Price: $600 [SOLD OUT; Check eBay for Current Prices] Why Buy? The Paraboot Milly has an interesting story and manages to stand out without actually
Price: $750+ Why Buy? The Russell Moccasin Backcountry in the Premier Build is simply the best built moc boot you can buy, and offers amazing
Price: $175 / $145 Why Buy? The Brunt Marin Welted offers several cool ideas at a price that puts them near the bottom of leather
Price: $799 + Options Why Buy? The White’s Bounty Hunter in Wickett & Craig Latigo feel special in a world of special boots, and seems
When it comes to the Grant Stone Cap Toe in Forest Kudu, you need to start with the leather. Perhaps most importantly, this is real kudu. Where some manufacturers use “kudu” to describe their oiled calf leather – a description I’ll never understand – Grant Stone uses it to describe leather that comes from, well, a kudu.
The Viberg Service Boot in Shinki ticks all the boxes – tough? durable? and, yes, expensive? However, is it worth it? Let’s take a look and find out.
Viberg as a brand has been covered here several times in the past. If you’d like to learn a little bit more about them, click here. However, while Viberg’s history is well known, their engineer boot history isn’t. One of the first to produce this was a collab for Himel Bros., that is fairly well know. However, it might surprise you to hear that Viberg has had this pattern since 2014. That’s only three years after their famous service boot in the 2030 last was widely available.
The past five years has not been kind to Allen Edmond’s reputation. Especially around QC. In fact, when a recent sale was posted to Reddit, they were described as “great, as long as you’re OK returning 2 or 3 pairs until you get one that is made correctly.”
However, something happened over the past year or so. With inflation going crazy and demand for high quality footwear soaring, Allen Edmonds did something you might not expect. As competitors raised their price, Allen Edmonds started to run more sales. The actual transaction price of their shoes dropped.
Paying $400 for a pair of Allen Edmonds in 2019 when Carmina was $350 is foolish. But paying $180 for a pair of Allen Edmonds in 2022 when Carmina is $500? Well, let’s find out if it makes sense.
EasyMoc did not have an easy birth. Their genesis was through a brand known as the New England Outwear Company, which later rebranded as Maine Mountain Moccasin. To say the reputation of these companies was not great would be an understatement. NEOC famously took numerous preorders, then rebranded as MMM and basically told everyone who had a placed an order over the past 6 months their orders were not coming. Then tried to keep their money anyway. As you can probably imagine, MMM didn’t last long after that.
Oak Street Bootmakers is a brand that is, of course, known for their boots. It’s right in the name. And, despite not being in the name, they are also consistently listed as one of the “big three” in the Maine handsewn world. However, while they have been making those for as long as they’ve been around, they’ve also been making more substantial, goodyear welted shoes. That includes this – one of the first they launched – the Oak Street Bootmakers Wingtip.