Awesome video!!! Just one little note - White´s aren´t really handsewn the same way Iron Boots are. They call the construction method handsewn stitchdown, but this only refers to the insole being sewn to the uppers and the thin leather strip by hand. The outsole stitching is done by a machine the same way Viberg and all the other brands are doing it.
13:36 I have to correct you on that one On whites the welt stitch (invisible) is done by hand The outsole stitch is done by machine You can see that in their making videos
Great video! These boots are incredible. Tough service boots with John Lobb quality really grabs my attention. Made in China or not, they look awesome. Quality has no nationality after all.
Beautiful boots! Looks like they and Grant Stones (at a lower but still high level) can do a lot to fight the stigma around Chinese products. (It still means customers are contributing to the growing wealth of an evil country but at least they get good stuff)
I have to admit he nailed that two tone grey. Absolutely gorgeous. Nice tip on how to manage a boutique MFR - constant stream of limited editions. THINKING!
Some people think it makes a better fit or better durability. I think it's fine if it people just like it because it embodies more skill and labor, like it's undeniably "worth it" in that it takes more time to do
Can guarantee you the actual craftsman aren't getting what we would consider a "fair cut" of the margins on those boots. People don't realize just how much money $700 to $1,000 USD is worth in China.
How do I know there isn’t a snail hunting me down that if it touches me will kill me instantly? Do you need the background of every worker involved to be posted on their site for the world to see?
@@vladyslav4 if your message was intended as humor I apologize for my hostility :) this subject is a bit of a hot bed so I couldn’t be sure if it was sarcasm or not. peace brother
a few years ago all these guys where into sneaker!!!! they all had 500 pairs and just look at them and never wore them, now its boots!most guy wear boot to work . now theats the next thing and pretty exspencive too. what next???
Who cares. Do you think guys who wear sneakers have to be professional athletes? Do jean wearers have to work in mines? Do you have to be a pilot to wear a bomber jacket or aviator glasses?
I can’t believe people would pay that much for Chinese boots. I don’t care how great they are, the whole reason I would buy from Chinese sources is the discount. This is crazy. Honestly, watching you two pat each other on the back about how awesome these Chinese boots are, is a little sickening.
What a funny comment. They _are_ at a discount, boots like this would be hundreds of dollars more if made in the US. Just pretend this degree of skill is coming out of Mongolia so you'll feel less conflicted
Same thing I used to say to anti Howard Stern people way back when.....Is it possible you could just not watch and listen the video that clearly states CHINESE MADE boots? Or you just like to complain via keyboard is maybe the problem?
Great video guys. Thanks for promoting skilled makers and designers. The heritage boot world is growing, and it doesn't hurt to be able to access the creativity and passion of new boots makers around the world. Cheers!
@whereRbearsTeeth a large chunk of apples revenue comes back to the states and helps Americans especially the middle class, nonetheless, someone should buy something that is a work of art no matter who made it.
i was careful to not say they're china's BEST boots, but Ticho and I did another video on Chinese boots that features him here! ruclips.net/video/1_ZbPqQwJvg/видео.html
Some leather items, when crafted well, are like wearable, functional, art. It's great to see inside (around 09:33), and while sometimes expensive, true quality is often worth it. Thanks for sharing an educational look into these!
I already took the dive on a dark grey kudu reverse TCO and have a few more months to wait still. Will be my first high end boot like this. I picked it because grey is indeed hard to find and they look so high quality.
Another outstanding video by Nick... These boots look great Nick but not cheap.... Quality looks on par with Grant Stones but a lot more expensive.... Hey buddy you need to get a Filson jean jacket... I bought the lined one and it is the best one I have ever owned...! I have had it about 4 months now....PS transitioning now from my Aldens to my new Legacy Thursday sneakers, love em .... 5 STAR video as usual!... Greg
Nice video about this awesome, uncompromising brand. I have a pair of the TCO in Teak Featherstone from SB-F and the construction quality is undeniably as good as humans can do.
Country of origin should never be the defining factor for your expectation of quality. You can have assumptions and biases yes, but the products speak for themselves. You cannot expect boots made this high quality materials and with this level of exacting work to be cheap and inexpensive in it’s entirety. No it would not make any sense and would be even more sketchy if boots and products of this quality were sold at prices lower than what they are currently sold at. It would infer high skill being paid abysmal wages in order to cut costs. These people deserve the income that comes from the price of these phenomenal products and any who say otherwise clearly do not understand the situation and are people who cannot be reasoned with. If you don’t want to support Chinese made boots for political reasons then that is a different subject, but questioning the price and quality of these boots simply because they are Chinese is nearing if not clearly xenophobic
I have 5 pairs of iron boots. The quality is there just by looking at them and wearing them consistently. All go to pairs. I have aldens, flame pandas, onderhouds and vibergs. The IBs get the most wear. Frankly ive sold off much of my collection and replaced them with Iron boots.
They are almost immediate break in comfort. As someone w 5 pairs of their boots I can tell you the boot maker Kai does exacting work. He wanted boots that were walking boots in ethos but built durable and well. I’ve yet to have a single “break in process” that wasn’t just flexing the boot.
i take .5 down from brannock, same width as my brannock. I think that's their standard fit. if you like it more snug you might need to take it down even mroe
I remember Iron Boots selling a knock off Iron Ranger, sometimes i would see them on ebay or randomly while boot shopping. I think thats the way it was for a lot of Chinese and Indonesian brands that are popular now but one day they get a call from Lars, or Ben, or Ticho, or any of the other the big nerds in the boot world who tell them to “utilize their labor” or “focus more on the high end” and then you got these brands that were making $100 good year welted Red Wing knock offs making $700+ work/casual boots and they're still knock offs just high end knock offs. Its not like RM making the official boot of Australia or Jim Green doing something so utterly original, i get that other countries make boots too but these asian brands are just replicating original heritage styles and making them their identity. It’s not a question of nationalism but what do these third world knock off brands have to offer in their own original style or heritage? What pattern or purpose built legacy boot sets them apart from the rest of the world? As it is, it just seems westerners are taking advantage of their willingness to offer exotic leathers on a laboriously crafted boot at a discount….but they're still just a knock off. Even Dr Sole has a knock off name selling knock off Cats Paws and everyone acts like they don't notice. I got into boots for the heritage, i was happy to support hundred year old makers all over the USA and across the pond and into europe who were and have been making great shoes and boots and to see the knock offs popping up and cashing in or people rationalizing it like “i cant keep up so i sold my soul oversees instead of opening a factory in my stupid town and employing my friends and neighbors” its all just a step in the wrong direction and regressing down the same road that made American and British and European made heritage goods so rare in the first place and its not why i got into this hobby. I hear podcasts complaining about Florsheim shoes selling out and making crap products overseas and those same guys are working hard with Chinese boot makers to elevate their products and penetrate the western high end boot market. So everyone meeds to make up their minds if they're truly heritage style people or if they're just chinese schills following the money. I’m tired of people thinking they can have it both ways.
If this video scratches your itch, check out this prequel video with Ticho about the best Chinese boot brands ruclips.net/video/1_ZbPqQwJvg/видео.html
Do you still have your Nick’s boots?
Awesome video!!! Just one little note - White´s aren´t really handsewn the same way Iron Boots are. They call the construction method handsewn stitchdown, but this only refers to the insole being sewn to the uppers and the thin leather strip by hand. The outsole stitching is done by a machine the same way Viberg and all the other brands are doing it.
13:36
I have to correct you on that one
On whites the welt stitch (invisible) is done by hand
The outsole stitch is done by machine
You can see that in their making videos
FANTASTIC! love iron boots, and Nick and Ticho
we love you, dale!
Great video! These boots are incredible. Tough service boots with John Lobb quality really grabs my attention. Made in China or not, they look awesome. Quality has no nationality after all.
Glad someone liked the John lobb bit, I almost cut it out bc this video is so long!
I have the Teak Featherstone in the TCO last and its now my favorite boot. Top notch boot company.
that's so cool you can still buy teak featherstone boots after Red Wing stopped making them
That haircut. That freaking haircut. 😢
I like it. Very medieval.🤣
@@MaximSupernov hahaha
Hey - how are the widths on these boots? The 5515. Do you find the D constricting on the right pinky toe at all? That’s my main concern really
They’re made in small quantities. When a bespoke boot is gone, its gone! There will always be something new to check out. 😊
i've been tryingto get a pair of clarks desert welt desert boots, what they do make a 100 pairs and stop???crazy
Your boots look insane as well as the Tichos marion ones
Beautiful boots! Looks like they and Grant Stones (at a lower but still high level) can do a lot to fight the stigma around Chinese products.
(It still means customers are contributing to the growing wealth of an evil country but at least they get good stuff)
lol if you're American and calling another country "evil"
@@kingofthenoobs Not american and not a citizen of a nation currently committing genocide. :)
Hey nick do you have any connections to sagara or idk if anyone has had any problems recently contacting them?
I'm pretty tight with them, yeah. DM me on IG if you want help with something
I have to admit he nailed that two tone grey. Absolutely gorgeous. Nice tip on how to manage a boutique MFR - constant stream of limited editions. THINKING!
Are these bespoke ? No. 700$ for readdymade shoes 😮😮😮😮😮
Hand welting and hand lasting might be overrated. It just runs the price up.
Some people think it makes a better fit or better durability. I think it's fine if it people just like it because it embodies more skill and labor, like it's undeniably "worth it" in that it takes more time to do
@@Stridewise Nerds, right? 🤓
@@strengthandbulkMadness it’s not totally unlike watches in that way!
@@StridewiseHaha, there are guys buying $8000 watches.
No shank in these boots?
i think they use a leather shank, i saw one cut in half at their trunk show. it's kinda like White's or Nicks, only not as thick
leather shank! it's pointed out in the cross section
Ticho growing out his hair to be used as filler for the next iron boots drop
This is my favorite comment
Can guarantee you the actual craftsman aren't getting what we would consider a "fair cut" of the margins on those boots. People don't realize just how much money $700 to $1,000 USD is worth in China.
Care to elaborate or is this just speculation?
china's the world's biggest economy by some measures, i assure you there exist people there who earn comfortable wages
how do I know, that this was not done by a slave, which was enslaved as a child, and spent 25 years doing boots ?
How do I know there isn’t a snail hunting me down that if it touches me will kill me instantly?
Do you need the background of every worker involved to be posted on their site for the world to see?
@@Booksandboots Wasn't I supposed to be compensated a large sum of money for allowing the snail to hunt me?
@@shirayasha 😂😂 welllll it is a million dollars but…
@@Booksandboots how do I know there are people who don't understand humour?
@@vladyslav4 if your message was intended as humor I apologize for my hostility :) this subject is a bit of a hot bed so I couldn’t be sure if it was sarcasm or not. peace brother
a few years ago all these guys where into sneaker!!!! they all had 500 pairs and just look at them and never wore them, now its boots!most guy wear boot to work . now theats the next thing and pretty exspencive too. what next???
Who cares. Do you think guys who wear sneakers have to be professional athletes? Do jean wearers have to work in mines? Do you have to be a pilot to wear a bomber jacket or aviator glasses?
this is what i get for reviewing sneakers on this channel too. i just like timeless casual durable stuff!
I can’t believe people would pay that much for Chinese boots. I don’t care how great they are, the whole reason I would buy from Chinese sources is the discount. This is crazy. Honestly, watching you two pat each other on the back about how awesome these Chinese boots are, is a little sickening.
What a funny comment. They _are_ at a discount, boots like this would be hundreds of dollars more if made in the US. Just pretend this degree of skill is coming out of Mongolia so you'll feel less conflicted
Same thing I used to say to anti Howard Stern people way back when.....Is it possible you could just not watch and listen the video that clearly states CHINESE MADE boots? Or you just like to complain via keyboard is maybe the problem?
@@Stridewise I’ll just pretend you went back to Australia instead.
@@handwritten76maybe you could go back to school to learn how to write?
@@dahak972whoa no need to get personal
Great video guys. Thanks for promoting skilled makers and designers. The heritage boot world is growing, and it doesn't hurt to be able to access the creativity and passion of new boots makers around the world. Cheers!
Those horsebutt ones are incredible. Maybe the best boots I’ve ever seen
I try to be open minded about most things, and I don't judge, but I will likely never buy any garment or footwear made in China.
….says the guy holding his iPhone
@whereRbearsTeeth a large chunk of apples revenue comes back to the states and helps Americans especially the middle class, nonetheless, someone should buy something that is a work of art no matter who made it.
I reallly hope one day i will have pair of great escapes in guidi horsebut. Sp foot fierstone looks great as well though
I think flame panda are the best boots coming out of China.
Definitely a good choice, I think for individual makers Peng is the best but for builders on this scale iron boots holds the title
i was careful to not say they're china's BEST boots, but Ticho and I did another video on Chinese boots that features him here! ruclips.net/video/1_ZbPqQwJvg/видео.html
Don't sleep on WM Beijing!
@@df540148 also in the video!
Great video, Nick. Ticho goin with those oompa loompa vibes ❤
Some leather items, when crafted well, are like wearable, functional, art. It's great to see inside (around 09:33), and while sometimes expensive, true quality is often worth it. Thanks for sharing an educational look into these!
I already took the dive on a dark grey kudu reverse TCO and have a few more months to wait still. Will be my first high end boot like this. I picked it because grey is indeed hard to find and they look so high quality.
reverse kudu is such a gd cool leather
fade is looking fresh, nicky-poo
Chinese made at Crockett and Jones and Trickers prices, you can't be serious
I am serious - and don't call me 'Shirley'
So it's funny seeing an SF courier envelope indoor video. I see them every day in my studio in Shanghai.
Another outstanding video by Nick... These boots look great Nick but not cheap.... Quality looks on par with Grant Stones but a lot more expensive....
Hey buddy you need to get a Filson jean jacket... I bought the lined one and it is the best one I have ever owned...! I have had it about 4 months now....PS transitioning now from my Aldens to my new Legacy Thursday sneakers, love em .... 5 STAR video as usual!... Greg
Nice video about this awesome, uncompromising brand. I have a pair of the TCO in Teak Featherstone from SB-F and the construction quality is undeniably as good as humans can do.
These remind me of my vibergs in port vitello. These have a purple undertone like mine. They do darken up nicely and have a nice patina
If you want boots buy Iron Rangers, if you want a work of art buy Iron Boot.s
Haircut looking like Anton Chigurh from movie No Country for Old Men
I actually ended up with this exact pair. Phenomenal build. Flawless execution.
PRC spam
Country of origin should never be the defining factor for your expectation of quality. You can have assumptions and biases yes, but the products speak for themselves. You cannot expect boots made this high quality materials and with this level of exacting work to be cheap and inexpensive in it’s entirety.
No it would not make any sense and would be even more sketchy if boots and products of this quality were sold at prices lower than what they are currently sold at. It would infer high skill being paid abysmal wages in order to cut costs. These people deserve the income that comes from the price of these phenomenal products and any who say otherwise clearly do not understand the situation and are people who cannot be reasoned with.
If you don’t want to support Chinese made boots for political reasons then that is a different subject, but questioning the price and quality of these boots simply because they are Chinese is nearing if not clearly xenophobic
I have 5 pairs of iron boots. The quality is there just by looking at them and wearing them consistently. All go to pairs. I have aldens, flame pandas, onderhouds and vibergs. The IBs get the most wear. Frankly ive sold off much of my collection and replaced them with Iron boots.
same，i have Flame pandas 131/191/141，final i sold all，only left IBs，Chosen one，YYDS
How long would you expect the wear-in process for these boots to be?
They are almost immediate break in comfort. As someone w 5 pairs of their boots I can tell you the boot maker Kai does exacting work. He wanted boots that were walking boots in ethos but built durable and well. I’ve yet to have a single “break in process” that wasn’t just flexing the boot.
first
WINNER
So what's the sizing like
1.75 down from Brannock
i take .5 down from brannock, same width as my brannock. I think that's their standard fit. if you like it more snug you might need to take it down even mroe
yeah to be honest I would have been happier with 10.5 over my usual boot size of 11
I remember Iron Boots selling a knock off Iron Ranger, sometimes i would see them on ebay or randomly while boot shopping. I think thats the way it was for a lot of Chinese and Indonesian brands that are popular now but one day they get a call from Lars, or Ben, or Ticho, or any of the other the big nerds in the boot world who tell them to “utilize their labor” or “focus more on the high end” and then you got these brands that were making $100 good year welted Red Wing knock offs making $700+ work/casual boots and they're still knock offs just high end knock offs. Its not like RM making the official boot of Australia or Jim Green doing something so utterly original, i get that other countries make boots too but these asian brands are just replicating original heritage styles and making them their identity. It’s not a question of nationalism but what do these third world knock off brands have to offer in their own original style or heritage? What pattern or purpose built legacy boot sets them apart from the rest of the world? As it is, it just seems westerners are taking advantage of their willingness to offer exotic leathers on a laboriously crafted boot at a discount….but they're still just a knock off. Even Dr Sole has a knock off name selling knock off Cats Paws and everyone acts like they don't notice. I got into boots for the heritage, i was happy to support hundred year old makers all over the USA and across the pond and into europe who were and have been making great shoes and boots and to see the knock offs popping up and cashing in or people rationalizing it like “i cant keep up so i sold my soul oversees instead of opening a factory in my stupid town and employing my friends and neighbors” its all just a step in the wrong direction and regressing down the same road that made American and British and European made heritage goods so rare in the first place and its not why i got into this hobby. I hear podcasts complaining about Florsheim shoes selling out and making crap products overseas and those same guys are working hard with Chinese boot makers to elevate their products and penetrate the western high end boot market. So everyone meeds to make up their minds if they're truly heritage style people or if they're just chinese schills following the money. I’m tired of people thinking they can have it both ways.
I own a few of these boots and they are by far some of the best boots on the market.