Shoes that look better with age...

[i_denim]

Just added these to my rotation today, pretty excited and hoping they develop into something interesting.

 

 

[SLAB]

On ‎3‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 1:02 PM, ecsong187 said:

I’ve been been talking with Kyle at Baker about making me a custom pair of SmokeJumpers in black tea core horsehide! 

wow, keep us updated; it's exactly what I want for a boot, although I'd opt for a bounty hunter

Does anyone here have sizing advise for Rolling Dub Trio (specifically Casper side zip boots) or Brother Bridge boots?

[edmond]

On 1/7/2019 at 8:25 PM, mlwdp said:

Did you try Nicks double sole or single sole for heavy?

Double midsole heavy as fuck man sold it 

[edmond]

23 hours ago, Broark said:

So I think I’m going to go with a 12 in the Devil’s Causeway engineers, I’m wearing my old Alden Indy’s today and a lot of people seemed to say go with the same size. Now that I’m wearing them for the first time in ages they feel a little snug. Kind of tempted to get the JL Combat boots too...

Austin your better than that! Get a pair of boss man i swear youll never look back

[mlwdp]

1 minute ago, edmond said:

Double midsole heavy as fuck man sold it 

I'm selling my White's double midsole and having a hard time selling them.  The standard was a pain to deal with.  Cool boot though.  I heard Nick's is harder to break in!

[edmond]

Auper man all my whites habe a double mid sole man and theyre lighter than the nicks!

[Broark]

15 minutes ago, edmond said:

Austin your better than that! Get a pair of boss man i swear youll never look back

I don’t know what it is Ed but Wesco doesn’t really do a lot for me. They look so uniform and totalitarian. Their leathers look kind of flat to me. All that being said I’ve never seen a pair in person either. 

[mlwdp]

25 minutes ago, Broark said:

I don’t know what it is Ed but Wesco doesn’t really do a lot for me. They look so uniform and totalitarian. Their leathers look kind of flat to me. All that being said I’ve never seen a pair in person either. 

I can't find a rave reviews about them in the field of fire like Nick's, White's and Drews.  If you ride motorcycles, Wesco is the way to go with White's Smokejumpers being another option from what I've see.  I can't see Lofgren being good for riding.

What I'd like to see is Nick's having a bigger stance in Japan so I could see what designs they come up with.

[mlwdp]

1 hour ago, edmond said:

Auper man all my whites habe a double mid sole man and theyre lighter than the nicks!

Nick's Renegade engineer, double midsole in what looks like it was cut down from 12 inch to 8 inches.

Edited January 8, 2019 by mlwdp

[edmond]

1 hour ago, Broark said:

I don’t know what it is Ed but Wesco doesn’t really do a lot for me. They look so uniform and totalitarian. Their leathers look kind of flat to me. All that being said I’ve never seen a pair in person either. 

Theyre like a pair o csf man really flat to start with but gets really nice with age i swear man and pls go and find one jn person and tale a look 

 

the leather is what sets wesco aprt they use heavy oz siedel dry tanned leather man is wear by the leather they use

[edmond]

3 minutes ago, mlwdp said:

Nick's Renegade engineer, double midsole in what looks like it was cut down from 12 inch to 8 inches.

Nee to see those renegades never seen one

[edmond]

Saw the renegade on the website just now im sticking to boss

[edmond]

Just go wth wesco man or attractions  if u want the flat toe box style the rest are crap

[mlwdp]

Yeah I'm also sending my measurements to Nick's so they can have it on file.  I would like a pair one day.

Edited January 9, 2019 by mlwdp

[BrownMetallic]

• Boots conditioned + laces diy-waxed w/ otterwax ... ready for winter wear

• Took delivery of 6pairs of DarnTough ... best socks ever, IMO 

 

Viberg 146 “Ironworker”

Trickers Malton in C-Shade Goarse

Viberg Nat. Bison on 1035 last X Stance socks

Edited January 10, 2019 by BrownMetallic

[Thanks_M8]

@BrownMetallic, looking good!left and right are vibergs?

[BrownMetallic]

^Yes, thanx .... deets added.

[Thanks_M8]

How do u generally size on white's Semi Dress last?
Found a pair for a tempting price, but am not sure about the sizing. For example I wear an US 8 in Red Wing Merchants and US 8 in Wesco John Henrys
Thanks guys

[tchengaa]

hi guys~ do u think military green pants match well with alden indy 405 (the original model) ?

[mlwdp]

LanglitzxWesco jobmaster

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by mlwdp

[dudewuttheheck]

My White Kloud boots back in the shop they were made with Show Goto and one of his personal pairs of boots

[mpukas]

On 1/11/2019 at 5:27 PM, mlwdp said:

LanglitzxWesco jobmaster

 

That heel is ABSURD! 

[Broark]

Well I went for it and put a preorder down on the Devil's Causeway boots, sorry to disappoint Ed. 
Now the waiting game begins.

[mlwdp]

Thoughts on the Robert boot by Nick's?

[Quoise1203]

I don’t have the Roberts, but a similar model on the same last (I think) with a soft toe that was sold through a retailer called Zurick a few years back. I have no complaints. They are four years old now, have seen daily wear for at least 3 of those years, and are still going strong with little to no maintenance.

I really lucked out on theses. They had them on sale and I got them shipped for <$300

Edited January 18, 2019 by Quoise1203

[mpukas]

13 hours ago, Quoise1203 said:

I don’t have the Roberts, but a similar model on the same last (I think) with a soft toe that was sold through a retailer called Zurick a few years back. I have no complaints. They are four years old now, have seen daily wear for at least 3 of those years, and are still going strong with little to no maintenance.

I really lucked out on theses. They had them on sale and I got them shipped for <$300

I remember that run. Nice score! 

[Rob060]

On 1/9/2019 at 7:10 PM, BrownMetallic said:

 

• Took delivery of 6pairs of DarnTough ... best socks ever, IMO 

 

Agreed. I've had some pairs for 3 years and they're still going strong.

[mlwdp]

So, the guy who makes Grizzly boots is still making them but at his own shop, made to order.  He also used to work for White's.

At the fringe of the yoga-soy block of hipness on West Main sits a small, dusty storefront where one man makes boots with his own thick, ink-stained hands.

Cruz Albisu, an immigrant from the Basque region of Spain, has been practicing a time-honored but fading craft for decades. His main products are work boots for logging and other outdoor labor, but don’t pigeonhole him.

“I do dress shoes, sandals – anything!” Albisu says in his enthusiastic and heavily accented voice.

His shop, at 209 W. Main Ave. next to the new University of Washington center, is cluttered and jumbled with half-finished boots, shoe forms called “lasts,” antique stitchers and finishing wheels. The place looks nearly abandoned – the “open” sign hangs crookedly on the front door, the dusty front windows are mostly empty, and there is nothing like a front counter or entry point when you enter.

But look closely at the finished footwear among the mess. It is beautifully crafted. Calf-high black logging boots with rows of golden hooks. Blood-brown leather work boots with Vibram soles and gleaming eyelets. Roughside black leather Oxfords. Caulks and packs and “Romeo slippers.”

In a glass case sit two special pairs.

“This is elephant,” says Albisu, in a worn red smock stained from years of work. “This is shark.”

Near the front door sit shelves of work boots and Oxfords, bound for Japan. Albisu says he makes hundreds of pairs at a time for a Japanese wholesaler who came into his shop by coincidence 20 years ago.

In this respect, Albisu and his one-man enterprise are representative of Spokane’s custom shoe industry – a small but unusually strong segment of the region’s economy that is centered on White’s Boots, according to an economic analysis prepared last year. While this “footwear cluster,” as the analysis termed it, relies on loggers, construction workers, firefighters, farmers and others who depend on quality, custom footwear, it has also developed a significant international market that is fashion-oriented.

White’s, for example, sells about 35 percent of its boots overseas, in countries such as France, Russia and Japan, according to the 2014 analysis performed by business professors at Eastern Washington University for the Spokane Footwear Association.

Spokane’s cluster of custom shoemakers – also including Nick’s Custom Boots and JK Tailors and Custom Boots – is unusual outside the East Coast, the analysis said. It traces directly to Otto White, who came west and settled in St. Maries in 1902 and moved to Spokane in 1915.

“Handmade shoes are becoming a rarity,” the report said. “This is a unique cluster existing in only a select few states. There is a long history of businesses within this cluster in the Spokane area.”

White’s is the largest, and a handful of bootmakers have left employment there to go into business on their own, including Albisu.

When he tells his life story, Albisu can be a little fuzzy on the details – ages, years, numbers. But when he recalls his time at White’s, one thing is very clear, at least in his own telling: “I was No. 1 producer. I made nine pair of boots a day.”

Albisu came to America as a young man in his early 20s, working on ranches in California and Oregon. He moved to Spokane in 1970 to work at White’s, plying a skill he had learned as a teenager growing up in the Gipuzkoa province of the Basque region of Spain.

“No machine. All hand – everything,” he said, referring to his teenage apprenticeship. “One pair a day.”

He left White’s and set up his own shop in the early 1980s. Along the way, he earned his American citizenship.

In his shop, he displays letters of praise from customers, including a surveyor in North Carolina who bought three pairs of his boots, and who wrote: “If you don’t believe it, call me … and I WILL TELL YOU WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE CRUZ MAKE YOUR BOOTS!”

This customer included his phone number, which is no longer in service.

Albisu also has a giant carved grizzly bear looming over one side of the storefront, a reference to one of the names his business goes by: Grizzly Boot Co., a Montana company for which he has a franchise.

He works alone, and it’s hard to determine the scope or size of his business. He says – and has been saying for several years – that he hopes to bring in an employee or two and really kick up his production. He works long days, sometimes 14 or 16 hours, and he says he gets tired more quickly now that he’s older. He doesn’t reveal his age, but he is in his 60s.

“I pay my bills, but I want to produce,” he said.

He starts each pair of shoes with careful measurements: tracing each foot, measuring where the ball, instep and ankle fall, choosing color, style and leather. He cuts and stitches and soles them, and buffs them on the finishing wheels. The finished products start at roughly $450. In addition to hundreds of shoe parts, Albisu has several pieces of older shoe-making machinery, from stitchers to jacks.

Inside his shop, the air is still and warm – it can feel stifling in the recent triple-digit heat, but Albisu doesn’t mind it.

“I like it hot,” he said. “It’s free now. It costs nothing. In wintertime, it’s not free.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jul/04/shawn-vestal-shoe-craftsman-embodies-spokane/

 

His Yelp:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/cruz-custom-boots-and-shoes-spokane

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by mlwdp

[edmond]

Hi i would love a pair froM him any way i can call or email cruz?

[mlwdp]

35 minutes ago, edmond said:

Hi i would love a pair froM him any way i can call or email cruz?

His phone number

(509) 455-8083

Can't find his email.

Edited January 21, 2019 by mlwdp