Thorogood Heritage Moc Toe Review – The Work Boot You Can Wear Out

At over 125 years old, Thorogood is one of the oldest shoe companies in the United States and they’re one of the few that are employee-owned, two facts that give them a lot of appeal among folks who prefer American-made.

What often gets left off of that is the fact that 35 percent of their boots are made overseas but still, the majority of their offerings come from one of their two union factories in Merrill, Wisconsin.

I’ve tried out their Dodgeville boots before, which seemed to be trying for a “cheaper Iron Rangers” vibe, but it’s fair to say the brand is best known for their heritage moc toe boot. So what makes it so special?

Thorogood Heritage Moc Toe Pros and Cons

These days, I like to put the end of the review at the beginning — you’ve got places to be! Here’s a quick list of the pros and cons I found during my wear test.

Pros

• Really inexpensive for a resoleable leather boot
• Versatile, for a work boot: you won’t look weird wearing these out on the town after work
• Light, flexible, and no break in
• Great shock absorption
• Removable insole adds a lot of springy comfort, and you can swap it for your own insole if you need to
• Available in a safety toe version
• The Storm Goodyear welt is an extra water resistant form of an extra durable construction
• Durable, grippy sole
• Composite shank: this is very rare in wedge soled boots like these, and many guys find it an important feature for limiting foot pain

Thorogood Moc Toe Cons

• Not many ASTM ratings: The sole is rated for resisting slips and electrical hazards, and there’s a composite toe version too, but if you need ASTM rating for, say, biohazards or waterproofness, you’re out of luck.
• No leather underfoot: if you want that classic kind of comfort of a Goodyear welted boot, this isn’t it. But if you prefer boots that feel more like sneakers, this is your boot.
• The welt is synthetic: this means you’re unlikely to get more than one resole out of this boot, if that.
• The leather upper is pretty thin and not very high quality: you can’t really complain about this with such an inexpensive boot, but it’s another example of this not quite measuring up to what many guys would consider a classic leather boot.
• Not really made in the USA: it’s a bit off topic, but they make such a show of being USA-made that they stitch flags all over the boot — but almost all the production happens in the Dominican Republic.
• Sole is more durable than most wedge soles, but this also means it might be harder than you want.

Thorogood Heritage Moc Toe Overview

• Moc toe style
• Oily work boot leather
• Polyurethane sole
• Storm Goodyear welt is extra water resistant

This iconic boot comes brings to mind the seminal 875 moc toe from Red Wing but it’s cheaper and more comfortable. This boot has a lot less leather and is a lot less American made, but by gum, she’s a handsome boot: six inches tall with a cool contrasting white sole and a golden orange color.

These days, there are work boots and there are work boots. Similar moc toe boots like Red Wing, Thursday, and Grant Stone are called work boots because they’ll last through a zillion resoles and offer the kind of stability that can limit foot pain when you’re spending all day on your feet. But you don’t often see them on jobsites because they’re expensive and they usually don’t have the kind of ASTM ratings that a lot of jobsites need.

Then there are work boots like the kind we’ve reviewed here: boots that are inexpensive, rarely made in America, and actually worn by blue collar workers who need boots that have ASTM ratings that guarantee they’ll resist a degree of puncture, electrical shock, hazardous materials, and so on.

It’s rare for any boot to straddle both categories, but Thorogood’s Heritage Moc Toe does. It’s not waterproof and it doesn’t have a ton of ASTM ratings, but it is rated for electrical hazards and slip resistance, plus you can get one with a composite toe. It’s also super lightweight, shock absorbent, and comfortable — largely because it has way more synthetics than heritage work boots like Red Wing and Grant Stone.

Thorogood Moc Toe Leather

• Oil tanned leather
• Doesn’t require much care
• Pretty water resistant
• Some loose grain

These shoes are available in a few leathers but the most popular color is definitely Tobacco.

This is an oil tanned leather, meaning it’s chrome tanned and infused with a bunch of extra oils to make it more water resistant. As a work work boot that emphasizes value in its construction, the leather isn’t the thickest or highest quality in the world, but it’s hard to complain too much at this price point.

It looks good and will look even better when it’s time to rejuvenate it with some leather conditioner. Not only will conditioning make it look great, but it’ll keep the boot ready for work: this leather isn’t waterproof, and conditioning it a few times a year will help to boost its water resistance.

Thorogood Leather Care

• KG’s Boot Guard for the toe
• KG’s Xtreme All Purpose Leather Guard for conditioning
• Mr Clean Magic Eraser for the sole

Thorogood recommends two products for this boot, both of which reflect the fact that they expect you to kick these around a lot.

The first is KG’s Boot Guard, a blend of polyurethane and xylene that’s specificallymeant for putting a nice tough layer on the toe of the boots. This is especially useful for the version of this boot that doesn’t have a steel toe.

Some folks also like to put Boot Guard on the seams to help with water resistance, but if that’s your concern you might want to also consider KG’s Xtreme All Purpose Leather Guard, which is made of natural oils suspended in beeswax and propolis.

A lot of reviews say it’ll make the boot functionally waterproof while boosting its resistance to salt, petroleum, and harmful chemicals. Again, there are no ASTM ratings for these qualities, but you can certainly give your Thorogoods a leg up in that kind of durability.

Finally if you want to keep the sole as clean as possible, Mr. Clean’s Magic Erasers will do the job.

Thorogood Moc Toe Sole and Construction

• Polyurethane outsole
• “25% more durable than Vibram”
• Rubber and cork midsoles
• Poron 4000 Comfort Cushion
• Dual Density Ultimate Shock Absorption™ Insert

This is their exclusive, oil and slip resistant Polyurethane MAXwear Wedge Outsole.

A lot of guys assume wedge soles like this are made of crepe rubber or blown rubber, but when brands are more concerned with durability than softness (or with using natural materials), they’ll often opt for polyurethane.

Thorogood actually used to use the famous “Cristy” blown rubber sole by Vibram, but after getting tired of hearing reports of it wearing down after just a year or so, they developed this polyurethane.

It’s been found to be some 25 percent longer lasting than rubber, but it should come as no surprise that some older guys with particularly creaky joints find this sole to be a little harder on their knees. Make your choice!

Can You Resole Thorogood’s Moc Toe?

This boot is pretty hard to resole, which might be one reason they worked so hard on keeping the original sole from wearing down too quickly.

Thorogood’s Moc Toe is made with a storm Goodyear welt, a water resistant form of construction that’s way less likely to delaminate than boots with simpler construction methods.

Goodyear welts are easier to resole because instead of the upper and sole being attached to each other, they’re attached to a strip of leather between them called a welt. At least, usually the welt is leather: here it’s synthetic. That helps keep the price down and is just as water resistant and durable, but it’s unlikely to endure more than one resole — if that.

Is Thorogood’s Heritage Moc Toe Comfortable?

Yes! It’s light, soft, and shock absorbent to a much higher degree than most Goodyear welted boots.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and here’s why it’s so comfortable: there’s a lot less leather in this boot than in similar moc toes from Red Wing and Thursday.

Most boots with this kind of construction have a leather insole or a leather midsole or maybe both, but there’s precisely zero leather underfoot here: you get a cushy removable insole on top of a Poron foam insole, rubber midsole, and polyurethane outsole.

But hey, it’s way cheaper than the more leather-laden boots and a lot of guys prefer immediate comfort to the different sort of comfort you get from slowly (and often painfully) sinking into a leather insole over many months.

To be honest, I’m pretty sure most guys prefer Thorogood’s kind of comfort, so the cheaper construction is unlikely to be a red flag. Just don’t expect a lot of resoles.

Thorogood Fit & Sizing

• Available in B, D, and EE
• No break in
• May run a little narrow
• Great shock absorption
• Very lightweight

At the moment these run from sizes 5 to 15, most of which you can get in B, D, or EE widths.

They run large: I’m between 11.5 and 12 on a Brannock device but I grabbed size 11D which fit great. It’s the same size I wear in most boots, including Red Wing. I should note that some folks feel they run a little narrow; I had no issues but if you’re closer to an E than a D, you may be better off getting a EE width.

Thorogood Moc Toe Price

When I first started this website, these boots cost $215. Now they cost $265.

It’s still a great price. That price is informed by the high amount of synthetics: synthetic welt, shank (fiberglass), insole, midsole, outsole. It’s almost entirely made in the Dominican Republic. It won’t last through many resoles, if any. But this is still a good price for a leather boot with such complex construction.

The Verdict

These aren’t as jobsite ready as a lot of work boots, but if you don’t need a ton of ASTM ratings, Thorogood’s Heritage Moc Toe is a great boot: it’s more comfortable and less expensive than traditionally made boots, but they’re much better looking and longer lasting than a lot of cheap work boots: they’ll last for ages and the leather will look all the better for it.