Iron Boots Review: Why China’s Hottest Boots Are Worth a Look

When a pair of boots costs over $700, you need some fine eyes and a higher level of expertise to explain to you why it’s worth that much — especially when it’s made in China.

But I’m confident that Iron Boots makes some of the best casual boots in the world.

In the video below (the main event here) we look at every detail of their flagship boot, The Chosen One, to see how they hold up industry stalwarts like Red Wing and Viberg.

Note: Iron Boots tends to do limited edition boots so this precise boot, like many of the Iron boots you’ll see online, isn’t available anymore.

Who We Interviewed

To learn how to understand these magnificent pieces of footwear, I sat down with famous boot podcaster, marketer, and photographer Ticho Blanco.

One of the many roles he plays in this luxury-but-casual space is helping foreign brands make inroads into the American market, and he appeared as something of a representative of the brand.

He’s not their employee, but he chooses to consult with them because he believes so strongly in the product. In fact, the man is so discerning and disinterested in maximizing revenue that Iron Boots was his only client at the time of filming!

Pros & Cons: Iron Boots

In a hurry? Here’s a quick run down of Iron Boot’s pros and cons.

Pros:

• Handmade at a level of precision that surpasses most other bootmakers; this is especially evidenced in the high stitches per inch they accomplish with hand sewn stitchdown construction.
• Uses the most coveted materials like Dr. Sole soles and uppers from the world’s best tanneries.
• Innovative touches like wool filling instead of cork, to help with temperature and moisture regulation. 
• Designed to appeal to the most discerning boot fans who value consistency, clicking, and quality control above all else.

Cons:

• Long wait times: unless your size is available on a Ready-to-Wear model (unlikely), you’ll wait ~5 months for your pair.
• Limited availability: Most boots are one-offs, so don’t fall in love with this model or any other before checking its availability.
• High price point: If you know what you’re getting, you’ll consider these to be great value — but we get that not everyone thinks expensive casual boots are worth it.

Iron Boots Overview

• Entirely handmade in China.
• Sometimes available as ready-to-wear, but usually made-to-order with a 3- to 6-month lead time.
• Best known designs are modernized versions of vintage military boots.
• Limited availability and difficult to get your hands on.

Iron Boots started in 2015 in Guangzhou, China, to fill a gap in the high-end heritage boot market. Kai, the man behind the brand, makes them completely by hand at an excruciatingly exacting level of attention to detail.

“You can almost guarantee it’s going to look perfect,” said Ticho. “This is one of the few places in the world where I can feel pretty confident telling people if you order these, you’re not going to have any QC problems.”

Ticho started working with them in a somewhat circutioutous route.

“I know Lars, a self-taught bootmaker in Norway who runs Østmo Bootmaker,” he says. “He designs boots based on vintage Norwegian military boots that he finds at thrift stores.”

Lars’ boots are impeccable in their own right, but the problem is that it’s a one-man company, so expanding and scaling his business is extremely hard. So he asked Ticho to help him find a workshop that could meet his standards.

“The only place I could find that could do it could do it in sufficient quantities for a price that was going to be somewhat reasonable was Iron Boots,” Ticho says. “These are fully made by hand to an absolutely exacting level of attention to detail.”

Since they started working together, Østmo and Iron Boots have had regular, limited-edition collaborations.

Iron Boots’ Chosen One

• Lighter weight and well built, it’s not a tank of a boot
• Very comfortable, meticulously designed last.
• High-quality components like Dr. Sole soles and leather throughout.

The boot I’ve got is the Chosen One, which is Iron Boots’ flagship model and has a really compelling last that’s well-known for being very foot-shaped.

“I think this is the ninth version of the Chosen One that they went through,” Ticho explained. “They ordered all these lasts, tweaked them, said, ‘Nope, it’s not good enough,’ changed it again, threw them all out, bought new ones, and this is version nine.”

Mine has a brogued cap toe and an unusual grey leather from the tannery best known for producing Red Wing Heritage’s leathers: Minnesota’s SB Foot. But SB Foot has other clients; a Red Wing boot using leather like this would be too expensive.

They use rare Dr. Sole outsoles — a mythic, epic sole brand out of Taiwan with a cult following. It’s more coveted than Dainite and is increasingly hard to find these days.

Iron Boots’ Leather

• Very high-end leathers with an emphasis on thickness, durability, and vegetable tannage
• Italy’s Maryam and Minnesota’s SB Foot are among the most featured tanneries in their lineup.
• Particular emphasis on Italian, vegetable tanned horsehide, cordovan, and bullhide.

Iron Boots only uses the best cuts from the best tanneries and their ever changing lineup regularly features horsebutt from world leaders in the equine tanneries Guidi and Maryam, both in Italy.

But Iron Boots also deserves accolades for using rare leathers from tanneries better known for more inexpensive products. We’re talking about SB Foot, the tannery owned by Red Wing and which makes the leathers for their heritage line. Those boots are under $350 (considered very reasonable for a made-in-USA, Goodyear welted brand) but SB Foot is capable of making higher end leathers for smaller, boutique brands like Iron Boots.

Like I said: don’t get excited about this leather, because Kai only had enough for 25 pairs of boots and he says he’ll never be able to get it again. But so that you see the kind of thought he puts into his leathers, he noted:

This is a gray color, full grain pull up leather with a thickness of 2.2 to 2.4 mm. Very well oiled and waxed during the tanning process, with a delicate and rich color changing effect on the surface. It’s thick but still feels relatively soft, so it won’t be hard to break in, ad the gray color is also very special: it’s not something you can find all the time.

The quality and density of the fiber is damn good and even, so there’s very low possibility for loose grain or unmatched grain. Plus, both sides can be used for boot making: the roughout is also a cool leather option.

What’s Inside an Iron Boot?

• Leather through out the insole, midsole, and heel counter.
• Wool filler that helps with temperature regulation and moisture control.

If you cut a pair in half, which was actually done on camera just below, it is just layers of leather throughout the insole and midsole with a surprising twist: wool instead of cork.

“You’ve got a thick veg-tan leather insole,” said Ticho. “You’ve got a leather midsole, and there’s a half sole in there as well. You can see that he tapers the half sole down really skillfully to blend it into the midsole, which is super cool.”

“To fill that little gap between the outsole and footbed, instead of using cork or something synthetic, Iron Boots uses wool,” says Ticho. “There’s a reason why you wear wool sweaters: it’s a great mid layer that regulates your temperature and moisture. And so because of that, the whole boot breathes a lot better than just having a rubber or synthetic. Those are going to keep more of that moisture in there.”

Even really big fans of boots haven’t always heard of wool as an option for filling boots because it’s a practice that’s very rare and best known for being implemented by extremely high end, bespoke bootmakers like John Lobb. Those cost well into the four figures.

Starting to understand the price, now?

Stitchdown Construction: Iron Boots vs. White’s vs Viberg

The brand that boot guys are tempted to compare Iron Boots to is Viberg, the $900-ish stitchdown construction boot from Canada. But even Viberg, which is very good, makes their stitchdown construction with machines. To be crystal clear: it’s still extremely hard to make a boot like Viberg and using machines as well as their craftspeople is a tremendous feat.

But Iron Boots’ stitchdown is done by hand. Each stitch, by hand, and the stitches per inch are much higher than, say…

It might be fairer to compare a hand-sewn stitchdown boot like White’s. But the stitches per inch are vastly higher on Iron Boots, which is very difficult to do. Again, we’re not saying Whites boots are poorly made or less durable, but it takes more labor to achieve a higher density of stitching.

(White’s, in their defense, is more geared toward toughness than things like stitch consistency.)

“There’s a huge difference between a handmade product and a factory-made product,” said Ticho. “These guys are doing the stitch by hand. So every pair, the stitching is perfectly placed, it is perfectly even. It is just absolutely impeccable work.”

Some Iron Boots cost up to $1,000 — these are not cheap boots.

“But they put in the attention to detail that people expect at that price,” explains Ticho. “They click it like they’re making the most special pair of boots that you’re going to own because they want to give you that experience: that bespoke, made-to-order experience.”

Other Iron Boots: Ticho’s & Østmo’s Collabs

We want to mention Østmo by Iron Boots collaboration. “Every month we put up a new makeup,” says Ticho. “When we sell out of the leather, we close it out — and they’ve started closing out a lot quicker.”

Ticho wore a pair of reverse Maryam horsebutt in the Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome, which you can see above. It’s a very rare, specially developed leather that no one can buy. That’s another reason why these boots are so popular: they’re very limited.

Wrapping Up

Depending on when you read this, there’s a great chance that none of the boots in this article are available to order but you can get some made-to-order, and they will be very cool. We encourage you to check them out.

Of course, these are boots for people who are very much into boots and will appreciate the attention to detail and don’t mind the long wait. If that’s you, and you respect the fact that you can wear something that’s both casual and super high quality, definitely check out Iron Boots.