I purchased these boots for my job as a millwright. That's very important to remember when reading this. It's critical to me that boots fit well and are comfortable to get good marks from me. I'm on my feet for 11-18 hours a day, 5 days a week, walking and climbing over rough floors and debris. It's critical that the boots are well made, have good grip, and are resilient. I wade through water, I balance on chain races and machine frames 30 odd feet above concrete, I clamber over debris and up ladders, I weld and fabricate which means they'll be exposed to molten steel, I have to frequently stand or walk across smooth, steeply sloped steel plates, they'll get exposed to heat, steam, cold, wet, dry, oils, greases, impacts, and cuts. And I need boots that can take all of that in stride (puns aside). My boots do more to keep me from grievous bodily harm, dismemberment, and death than just about anything other than my own presence of mind, and the ability to trust them to do that is the metric by which these will be judged. And these are pretty great by most metrics. You have high sides which are pretty comfy and offer good ankle support, and the protective caps on the heel and toe are going to greatly increase boot life. The steel shanks are rigid enough to be felt but not so rigid as to be uncomfortable or hurt your footing while walking/climbing. The lacing eyes are robust and well distributed (some boots space them out too much or too little and that causes pressure and premature wear problems). The tongue is leather capped, so you don't need to worry much about steel slag burning your feet when you're welding/cutting. The leather feels good quality and is decently thick without losing flexibility, the stitching is quality, and the seams well sealed. So, negatives? It comes down to 2 issues for me. The tread material is pretty stiff, and gets stiffer in the cold, which means it isn't as grippy as I like. Add in a little hydraulic oil and I've felt my feet skip a few times the last couple shifts, and I have some issues with grip when I'm walking on smooth steel surfaces. (Update: This has largely resolved as they've broken in, but they are still slightly less grippy than I would like) Second, and a bigger issue for me, (updated with current info) is that there was a pretty bad pressure point in the left boot, the leather folded inward between a couple of the lacing eyes and put hard pressure on my ankle, even with the boot laced fairly loose. I packed a shop rag into that spot to try to stretch and train the leather to fold out and that worked well after a week of daily oiling and use. This may just be a quality control issue, but it's a negative for me In summary. These are good quality, the price is fair, and they are some of the better boots I've had in 9 years of industrial work. I'm sure they'll serve you well in just about all applications, but if you work in SD, Alaska, or any other environment that gets below 0 regularly, consider talking to local industrial or construction workers about their boot choice. I do strongly recommend purchasing decent leather laces if you do any kind of fabrication work though, the laces that ship in the boots are synthetic so they'll melt through pretty easily.
