus over barefoot footwear.
4 . Wide anatomical toe box! Win over "heritage" stuff.
They offer different width lasts. I learned that I definitely need an F instead of a G the hard way.
The insole is a nice veg tan one, but not removable, which is an issue with one of the used pairs that I got.
My "collection"
I gathered 6 pairs that I all bought used for 30-70eur depending on the pair.
2 in my size (neither one worked out), 4 in my wife's size.
Overall 2 out of 6 worked for us.
0/2 for me.
2/4 for my wife.
The blue ones have really trashed insoles from sweat and trashed leather lining where the big toes hit the ceiling. Otherwise it would have been 3/4 for my wife.
The biggest pair, which are the beige brand new shoes is one of 2-3 "shoe" styles they have.
3 pairs of medium height 3 eyelet + 1 hook style.
2 pairs of the taller height 5 eyelet + 2 hook style. One is a winter shearling lined model.
As far as sizes you see here 42F, 43G, 38F and 39G sized boots.
They are all in different worn-in stages so you can see how they wear and develop.
The pricing is ~200-300eur for new pairs. 50-150eur for used pairs. Great value in my opinion. Great boots. Yes the leather could be thicker for my taste (although the beige shoes are pretty serious in that regard), the leather lining maybe more durable in the toe area.
But here's where I run out of steam and out of time that I dedicated to taking and editing the photos and writing this whole thing by hand (no AI!).
No it's not the only brand that does this, but it does seem to be one of the brands that does this best. To my knowledge. And I do follow this stuff as I care about it deeply. I'd love a pair of Texarado boots more than any other boot from the US, but I'm not sure if that's ever happening. A pair of Nick's zero drop wide toe box boots would be great as well, but not accessible for me.
I hope TFL appreciates my contribution, I hope this review can be found by future buyers on google and I hope that this creates a discussion, people can share their opinions and pairs.
Sorry for all the mistakes, I wrote this in a bit of a rush. I will edit to fix the most glaring ones if I spot them, but otherwise it is what it is.
Cheers my friends and colleagues!
I dedicate this thread to @MrProper, who is the original avengelist (if I may hyperbolise) of this brand and who introduced it to TFL (and me) first. Thank you!
TLDR:
Best heritage (stitched, good leather, resoleable, quality soles) + barefoot friendly (wide toe box, near zero heel drop, no arch support) brand I've found so far. Fantastic value for the money, especially if you can get them gently used. Great Austrian quality!
Some background first:
I got into "heritage" or stitched footwear after I was told that my nice leather shoes cannot be fixed because everything is cement constructed and therefore non-resoleable.
This got me into researching goodyearwelt, blakestitch, stitchdown and similar constructions, what is considered good leather, what are different soles good at and how important proprietary vs commonly available sole options are.
10+ Red Wing pairs moved through my hands, 10+ pairs of Sendra boots, 3-4 pairs of White's, some other well known brand specimens as well.
Currently in rotation : White's semi-dress in their best 9338 last, White's C350 in the 55 last, Sendra 13416 engineers, Willie's engineers in the S5 last and Willie's jodhpurs in the same S5 wide toe anatomical last.
Big far of this style of footwear!
On the other hand my whole family (wife and 3 kids) are strictly sticking to barefoot style footwear, thanks to me as well. I also wear barefoot style footwear in the summer (not boots) and for skating. I think it is objectively the superior and correct type of footwear for the majority of the population.
Some generalizations about each (assuming high quality specimens/brands)..
"Heritage" footwear pros and cons:
+ High quality natural materials, especially full grain or top grain leather, veg tan insoles, rubber or leather outsoles.
+ Resoleable therefore very sustainable, maintainable and trustworthy companions in our life journeys.
+ ****** in terms of style and aesthetics, nothing else can compete in my opinion. The heels might not be the healthiest choice but ****** > health in this case.
- Poorly (in terms of foot health) shaped lasts 95% of the time, main focus being toe box. You can argue that it's fine but most people are simply used to being cramped as therefore feel it is fine.
- The actual resoling can be a challenge, highly dependent on where you live. Either because there are no coblers that would do it or because it becomes very expensive.
- Footwear becomes a hobby too easily. All the beautiful models, leathers, brands, "patina", brush after every wear bs, etc..
"Barefoot" footwear pros and cons:
+ Anatomical and healthy lasts. No discussion can be had here in my opinion. That's the whole point of this footwear. Prevents long terms foot structure deterioration (wide toe box), promotes arch muscle strength (thin soles), fixes posture (zero heel drop).
+ Light and nible due to the more flexible soles.
+ Much more affordable compared mid-higher end "heritage" footwear.
- Cemented construction makes them disposable. Thin soles that wear through very quickly make them even more disposeable. So complete sh*t in terms of maintanability and sustainability/ecology.
- Usually use pretty poor materials.
- Harder to come by, only in specialized shops. Less so these days as it has become more popular.
- Need to get used to them and have to be much more careful with them. You can easily wrech your feet if you just throw them on and go on a long hike or run a marathon or do a 12 hour shift.
- Looks lame/uncool, especially after hundreds of years of societal conditioning convincing us that pointy toes are the only stylish option. Clown shoes! Duck shoes!
- Perhaps biggest drawback of all - it's a one way street. Once you try and get used to wide toe box / barefoot / anatomical footwear there is no way you're ever going back to "normal" footwear so 95-99% of footwear no longer works for you. You're "vendor locked" by the barefoot merchant.
Waldviertler
Let's get to the point of this thread. I am only talking about their boots or heritage style shoes, I have no experience with their sports shoes or sneakers.
It's a relatively unknown brand from Austria.
If you google for reviews then you will find 2-3 hits and some reddit posts, that's it. Although rose anvil did mention them in one video!
I've been fascinated by them and hunting for budget pairs for the last several months.
One thing I'll say off the bat is that only the latest generation of their footwear in terms of outsole choice seems worth attention to me.
I've seen a few older generations of outsoles and I'm really glad they finally arrived at the current solution.
Here's a few examples of the older style outsoles:
The current generation uses what I would guess is rebranded Vibram lugged glued-on soles and the uppers stitched down to the midsole.
Which is a fantastic compomise as far as making resoles much easier.
Overall here's how they are bringing the best of both worlds ("heritage" and barefoot) with their boots:
1 . Stitched construction with non-proprietary high quality and high grip rugged lugged outsoles. Better than usual barefoot stuff.
2 . Thick long lasting outsoles instead of thin ones. Sacrifices "ground feel" and some foot muscle building, but again better than usual barefoot stuff.
3 . Relatively high quality materials. Some leathers are nicer than others, but overall pretty good. Leather lines as well. Bonus over barefoot footwear.
4 . Wide anatomical toe box! Win over "heritage" stuff.
They offer different width lasts. I learned that I definitely need an F instead of a G the hard way.
The insole is a nice veg tan one, but not removable, which is an issue with one of the used pairs that I got.
My "collection"
I gathered 6 pairs that I all bought used for 30-70eur depending on the pair.
2 in my size (neither one worked out), 4 in my wife's size.
Overall 2 out of 6 worked for us.
0/2 for me.
2/4 for my wife.
The blue ones have really trashed insoles from sweat and trashed leather lining where the big toes hit the ceiling. Otherwise it would have been 3/4 for my wife.
The biggest pair, which are the beige brand new shoes is one of 2-3 "shoe" styles they have.
3 pairs of medium height 3 eyelet + 1 hook style.
2 pairs of the taller height 5 eyelet + 2 hook style. One is a winter shearling lined model.
As far as sizes you see here 42F, 43G, 38F and 39G sized boots.
They are all in different worn-in stages so you can see how they wear and develop.
The pricing is ~200-300eur for new pairs. 50-150eur for used pairs. Great value in my opinion. Great boots. Yes the leather could be thicker for my taste (although the beige shoes are pretty serious in that regard), the leather lining maybe more durable in the toe area.
But here's where I run out of steam and out of time that I dedicated to taking and editing the photos and writing this whole thing by hand (no AI!).
No it's not the only brand that does this, but it does seem to be one of the brands that does this best. To my knowledge. And I do follow this stuff as I care about it deeply. I'd love a pair of Texarado boots more than any other boot from the US, but I'm not sure if that's ever happening. A pair of Nick's zero drop wide toe box boots would be great as well, but not accessible for me.
I hope TFL appreciates my contribution, I hope this review can be found by future buyers on google and I hope that this creates a discussion, people can share their opinions and pairs.
Sorry for all the mistakes, I wrote this in a bit of a rush. I will edit to fix the most glaring ones if I spot them, but otherwise it is what it is.
Cheers my friends and colleagues!
Thanks.
