A Week in Parkhurst Heritage Boots - After 5 Weeks in R M Williams Comfort Range Boots

I've just finished my 5 weeks in R.M. Williams challenge. And when I finished, I went straight into Parkers boots. How that worked for me. >> [music] >> Good day. Welcome back to the bootlosophy channel. If we haven't met, my name is Tack and I'm coming to you from Wotje country. So, if you're a subscriber, you know that I've just finished my 5 weeks in R.M. Williams self challenge. Where for 5 weeks, I only wore three pairs of R.M. Williams boots from their comfort range. That's the one that has uh the Poron uh insole laid on top of the footbed. Uh and it's without a mid sole, so it's flexible and it's immediately uh wearable without breaking in. It's very soft under foot because of the Poron. Now, don't get me wrong. Poron is not a normal foam. It's a microcellular foam, basically a memory foam, but a really superior one that's um uh copyrighted by the patented by the Rogers Corporation, which is why it's so expensive. In In fact, it's actually more expensive per square meter than leather. Anyway, um if you go and see that series of videos, you see me saying, "These are comfortable. Oh, wow, these are comfortable." It's a very comfortable boot. Comfortable. They were comfortable to start with. But, when I was in the middle of that challenge, I remember during the 5 weeks looking at my other boots and going, "Oh, I haven't worn that. I I might put that on." And then remembering that I'm supposed to be wearing R.M. Williams for 5 weeks. So, as soon as that finished last uh Sunday, finished on Saturday night and I filmed it on Sunday. As soon as that finished, I put on a pair of Parkers boots. >> [laughter] >> And boy, was it different. Um so, I decided to wear an entire week of Parkers boots. Today is Sunday. I've finished the week. And uh let's go through how I felt when I wore these boots. So, let me run you through what I wore for the whole week from Sunday to Saturday. When I finished my RM Williams challenge on Saturday, I put on this pair of boots. This is the Parkhurst Richmond. This is the new one or the new style which is brought out just a few months ago that had the real true toe cap. So, there's two layers of leather. In fact, there are three layers of leather across your toe. There is the vamp piece. There is a second piece, which is the toe cap, and inside there's a leather lining. That means that the toe is actually remarkably quite thick. And despite the fact that when I put this on on the Sunday, I put it on because I said, "This isn't fully broken in." I put this on because I said, "I really need to break these in because that that triple layer on the toe was actually digging into my into the tops of my toes as I walked because the the toe cap itself wasn't creasing. So, I knew that. So, I said, "This is the first boot I'll wear." Woah. After coming from 5 weeks of being encased in yearling leather and at worst a newbuck leather, which were maybe 2 mm thick on their own without the lining because yearling is a very high tensile leather. The fibers are close. So, per square meter, it has more tensile strength than say a normal normal cowhide. So, I was encased in comfort. I was standing on top of foam, Poron foam. And then I went into these heritage boots. I went into these very traditional all leather heritage boots with commando lug soles. And as As as I wore them, I put them on my feet, I went, "Oh, yikes! They're firm." This is despite being this soft, supple, waxy Commander leather. Oh, they're firm. And I think the firmness is from not having a spongy layer under my feet. I'm straight into leather. There's cork, sure. Um there's a leather mid-sole, and there's rubber, sure. But these lugs are hard. Everything was stiff and hard. And like all boots, after about 15-20 minutes, they started to relax. They warmed to my feet, and my feet warmed to them. But nevertheless, walking around all day Sunday on the hard leather base, on the hard lugs, oof. That was a big change. So, that's when I said to myself, "You know what? I'll wear Parkhursts all week, and let's see what I what I made of them." I saw on Monday, I um relaxed a bit, and I said, "You know what I'll do? I'll go back to the old Parker 602 last." Now, this one is uh the Allen boot, made in the original Batavia factory before it closed down, which I found to be quite inconsistent, and I'll talk about that when I when I show you the other boot from there. So, this is in the uh 602 last, which was the basis of what they were producing in Batavia uh in those early years. It has a Dainite sole, so it doesn't have those rickety uh Commander soles. And despite the fact that again, it's all leather on the on the foot, this felt a lot better than jumping straight into this after uh my R.M. Williams. Because the uh 602, as opposed to the 618, is a slightly more forgiving last, I think. Your foot splays out a little bit more. And um the the Dublin leather was also soft and supple, so I felt that I could actually uh re- reorganize my my feelings into wearing uh original heritage boots again. Not that the RMs aren't heritage, and I'll talk about that later. And also the fact that they have Dainite soles didn't mean I was rugging along. So, Mondays were spent in this getting my feet um reorganized. Tuesdays, I put on another Allen boot again from the Batavia factory, and you can see how um uh Parkhurst changes things around a bit. All eyelet versus some speed hooks. Same boot. Um and again, uh Dainite sole. Again, a a Dublin. This one is in color eight Dublin. This is uh uh What was this? This was in dark roast Dublin. Again, with the flatter non-commando soles, I was starting to get used to being in um good solid service boots again on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I changed it up a bit. I went backwards in time. This is the original Parkhurst last, the 18 last. You can see it's a little bit It's still a combination last, but it's quite a an almond-shaped toe. And this one, I thought, I've had 2 days on Dainite. I'm getting used to being back in fairly firm boots. I'll get into these with a Ridgeway sole, and they're lugged, but they're not as deeply lugged as commandos, and somehow to me, they they felt a bit better. This is in raisin reverse Mohawk. Beautiful leather. Um and with this 18 last, it's probably not my most favorite Parkhurst last, but it fits well. And with this 18 last, a combination, a bit wide at the at the ball of the foot, um and I was really getting back into the swing of these heavier sort of firmer boots, so Wednesdays was fine. Then on Thursday, I thought, "You know what? I think I've I've re-acclimatized." So, I put on on Wednesday another pair of commando lug soles. This one is in the newer 602M. And I can tell the difference. Oh, I was going to say I said earlier that when the Batavi factory wasn't very consistent. The fit of the color eight and the fit of the dark roast generally the same, but the dark roast is a little bit roomier. Don't ask me why. It's just that the lasting process I think wasn't particularly consistent in Batavia. Now, what Parkers did with the 602M is they took the 602 and provided a little bit more volume. Not much, I think it's like 1 mm. But that was enough for me to feel like this was a boot I didn't feel that I'd squashed my foot in early in the morning. You know how you put your feet into a cold boot and it's quite hard to sort of get the early comfort. But as your foot warms up, as the leather warms up, you then start to build that comfort and everything sort of resolves itself. But the 602M with its slightly more volume, I didn't get that feeling. I went into this and I thought, "Right, I'm actually quite comfortable around my foot." And the waxy commando again is such a supple leather. I'm quite happy with it. Coming from the day nights and then the day before on Wednesday in the Ridgeway, going back to the commando was a slight jump in discomfort. Because again on concrete these are firm. These are rigidy. These are as you walk. But at least I warmed my way into them. So, I didn't find this too bad. And in fact, I wore this for a for a several hours um on Thursday. I think I put them on early in the morning because I had an early Teams meeting at about 8:00 and I didn't take them off until about half past nine. And by then, my feet were quite comfortable in them. Although, when I walked on the pavement, um it was firm. Let's not tell lies. So, that took us to Thursday. On Friday, uh more relaxed. I was basically finishing off some work on Fridays, and I wasn't sort of particularly hectic. I thought, "You know what? I'll um put on this pair of Elmwoods." Now, Parkers and Chelsea boots have a have a difficult history. A lot of people wrote to Parkhurst in the I'm going to say 2020-21s, that sort of time, and said, "You need to bring in a Chelsea. You need to bring in a Chelsea." So, Parkers brought in the Elmwood, and it didn't sell. It's one of those difficult things where people are vocal, and then maybe they don't buy it in as much vocality as they they brought in. But, this is called the Elmwood. It's in the 618 last, which is similar to this stitch-down 618 last. Um And in fact, you can see, I think, the difference where this one is a little bit more rounded at the at the uh ball. This one's a little bit slimmer, but still with space, because what they did with the 618 is they raised a bit of the volume. Uh in fact, in in a Chelsea, that's such a lovely shape. I hope I don't know if you agree. Um a 360° Goodyear welted with a split reverse welt, and on a commando sole. A lot of the Elmwood sold by Parkers were with Dainite soles or flatter soles, and I wanted one with a with a commando just for an extra grip. And by then, my foot had acclimatized. I was back to firm heritage boots. Thank you very much. Um and I didn't do too much walking on Fridays. As I said, it was a relaxed day. I was just getting things organized for going away next week, uh tomorrow, in fact. So, uh uh this didn't see a lot of walking action outside. Very comfortable because the Spanish tanned What is it called? Tobacco veg tan. So, it's a veg tan leather in this tobacco color was very comfortable. And because of the Chelsea and I like Chelsea's even though you can't adjust them, the grip was nice but not firm. So, that was Friday. And then yesterday not being at work, I thought what the hell. I'll wear this very snug nose, very toe sprung work boot type or you know, very old First World War service boot type boot from Parkhurst called the Alleghany Alleghany. Um in the 645 last. Now, a word about sizing. I think with most Parkhurst boots, you take a half size down from Brannock. So, my Brannock size is US 8 and 1/2. Um these are all US 8 including this one. However, for some reason and Andrew did warn me about this, whether it's because of the toe spring or the actual 645 last um and although the difference is maybe four or five millimeters, not much. I think I should have taken this true to size in an 8 and 1/2. Not that this was too short. I'm certainly not butting my toes against the tip of it and I'm certainly not feeling squashed. But if you prefer your boots not overly snug, if you prefer your boots in the proverbial firm handshake rather than the squish, this is probably a bit too squeezy. Um not uncomfortable. I I wore this all day yesterday. Not uncomfortable but definitely I could have gone a size up. So, what was my experience of this? I didn't do a lot on Saturday. We went out and did a bit of bit of grocery shopping, and then we went out to lunch. Um and I walked the parks with my wife, and I did a little bit of reading, but the reading was really based on uh not not a lot of digging. I mean, I basically just bent over the beds and pulled things up. So, it was walking and on foot more than doing work. Comfortable. By that time, 7 days later, I'm back, baby. I'm happy with these. Um what was my experience across the whole week jumping from RM Williams to Parkhurst boots? The first thought that occurs to me is there are heritage boots, and there are heritage boots. RM Williams is definitely made in a heritage way. It's Goodyear welted. It uh uses a footbed. Texon these days. Uh it has no mid-sole, but it uses cork filling. It has a shank. It has a um leather I'm sorry, a rubber outsole. Uh it's got leather lifts in some models in the uh heel. It's lasted, you know, like a heritage boot. So, everything about it is heritage boot. However, RM Williams has I guess you can say progressed by changing some of the materials around to something that's a bit more uh uh capable in the type of use that they want them for. Um so, the first most important thing is that instead of a leather footbed, they use Texon. Now, that possibly is for price reasons. I can't really think of a reason. I mean, the pros and cons of Texon against leather leather it except for price. However, on top of the Texon, they put a Poron foam layer. Not, as I said earlier, not ordinary foam. Poron is expensive foam. It's actually more expensive than leather per square meter. And it has micro cells that spring back to life. And it takes some two or three years of reasonably constant wear before you they start to break down. And because they're stuck on the footbed, you can actually just rip it out and glue another piece on. So, what they've done, R.M. Williams, is they've gone "Our market now demands comfort. Our market is worn not by farmers or pastoralists. Our market is really people who go to offices, people who go to boardrooms, people who walk around the city all day. So, let's give them comfort." And for that price, if they jump from a $300 fashion shoe into a $700 heritage shoe, cement construction into proper Goodyear welt, we don't want them to spring back in surprise and horror at how stiff they are and the fact that you need to break them in. So, that's one set of heritage boots. And I think you can find plenty of other brands coming out that do that sort of thinking, right? Um a lot of the Chinese brands, for example, do have lines that include foam and so on. The Indian brands do that. Uh a lot of the newer North American brands from Mexico into the US into have that sort of thinking. Heritage made but with modern materials. The other aspect of heritage boots is people like Parkhurst, um people like Grant Stone, perhaps. Um but certainly in terms of heaviness, heavy-dutiness, durability, people like Parkhurst, PNW boots, they're made the old way. And as much of the material as possible is old material. Parkers is all leather, all core construction. So, you know, there's no squishiness in in the insole. Everything is firm. It expects you to wear them in. Expects you to break them in with a mid sole and a fairly thick Goodyear welt. So, that that springiness is meant to be really broken in. Um and your footbed is meant to be broken in by the pressure of your feet pushing into them. So, the two types of heritage boots I thought were interesting. The other thing that I took from this is the comfort experience. What you mean by comfort is really a wide spectrum. And and if you accept that that the two styles of boots, the comfortable heritage and the true blue heritage, if you accept that they're made in roughly the same way but with different materials, then that that expansion of what comfort means really spreads through it a lot. On the one hand, comfort means I can get into them. I don't really need to break them in and they're comfortable if I'm wearing them all day. On the other hand, you get a type of comfort that says, "Sure, I struggled to make these work. And sure, when I get them in get into them in the morning, they're a little bit stiff, but by the end of the day, by gum, they fit me, I fit them, we're moving as one." So, that's a wide range of comfort that that that affects us all. And in the R.M. Williams challenge, I had somebody say to me, "No, I there's no way I can get into sneakers after I wear boots because you know, sneakers are so squishy. They have no support." I get all that. But spend 5 weeks in sneakers and then get into one of these and you'll go, "Whoa, I couldn't remember the difference." Honestly. Uh the The thing I I um uh thought of was that you can get used to either. It's a lot easier getting into a pair of comfy R.M. Williams comfort line with the squishy poron, lot easier. But you then get used to them and you that gets used to be your your standard by which you measure things. However, after a week in these quite firm thick leather 3 and 1/2 mm leather unlined um you start to understand that you can get used to those different types of comfort. If that's a type of boot that you wear all the time. And I totally understand why if you wore these all the time, you get into a pair of sneakers and whoa I'm unstable because they're so squishy. You know, I I can't walk straight. I totally understand that. You can get used to the two types of heritage boot comforts. So that was interesting. In summary then I think this is a good reminder. I did a video a while ago about you don't need any know the best boot, you need the boot that suits you. And I think this is a good reminder that there is no real best boot. The best boot for you is what's good for what you do in it. Um it's good for what you need and you know, if you have painful feet, go for the comfort one, man. Um it it's what your feet like that makes it the best boot for you. For me as a boot reviewer, I'm I'm I'm happy to try them all. >> [laughter] >> I'm happy to abuse my feet in very hard boots. But I must say, you know, having worn these, perhaps at the beginning of the week I might not have jumped into a pair of Nicks, but having worn these, I'm now looking forward to putting on a pair of Nicks with that beautiful, you know, layers of leather under my arch because I remember now how comfortable that can be. Maybe not in the first 15 minutes, but for the rest of the day. Hey, one last thing, subscribe, like, comment. Help me out, push the channel through, push the videos to others, subscribe, and when you do, click on that notification bell. Take care. I'll see you next week. >> [music]