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this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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What's the best boots for men? Looking for a pair I can keep forever and have repaired as needed.
My redwing iron rangers have been working for 10 years with no problems.
Bought them like 12 years ago, no regrets
I've been thinking about buying some for ten years, guess I should have already
Not sure the Red wings are the same quality anymore.
Solovair are high quality. Blundstone is excellent as well.
I got my iron rangers a couple years ago and they're fantastic. I think red wing was juuuust starting to fuck around with quality at that time, but I think it was on other models.
The break in period on the red wings is legit though. I could only handle them for a couple hours at a time in the beginning. I would bring another pair of shoes with me to work to change into when the boots got too painful.
After a couple weeks though, so so nice.
+1 for White's, my first pair lasted me 16 years of daily wear and could probably still be rebuilt.
Too bad that's a 13.5 hour flight.
Look up a YouTuber called Roseanvil. His gimmick is he cuts boots in half so see what they are made of. Short list of good, better, best... Thorogood, redwing, nicks. I work everyday in a pair of Thorogood not too expensive so I don't have to worry about damaging them and they are really comfortable. Redwing better quality and slightly more trendy/iconic, cool to wear around the city. Nicks are a higher end work boot, if your life depends on your boots get a pair of nicks, think wildland firefighter/logger. Honorable mentions Thursday, a fashionable boot that can be repaired easily. Jim green best bang for your buck, got my super picky father a pair, he loves them and gets compliments from his fellow boomer truck drivers.
Thanks for the recs!
Look for Goodyear welted boots, if the soles wear out, you can take it to a cobbler to resole them.
Is sole wearing a thing that only relatively expensive shoes get? I've never spent more than $130 on shoes, and I've never had a sole wear out before the upper started tearing away from the bottom
It really depends on the shoe and what kind of working conditions, stress, and exposure to various elements they are getting. Sometimes it can be due to the way you walk too. You can get most shoes resoled and oftentimes they will fit better than they did originally. A good cobbler can repair separation issues too, where the bottom/sole is detaching. It never hurts to take them in and ask. They can do general maintenance too and clean them up.
I wouldn't say "really expensive", as it is all relative, but to me a good pair of boots is going to run in the ~$150-220 range. You can get some a little cheaper, but I am used to getting boots for construction.
Thorogood are expensive but are phenomenal. I'd argue better than Red Wing
Thursdays, Redwing, Nicks, Whites