The 9 Dumbest Things About Collecting Boots

If you’re reading this, it’s too late for me, but it might not be too late for you.

You might not even own any boots yet, and you wound up here because you’re just interested in getting some footwear that’s high quality, durable, resoleable, resellable, and beautiful.

You might not be yet addicted to buying boots, and that’s if you, save yourself — don’t watch any of my hundreds of YouTube videos about hundreds of different boot brands because curiosity becomes obsession way too easily.

After years of navigating the space of elite boot hobbyists, here are nine reasons a boot hobby is stupid. These are all things of which I am totally guilty, or at least have been.

1. Patina Deficiency

Number one: nothing actually ages well or gets resoled when you have a crap ton of boots.

The whole benefit of boots is that they last forever and get better every day.

How? The more you wear boots, the more you sink into the leather underfoot, the upper slowly softens, and everything conforms to the shape of your individual foot, making for something that feels custom-made just for your feet in a matter of months.

And when you’ve worn them enough, you can get them resoled and keep the same boots, maybe for decades.

Except if you own 10 (or more) pairs of them and you’re constantly changing them out and selling them to buy other boots. Nothing’s getting worn in, which is kind of the whole point!

It’s a lot like the raw denim hobby that a lot of boot guys get into as well. You get excited about how well something is meant to wear, and then you get seduced by another brand. Pretty soon, you’ve got too many to wear enough to age, which nullifies the reason they’re so desirable in the first place.

(I know there are other reasons to love nice boots, like the craftsmanship and comfort and waterproofness and so on. But if the point is the longevity…)

2. It’s Expensive

Number two: It’s an expensive hobby. Everyone has different means and values and at certain income brackets, the price does becomes negligible. But still, there are not many good boots for under 300 bucks.

And when you’re a real big boot nerd, pretty soon, you won’t settle for anything under 500 bucks. There are plenty of good boots for less, don’t get me wrong. But when you get really into this stuff, pretty soon it’s like Pacific Northwest or British-made or Indonesian-made or Japanese-made or bust.

That said, the great thing about this space is that people are buying and selling used boots all the time. You can go to the r/GoodyearWelt subreddit or Grailed or eBay, and you’ll find guys who understand that a used $600 boot is totally worth $400.

3. Sneaker Guilt

Number three: You feel guilty whenever you wear trousers and you’re not wearing boots.

If it’s long pants weather, you must break in your boots, even if sneakers are quicker to put on and might match that outfit a little bit better.

4. Sneakers are More Comfortable, Maybe

Number four: Are boots really more comfortable than sneakers?

Really?

I don’t know about you but whenever I’ve worn boots for months and then I go out in sneakers, I’m like, “God damn.” I’m amazed at how light, flexible, and squishy they are.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know that a boot’s stability and craftsmanship and so on is superior. But it is funny how on the occasion that I put sneakers on, it’s like, “Oh damn, yeah. I forgot what normal people experience with their shoes.”

5. Boot Guys Tend to Misunderstand “Comfort”

Number five: In the boot world, a lot of people don’t know what comfort is — or at least, they have different meanings for the word.

There are so many people who will swear up and down that nothing in the world is more comfortable than a three-pound Nicks’ boot because bro it’s just got so much leather and it feels so good once it’s worn in.

And you get a lot of guys that will crap on boots that try to enhance their comfort and entice more of the general public by using a shock absorbing Poron insole or thinner leather, like Thursday and some Red Wing boots. “That’s not real comfort!” they scream.

But like, if I tell a normal person: “hey, Nicks boots take 9 months to be made for you and they weigh three pounds and they cost $700 and they’ll feel horrible for the first couple of months but then they’ll feel great,” the average guy will look at you like you’re a crazy person.

That’s just not how most people understand comfort. Someties I think that because boot guys are spending so much money on their hobby, they have to convince themselves that what they’re doing is the absolute best thing to do for your feet.

6. Boot Care Anxiety

Number six: You overthink everything about boot care.

I’ve been as bad at this as anyone, because it’s so easy to forget that the point of most boots is that they’re supposed to endure everything you throw at them.

You don’t need to condition them every week, which I’ve seen brands tell their poor customers to do. Sutro told me to condition their boots at least once a month and so does RM Williams.

I have guys who write for this website and brush down their boots whenever they wear them. (I won’t name them.) (OK, it’s Mike Smith.)

I understand that dirt technically speeds up leather degradation, and that boots shouldn’t be left unclean for six months when you’re not wearing them in summer. And yes, leather should be conditioned to maximize its longevity and comfort and aesthetics.

But if you’re just wearing boots casually, you don’t need to agonize so much. Many people I know do conditioning once or twice a year after cleaning, and that’ll usually do just fine.

7. Conflicting Terminology

Number seven: a lot of boot related terminology is not agreed upon, which makes communicating difficult and shopping even harder.

A lot of facts aren’t agreed upon. For example, What is top grain leather? I’ve spoken to leatherworkers and tannery managers who disagree on what that means. What’s full grain leather? Everyone calls Chromexcel “full grain” but it’s not; the surface has been lightly smoothed, which is why it’s not covered in scale-like grain.

What’s chamois leather? It’s supposed to come from a European goat-antelope, but Horween and other leather companies sell products called chamois that’s just specially finished cowhide. Horween’s “deer touch” isn’t deer. Iron Boots‘ bullhide isn’t bull, it’s steer. I could go all day just on leather terminology.

What’s “handmade” or “handcrafted” mean? Every brand says their products are handmade. Carmina says that theirs are “handcrafted,” but I saw countless machines for lasting and leather cutting at their factory.

What’s rough-out leather? It’s supposed to be full-grain leather flipped inside out, but half the time, it’s actually suede. Ask Crockett & Jones and their “suede roughout” boots.

What is a work boot? Is it a $380 Italian vegetable-tanned moc toe from Grant Stone? Is that what construction workers are wearing? Because they call that their work boot model.

Here’s another one: What does “Made in America” mean? This is a topic for another article, but there’s “Made in the US with imported materials,” “Made in the US with imported parts,” “Assembled in the US with imported components,” and brands are supposed to differentiate between all these.

But a lot of use “Made in America” pretty loosely to describe boots that only have the soles put on in America, and the rest is made in the Dominican Republic. Looking at you, Thorogood.

8. Weird Politics

Number eight: it gets political very easily. There’s a strong undercurrent of fragile masculinity and fragile nationalism coursing through the space of heritage American footwear.

Even if a Chinese-made boot like Grant Stone is made as well as an American boot with the exact same materials, if you buy it someone will tell you you’re “supporting slave labor in China,” no matter how well Grant Stone documents the treatment of their craftspeople.

Or if it’s made in Mexico, it must be “bad,” Even though brands like Unmarked are making boots on par with $700 US-made boots.

And then, there’s my favorite: the guys who are real macho tough men and also get very upset by the notion of anybody wearing boots if they’re not manual laborers. If they see anyone who isn’t a day laborer enjoying the benefits of ankle support and stability and longevity of boots as an attack on the working class.

9. Obsessive Boot Nerds

And lastly, number nine: the exhausting nerds that permeate this space with obsessive gatekeeping buffoonery over nothing problems.

When you get into this hobby of admiring nicely made footwear, you really quickly encounter the most venomous keyboard warrior dorks who will call you the worst names on Earth over the most insignificant issues.

Or people will flip out if Red Wing releases a new boot with some foam on the insole to help their famously brutal, new customer turning off break in. Suddenly, everyone will scream that they’ve sold out, and this is an apocalypse, and they’re abandoning their roots and betraying their customers. They hadn’t even changed their bestselling boots, they just tried a Poron insole with a new model, and the insole was more expensive than a leather one. No, they’re not cheaping out.

Or this boot nerd will buy a good boot, it’ll arrive at their door, they’ll open the shoebox, and immediately whip out their magnifying glass with the goal of finding something to complain about. Stuff that doesn’t affect the durability or comfort at all, like a not-perfectly-smooth welt joint or not-perfectly-spaced stitchdown.

These people want handmade footwear, but if there’s any evidence a person made it — like imperfections — they furiously send it back. It makes no sense.

I understand some guys wanting perfection if they’re spending this amount of money, or guys who buy well made boots because they like wearing something that embodies the highest level of artistry possible.

But unrealistic and, above all, purely cosmetic standards are killing the boot industry that they love. I’m pretty tight with Vince, who runs Truman Boot Company, and he literally asked the moderators of boot nerd haven r/GoodyearWelt to be removed from their guide to good brands because he has no patience for this kind of customer.

Again: guys with unrealistic standards are killing margins and shutting down the industry they think they love.

Final Thoughts

You don’t want to wind up like those guys.

You don’t want to be a guy poring over boots with a magnifying glass to find something to scream about on the internet.

You don’t want to bankrupt your family over another four-figure boot purchase.

You don’t want to be responsible for boots that are made to be worn for years, barely getting a scratch on them because they’ve been babied so much and worn so little.

Guys: don’t wind up like me. Collect baseball cards instead.