Grant Stone Garrison Review: The Best Value Service Boot?

Today, I’m reviewing Grant Stone’s newest boot: the Garrison. I’ve been wearing them a lot to prepare for this review, partly because I got them to wear with a specific type of outfit that I like.

So in addition to talking about how to style these Grant Stone boots, I’m going to talk about why I think these are good — if not better — than brands that cost twice as much, like Viberg, Alden, and White’s. In doing so, I’ll go over the leather, construction, design, and the fit and sizing.

Disclaimer: My wife works for Grant Stone, and I got these for free. Whenever I get boots for free, I’ll always let you know, because it creates a bias towards them. That said, I paid full price for Grant Stone boots well before my wife worked there, and I spoke positively about them. 

Pros & Cons

Here’s a quick rundown of what I like and some people might not like about the Garrison.

Pros

• Perfect quality control
• Probably the best value-to-quality service boot on the market
• A classic design combined with the brogued cap toe is interesting
• A darker edge finishing gives the boot a slightly dressier look
• Huge range of well respected leathers

Cons

• No speed hooks makes them a little slower to put on
• The broguing on the toe cap might put some people off
• Some customers prefer shock absorbing foam underfoot instead of traditional leather and cork
• Most models have luggy rubber soles, some have a wedge sole, some have a flat sole — and you don’t have the ability mix and match them yourself

Overview: Grant Stone

• Lovely designs and high-quality leathers
• Lots of widths, sizes, and lasts
• Some of the most consistent quality control in the industry

I liked Grant Stone from when I first experienced them, and if you talk to anybody else who has owned them, they will also tell you that they are pretty much the best value boots on the market today. I don’t need to push that, because everybody who knows anything knows it.

They also do a really good job of selling a variety of widths; it’s uncommon for so many models from a brand to have three different widths, like the Garrison does.

That combined with their very wide range of leathers means it’s pretty much a given that you’ll find something that you like and that fits you — it’s pretty much the best quality you can get for the price.

First Impressions: Grant Stone Garrison

• Excellent clicking
• Dense and clean stitching throughout

The Garrison boot is definitely my favorite Grant Stone design.

You do get the very, very excellent quality control that Grant Stone is famous for. They really clicked this pair out of the park, and mine have creased perfectly with wear. The stitching on the uppers is dense, even, and clean. There are simply no major QC issues.

Design: Grant Stone Garrison

• Classic service boot design
• Brogue cap toe sets it apart from other similar boots
• No speed hooks, small brass eyelets all the way to the top
• Slightly dressier dark edge finishing

I really, genuinely love the design of these boots.

First off, I love brogue cap-toe service boots. I love engineer boots more, but that doesn’t mean engineers are the perfect fit for every outfit and situation.

Obviously, I also have my White Klouds, but that’s not the same style. Those are more like semi-dress, or packer-style boots.

Also, I like the brogued cap toe. That’s a personal thing and you may or may not like it, but I certainly love it as a subtle twist on the standard cap toe boot.

I am a sucker for small brass eyelets and get very excited whenever I see boots like this style of service boot with small, shiny brass eyelets. I also think it’s very cool how they went for all eyelets the whole way up the boot and didn’t use any speed hooks. I know that makes it slightly slower to put on and for some guys it’s even a dealbreaker, but I think the aesthetic trade-offs are worth it. Plus, your laces are more secure when you have all eyelets.

I like the darker edge finishing, which really differentiates it from a lot of service boots. It just gives the boot a slightly dressier look overall. You’re not really wearing these with a suit, but they’re easier to wear with a smart casual outfit than, say, a beefy moc toe boot.

Leather: Grant Stone Garrison

• A who’s who of the best leather brands: Badalassi Carlo, Charles F. Stead, Gallun, and Horween
• Excellent clicking. Each boot is nearly identical

Mine has the vegetable tanned Badalassi Carlo leather. Unfortunately, this leather is sold out, and Badalassi is limited, but they have other really cool options: different Kudus from C.F. Stead, Chromexcel in three colors, Badalassi’s Olive Minerva leather, and more.

Some of the leathers are limited edition, so I can’t guarantee what will be on the product page when you read this — there will probably be some cool ones that aren’t there now.

As an example of the great clicking: they did a good job of not putting the more grainy, striated areas on the toe. They put it on the upper quarter, which is a very good move because they still included it, which is nice because it looks absolutely gorgeous. I have it on both pairs, and it’s really cool that they match so precisely.

They put tighter grain leather up on the toe, which is very nice because you get more subdued creasing, even though Badalassi is known to crease quite a lot.

Construction: Grant Stone Garrison

• Made in Xiamen, China
• 270-degree Goodyear welt
• Leather throughout
• Steel shanks
• Hefty, solid boots

These are Goodyear welted boots, so they’re the easiest boot to resole and they’re very water resistant.

Yes, they are made in China, but it’s, again, a very specific factory in China. It is on Xiamen Island, and Grant Stone has a very specific and very close relationship with that one factory that goes back decades via the founder, Wyatt Gilmore’s father. So you can’t really think of it as just randomly outsourcing it to whoever.

They are fully leather-lined as well. They have steel shanks, and everything is actual leather — the heel and the midsole are all quality materials, and they feel like it.

These are hefty boots; not heavy like Nicks, but definitely not lightweight like Thursdays.

Grant Stone’s Garrison Sizing and Fit

• I sized a half-size down
• Little break-in
• No heel slip
• Three widths available: D, E, and EEE

Sizing-wise, as with most Grant Stone products, I went down half a size from my Brannock. Go down half a size from your Brannock size.

I’m a 10 and a half D on a Brannock; I went for a 10 D in their Leo last, and they fit very well. My friend Paul always says I have liquid metal feet, which fit into everything pretty well, but the fact remains if you have a standard foot, that’s the standard sizing advice.

Basically, there is no break-in. I wore them to work the first time I put them on, and it was really easy. I did not have any issues throughout the day, I was fine.

I had zero heel slip as well. There is plenty of room, but it is not too tight.

How to Style the Grant Stone Garrison

• Works well for smart casual
• I wear them with wool trousers, chinos, and a button-up shirt
• Works well with dark brown leather jackets and wool jackets

I often wear these with my vintage leather jackets and wool trousers, including a pair of vintage military trousers.

I also have a couple pairs of Scott Fraser collection trousers, I have some Viapiana tweed trousers, I have a couple other pairs of vintage wool trousers that I wear. And I also love wearing my chinos and a button-up shirt with a leather jacket or wool jacket.

That’s a little bit dressy compared to how people dress today, sure, and even how the rest of my outfits can look. I’ll often dress more casually, like with a baseball cap and a biker style cross-zip leather jacket and faded pair of jeans. In extra casual fits like that, I’m more likely to wear engineer boots.

So I wear the Garrison boots when I’m just a bit more dressed up, and I feel like this pair of boots perfectly matches that smart casual area — Stridewise’s editor Nick often calls Grant Stone the king of smart casual footwear.

Grant Stone Garrison vs Diesel

• The Garrison has smaller eyelets and no speed hooks
• The Diesel doesn’t have a cap toe
• The Garrison has a 270-degree welt
• The Diesel has a 360-degree welt and sometimes a storm welt

Grant Stone is best known for their plain toe Diesel boots, so what’s the difference?

I think the Garrison is just a little dressier, largely because the Diesel has much larger eyelets, it has speed hooks, and it doesn’t have the Garrison’s darker edge finishing. The Garrison’s eyelets are also polished, which I think is a cool difference.

The Diesel boots also have a plain toe, whereas the Garrison has a brogued cap toe, and the Diesel boots have a 360-degree Goodyear welt (often with a storm welt) while the Garrison has a 270-degree Goodyear welt. That means the Garrison has a slightly sleeker looking heel, plus it has a closer edge finishing on the back — the heel is shaved down closer to the boot than on the Diesel — and I really like that.

Comparison with Other Brands

• Better QC than Alden and Whites
• Similar, if not better, QC than Viberg
• Much better value than all three

The other thing is the competition; for this boot, it would be Whites, Viberg, or Alden.

And you know, I would say Grant Stone’s quality control is better than Alden’s, at least in my opinion. My experience with the Aldens I’ve picked up is part of the reason I never bought a pair of Aldens.

They’re definitely better than the Whites I’ve handled. I’ve handled quite a few Whites. And there’s again a reason I’ve never bought a pair — because the quality control is not great. Nick has noted before that his White’s service boots have dramatic variation in stitch density.

I would honestly say I like the look of this as much as my favorite Viberg service boots. Overall, I think Grant Stone’s quality control is as good, if not better, than boots costing more than twice as much.

Grant Stone’s Price and Value

• The best value service boot for this level of quality
• $380 – $435
• Most Grant Stone boots experienced a price jump in Q1 2025

These are about $435 right now, with some of the suede models still running under $400. The prices have gone up a bit, but then, everybody else’s prices have increased significantly as well — Vibergs are $990 now. White’s are $720 — gross, I would never pay that much for a pair of Whites, I’m sorry.

These boots I’m comparing with cost some two times as much as these Garrisons, and I just don’t see the value, personally.

Final Thoughts

I love these boots. This style is such a thoughtful balance of casual and dressy; this is the first time I actually wanted to wear a lace-up boot (that wasn’t my White Klouds).

Thank you for making it to the end, I hope you got something out of this. You can head over to Grant Stone’s website and check these out; I like them because I genuinely think they look absolutely fantastic, and everybody knows Grant Stone makes great boots, especially for the money.

Subscribe to Almost Vintage Style on YouTube and follow him on Instagram.