Review of Meermin’s Superbuck Wholecut Chelsea Boots

What is Superbuck? It's not a new Chelsea Stead suede. In fact, it's one of their classic staples. But, we'll talk about it in the video. >> [music] [music] >> How you going? Welcome back to my channel about heritage style stitched boots and more. My name is Tech, and this is Bootlosophy. I'm working on Wadjuk country in Gallop or Perth in the southern part of Western Australia. This is the Meermin Superbuck E wholecut Chelsea boot. The number of the model is 514085. Now, this is my very first Meermin boot, and it seems to me that Meermin seems to be very basic about model names. I'll put a link to their website below. Now, I unboxed this in July. It's and I've been wearing it for a couple of months now. About a month pretty much all day, every day, and then in rotation for that last month before I came to this. I like how it felt on me, so let's do the review. First, let's talk about the style and looks. It is a Chelsea boot. For those of you who don't know, this elastic-sided laceless style is called, today anyway, it's called a Chelsea boot. It [snorts] was invented by Queen Victoria's bootmaker, who met her demands for a boot that was easy to get on and off whether for walks or in in the saddle on a horse. For a while there, it was known mainly as an elastic-sided or gusseted boot. And then, so the story goes, in the 1960s, pop Britain was in full swing, and pop groups wore them as a style element as they hung around the fashionable pubs and shops in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, particularly at the World's End on the King's Road. Chelsea boots can be blocky work boots like Aussie Mongrels and Blundstones, or they can look really sleek and fashionable like R.M. Williams's. In this case, Miamine, being a Spanish brand, designed these more for the European market, I think, with a a chisel end to an almond-shaped toe. The last is quite sleek and formal, even though the material, the suede, leans more casual. Uh from the side, especially after some wear, there is a certain chunkiness, but its primary look is sleek and stylish. As usual, most Americans will hate it because it's a boot that has a pointed toe, and they think it will hurt them. But as all Europeans and most Australians know, the design of the last accommodates that by the overall length being longer and avoiding that turn-in right at the toes. >> [snorts] >> It's actually a great boot for casual clothing like jeans and casual tops when you go out to the shops or an afternoon at the pub, but it's also dress-uppable in relaxed smart casual and chinos and say a neat Harrington jacket. I have tried it with professional office casual, but despite the dark chocolate color, it is hard to carry off under well-pressed wool pants, for example, or maybe a a formal button-up and a pressed blazer. Uh there is a certain beatnik, cool man, pop band vibe to the design and the dark suede. Now, let's talk about the brand. While the boot was provided to me for review, this video is not sponsored, and certainly I wasn't made to say things they wanted me to say in this review. So, to support me, maybe you'll do a quick click on the like button to help my channel get seen. So, Miamine, as I said, this is a Spanish company based on the island of Mallorca in the Med, south of Barcelona. From what I understand, it is not owned by Carmina as was told to me by various people when I did the original unboxing video. From what I understand, there was a family based on Mallorca that had a history, decades-old history of cordwaining. Uh then in the 1990s, the family uh did a kind of split process where one part founded Carmina and the other part founded Meermin. While Carmina focused on high-end Goodyear welted footwear made in Spain, Meermin focused on well-designed footwear made offshore, in this case in China. But the construction methods eschew cheap cement construction and they use Goodyear welted construction, some hand-welted construction in their Linea Maestro lines, some Blake stitch, and some Norwegian construction braided stitching. Their website says that with the family history of developing high-end shoes, they felt that it was a bit off as not being fair to the customer. So, they developed a quality offshore production line and sold direct to the to the consumer. By doing so, they were able to slice off more than 50% of the selling price by removing middleman markups as well as other costs. Go see my discussion about Alden Indy pricing for an idea of how this might have worked. >> [snorts] >> Now, this sells for 280 US dollars. So, after you see this review, you can make up your own mind about if it's worth it. Now, let's get into the construction and I will start from the bottom up. This is a Goodyear welted boot. Uh incredibly for its sleek shape, it's actually a 360° Goodyear welt. This means that the welt goes all the way around the boot. Now, it is often said that in order for the boot to look sleek and avoid a a shelf at the heel, you need to use a 270° construction which stops there. But this one is done really well with the welt uh and stitching at the heel done really close to the heel cup and creating quite a sleek line. The Goodyear welt joins to the uppers on the inside stitched inside combining the uh the insole, the uppers, combining them to the welt. On the outside, it's visibly stitched to the outsole. And in this way, it's said to be uh water-resistant because the two stitches, one outside, one in, they never go all the way through from outside to inside. The welt forms the moisture barrier. Uh I don't see a midsole in this. The welt seems to rest directly on the rubber outsole. This may give a little discomfort because you don't have that extra layer, but it does give you really good flexibility. Almost no break-in required as the sole flexes on day one. The rubber outsole is Meermin's uh new diamond sole. It's meant to be an extra flexible and very shock-absorbing latex. And instead of cork between the outsole and the insole, it incorporates a shock-absorbing latex layer in what they call their flex Goodyear welt design. While it is definitely comfortable, I can't say I felt that it was a revolutionary sort of wow, I'm walking on air feeling. Uh as for the grip, the diamond sole has these kind of crisscross, I guess, diamond-shaped cuts in the in the sole, which does provide grip on most surfaces. But it is winter here, and one surface it didn't like was some mossy brick paving by the shady side of our house. On most wet surfaces, even on the brick paving that wasn't mossy, same brick paving, uh it was great. Inside the boot, the insole is veg-tanned leather. So, you should get to feel the leather mold to the shape of your feet the more you wear it. And I can say that in the last couple of months, I can actually now reach in and feel the kind of ups [snorts] and downs of the shape of my feet imprinted in the front of the insoles. It is fully lined with sheepskin, which makes it very comfortable. Uh one issue I do have with the lining though is that it's in two main parts. Uh there is the on the inside there is the back piece, and then the sort of lining around the shaft. Now, this makes for an inside seam about there across the instep, which I can feel if I'm wearing thin dress socks on on my instep. For a whole-cut boot, it's noticeable. The uppers are tanned by the famous English tannery based in Yorkshire and Leeds. Up Super Leeds United. Billy Bremner, Allan Clarke. Sorry. Bit of sports nostalgia there. Um C.F. Stead have been famous for making suede for over 100 years. And they have also nowadays uh they're also known nowadays for their shrunken suedes like Rambler and Waxy Commander and Kudu's and so on. Uh this is their Super Buck Suede. It's one of their classic tannages. It uses an older traditional tanning process similar to their Cape Butt Suede. Uh it's basically shrunken fibers to give it a tight structure and long-lasting durability. They use English hides and produce a smooth and supple suede with a kind of middle hand feel, soft yet firm if that's a thing that can be described. Uh the way it's tanned makes it tougher and allows use in a goodyear welt construction to avoid tearing in the stitching process. It is solid dyed. So, this chocolate for example is rich and deep, goes all the way through, really looks edible. Uh the whole boot is lasted or pulled over a last that defines the shape of the finished boot, using Meermin's new Orion last. Despite the sleekness, I find the forefoot wide enough to be almost generous. The heel is narrower and supportive. Yeah, it definitely has a pointed toe, just to put off the Americans. And it ends with a soft kind of chisel-shaped tip. I will reiterate it in the comfort and fit section, but hear this. I do not feel any pressure on the sides of my toes, which I won't really in any uh last that's well designed. Uh I referred to the boot being whole cut at the beginning. If you don't know what that means, it means the whole boot is made from one piece of leather with only one stitch up the back. If you go, "So what?" Go and try and wrap a piece of flat paper around a ball or a football and try and avoid any wrinkles. In terms of finish or QC, the Goodyear welt stitching uh is very fine and clean at the top, but it's not inset into a groove at the bottom. So, even after a couple of months only of wear, you can see that the stitch is starting to uh fluff up in different areas. Now, lots of bootmakers and cobblers say this isn't a problem uh because of the cross-stitching and modern glues and so on, but it doesn't look very nice and probably won't the more I wear it. Uh the stitching elsewhere, that back seam, the stitching for the goring, they're immaculate. The two unbranded pull loops on each boot are also cleanly and securely stitched, but I do have a complaint. The pull loops are too small and you have to push around a bit to fit your fingers in. Being cloth loops, they're not going to catch your pants, so I wish they were bigger. Overall, well made and and really looking nice. Some people are terrified of dressy shoes in suede because it can get pretty manky as the nap starts to, you know, grease up and flatten. But leather care for suede is pretty easy. Under normal conditions, you regularly brush them with a suede brush, say once a week if these are your main everyday boots. A suede brush is one of those really small stiff brushes with hard bristles, or sometimes they have a handle and they have copper bristles. You use them to brush off any dust, and then you brush them again to re-raise the nap, and make sure that they're all laying in that same natural direction. If they get stained, you can first use a rubber eraser that comes with suede care kits, and you spot rub the rubber over the spots, and then use the brush to brush off the rubber tails, and then brush to re-raise the nap as before. You can easily get suede care kits from say Timberland or Red Wing outlets. For more stubborn stains, you can use suede shampoos or liquid liquid cleaners produced by brands like Red Wing, Timberland, R.M. Williams, or Saphir or Tarrago. The trick is to spot clean with that shampoo. Let the cleaned area dry, and then again brush to re-raise the nap. Some things you can't totally clean, like say if you drip fats that you drip during a barbecue, or maybe a mechanic's grease or oils. You can try and protect them by spraying them three or four times a year with waterproofing or protectant sprays from Tarrago or Saphir, and I think Red Wing produces a spray as well. How you wear them will also dictate how dirty they get, obviously. Wear them mostly in the office, and then mostly you need to worry about is not getting them in the rain. Wear them to go adventuring, or to get under a car, or maybe to change oil in the sump, and you ain't going to keep them clean, so live with it. Now, let's discuss sizing and fit and comfort. While the name on the website is brown super buck E, that's not a US E or a wide fitting. It's the more general UK E or average width fitting. The Orion last helps a bit with a slightly wider than average ball of the foot width, but this is not a wide fit. The website has quite a clear size chart and the sizes seem to show as UK sizes. This means that it's one size number down from the US. So, for example, I am a US 8 and 1/2 in D width on the US Brannock device, and so my true size in UK numbers is 7.5. Usually, despite my Brannock measurement, I wear US brands in a size 8, but in most European brands and like this Meermin, I get my true to size in UK numbers. Hence, this boot is a UK 7.5 on an or a European 41.5. Do not size down. Believe it or not, people still ask me what my sneaker size is. I refuse to answer them because I wear three brands of sneakers and each brand is in a different size. Please, please go get yourself to any mall shoe shop and get yourself measured on the Brannock device. In this size, it's a great fit with dress socks, a bit snug in thick wool boot socks. The heel is held snugly to avoid slipping. The ball of the foot is held but not tight, and the toes, I repeat, they are designed so that they tuck inwards from the ball after your toes and they don't squeeze your toes. As a city boot, it's very comfortable, and the suede means that once your boots and your feet warm up, even at the end of the day when your feet swell, I did not find these tight at all. Uh the comfort is interesting. The sole flexes from the start, so very little break-in tick, but I found the layers under my feet a little bit thin. Now, while not uncomfortable, I was aware of what I was stepping on. Perhaps I'm getting used to the thick American PNW style soles and commando soles, I don't know. Uh but this is definitely a return to the feel of dress shoes from my early days of office wear. Don't get me wrong, the the leather insole is comfy, very comfy, and the flex sole is shock absorbing, but I could feel if I was walking on pavement or if it was grass or carpet. So, overall, how would I rate this Meermin wholecut Chelsea boot? Uh the finishing is pretty good, save for the stitching starting to fluff up as it wears under the sole. The leather is excellent, lovely feel. The comfort is good, but not something I would write home about. The fit is good. The design and the style are very good from an office worker or pub goer point of view. >> [snorts] >> It is stylish, especially in this dark chocolate suede. The price at US 280, well, you make up your own mind, but it's in the better price for value range in my opinion anyway. Tell me what you think. If you like this video, uh click on like, and if you haven't subbed yet, consider subscribing. I'm trying to get to 50K's by the end of the year, so help me out. Uh and please leave a comment and tell me what you think of these. I'm going to be back next week, of course. Take care out there, and see you back here soon. Bye.