Week 1 of 5 Weeks in R M Williams

You guys appear to like my 12 boots in 12 weeks series. So, here is another longitudinal study. So, keep watching. >> [music] [music] >> Good day. Welcome back to Boot Losophy. If you're new here, my name is Tech and this is my channel about heritage boots. I am filming on Wadjuk country here in Perth in Western Australia. So, Kaurna cool Wadjuk Noongar boodja. Now, let me introduce this series I'm about to do and I'm calling it five [snorts] weeks in R.M. Williams. That kind of gives you a clue. Uh quite a while ago, last year, I did a series called 12 boots in 12 weeks where I chose 12 boots and I wore them across 12 weeks at different times and then every week gave you a report. You can go and see the uh playlist that's on my channel. Uh just go into my channel and look up playlists and look up 12 boots in 12 weeks. Uh >> [snorts] >> this time, I thought I learned my lessons from that series where one of my conclusions was I chose boots that I love but were not part of my everyday usage. I really had to think about using those boots. So, for the next five weeks, I've decided I'm going to concentrate on three pairs of R.M. Williams boots. And I chose these especially because they fit into my lifestyle that I'm I believe I'm going to explore in the next five weeks. In my five-week schedule, I'm not expecting a lot of travel up north because this is a a bit of a quiet period for me in the city and I'm not going up to Darwin or Broome or Derby or Kununurra on any of my jobs. So, um I'm extensively choosing kind of city forward boots. So, I'll take you through them in a minute. But, what I'm going to do is I'm going to wear these three boots across the 5 weeks along the different activities that I do during those 5 weeks. And then I'm going to bring you a report every week. And this is week one. Let me tell you about the boots I've chosen. So, the first pair over here is the Goodwood boot that's now called the Gardener boot. Now, RM Williams did have a Gardener boot before, but it was a different type of boot, slightly more snug, and in fact used the same last as this other one I'm going to talk about. Uh the Goodwood was basically a brand new last. Uh it became the Gardener, and then they discontinued the old Gardener, continuing this boot, which I'll talk about. Um so, I guess they thought that might have been a bit too uh similar. So, they were trying to really reduce their stock lines. This is in a leather cordovan bark. It's in I I I think it's an oiled nubuck. Um it's it's got a nappy nubuck um uh surface to it. But, as you can see, the oils pull up as my trousers um drag over it and so on. Then, the second boot I chose is the uh RM Williams Comfort uh Craftsman. >> [snorts] >> This is not the classic Craftsman with a leather boot and the leather everything. This is the Comfort Craftsman. And I have reviewed each of these boots, by the way, and you can go and see the review of the Comfort Craftsman. Uh and then I'll talk about uh what the leathers are and so on as we get into the video. And then finally, the third one I chose was the Comfort Turnout. And you can see the difference in the lasts. Let me try and See, you can see how the Comfort Craftsman is a little bit longer than the Comfort Turnout, even though they're the same size because the comfort craftsman has a kind of more pointy toe even though it ends up in a chisel and you can see that the comfort turnout has a much rounder toe. So, you know, it's quite marked how um how much longer the craftsman is and as I've said all along in all my videos, the reason why pointy boots don't squeeze your toes is because they extend for longer. They don't just squish in and expect you to to get your little toes squished in. The Goodwood/Gardener Chelsea boot, all of them are R.M. Williams Chelsea boots is in a leather cord bark and it is an oil rougher. It's kind of like a crazy horse leather. Lovely leather, it's it's whole cut like all R.M. Williams boots with just one seam up the back. Goring panels cloth pull loops and it has a nice wide last and a round toe. It uses an all-in-one um rubber outsole with a rubber block heel nailed and glued on top in a V-bar pattern. I bought this in December of '23 and out of the three, it's probably the one I've worn most except maybe the the the comfort craftsman also so roughly the same. I bought this as a second and you can see that R.M. Williams punches a hole through the boot somewhere to signify it's a second so you can't resell it as a you know, you can't buy it new and then resell it as new. >> [snorts] >> I bought this out of the Adelaide DFO store. That's their second store in in a shopping center near the airport in Adelaide that does all seconds of different brands. I've worn this generally in a going into the bush situation like when I go out to country towns like Katherine in the Northern Territory not necessarily out to cattle stations and things which I tend to wear mongrels or or like Blundstones. So I wear these in places like Derby and Katherine outback towns which are dusty and red earth but not necessarily all muddy and and squishy. Uh this one is the comfort craftsman. It's the classic RM Williams boot of course chisel toe slightly long. Uh again it's a whole cut with one uh seam up the back. And again it's got a rubber outsole with a leather and a rubber block heel. What it is different for from a classic craftsman is that it has a spongy inner insole made of Poron and some foam on under the heel. And the whole idea of this is that it gives you comfort as opposed to having to break in a double leather sole you know mid sole outsole type of configuration in the classic craftsman. A very different purpose. So a lot of people will say oh this is not as good. Yeah the materials are not as good but it's for a totally different purpose. It's like comparing Thursdays to a PNW boot. Except in this case they sell them for $700 in the in these in this comfort format and $1000 for the classic format. So price wise not quite Thursdays versus PNW. Uh this is in the chestnut yearling leather. Now I bought this in September of 24. Again at the DFO again they're seconds. You can see that punched hole. Um and I have to say that compared to this boot also in the yearling the leather's not as good. It's clearly a different tannery. It's soft, it's supple, but it is somewhat grainier and uh somewhat more prone to creasing and uh wearing and tear, although I have worn this out in much more aggressive places than the turn out. And you can see, I think on this boot, my right, a lot of scratches on the toe uh as I go out to again places like Katherine, uh uh Derby, uh Kununurra, Wyndham, places like that, country towns. I I don't generally wear these out uh real bush like. The third boot that I'll be wearing, that I've chosen, is the comfort turn out. The turn out model has a round toe. This has the same last as what the old gardener used to be. Now, this is in a color that they call Warwick, which is a kind of uh I don't know how you describe it, a kind of a a dry blood red color. Uh it's not it's not chestnut, it's not um burgundy. It's quite bright in the sun in natural sunlight. This one I bought off eBay, new old stock. There are a lot of people on eBay, particularly in Australia, who I think go out and buy uh liquidated stock as a as a shoe retailer goes bust, they go out and buy all the stock and brand new. Uh haven't been worn. This one is still being produced, but not in this color. Uh I bought this in January of '24. I haven't worn this much. This is the least I've worn out of all three uh for $390. And if I didn't say, the comfort craftsman bought at the DFO uh second store was $490 when they were selling for $700. Uh the Bark Goodwood I bought out of that DFO second store for $399 Australian dollars when they were selling for about 600. So generally you go to the DFO there they are about $200 off the current retail price. These I bought for 490. Sorry, 390 out of eBay new old stock. A little bit of bargaining. >> [snorts] >> All of them are 270° Goodyear welted. Meaning that their Goodyear welt goes around 3/4 of the boot but not around the heel because that provides a much slimmer cut off point on all of the three. Um And oh, I'm wrong. The The Goodwood as befits a work boot style is actually a 360° Goodyear welt. The other two are 270° slightly dressier. The Goodwood is meant to be a work boot in the Australian work boot style so it's chunkier, it's wider, it's looser. The Craftsman was originally intended as a riding boot for cattle and sheep musters who would put these on and and get into the saddle. The Turnout I think was designed more as an urban boot. Um with its with its rounded toe slightly more comfortable going around the city. Okay. So I'll include the website and a link to the playlist down below. So let me tell you what I'm going to do and what I have done this week. I'm going to wear these in different situations across the next uh this week and the next four weeks. And I chose these because in the next five weeks I'm going to be spending most of my time in the city either working in my office so I'm a bit of a desk jockey. Uh or at work I'll be going out to see clients. I'll be going out into pounding the pavements. Uh at home, I'm not intending any major projects, although I've done a few. I mean, I I really finished my major projects work around the house. So, the most work I'll be doing work-wise, uh, manual labor, uh, is going to be doing things around the garden. And being mid-winter, the weeds are up, so my wife wants me out there. Uh, I've got to do a little bit of, um, uh, tidying up work around the the raised bed to get rid of some some of the, uh, fascia that we put up and then clean it up and so on. And maybe cutting down some trees and pruning some trees. So, that's where I intend to wear these over the weekends, uh, doing some work around the house, and being a casual boot when I go out in the evenings to the to a casual event at the pub or something. Both of these I intend to wear, uh, in the office or going to see clients in the city. Uh, [snorts] and if I do have to go up north somewhere, I'll choose between these three boots as to what is the most appropriate. Um, now, what I've done this week, um, is a bit of a cheats week. My weeks for this series [snorts] are going to start from Sunday through to the next Saturday, and today is a Saturday. Uh, it's slightly cheat because last Sunday when it started, I got home from my holidays to Singapore and Bali. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see a few photos in a and a video of a cultural dance in Bali. So, I came home at midnight. We flew in at midnight, and I arrived at 4:00 past midnight on the Monday. So, Sunday was cut out. I wasn't wearing any of these, although I was wearing a pair of Urban Turnouts, uh, in in, uh, in the newbuck. Uh, and if you go to my Instagram, you'll see a couple of pictures of those as well. Arrived on, uh, Monday at at 4 minutes past, uh, 12:00 a.m. So, most of Monday was actually spent sleeping and resting at home, doing laundry, that sort of stuff. Uh Tuesday, we were up and about. So, this was what I put on for most of Tuesday. Basically, it was uh doing chores around the house, you know, cleaning up after being 2 weeks away, uh making sure things were tidy, uh going to do a bit of shopping cuz the pantry was bare. Uh so, walking around in supermarkets and that sort of thing. And we did get a trip to the pub for lunch. Then came Wednesday and Thursday when I went back to work. And I did the correct thing. I wore both of these uh on alternate days. So, on uh Wednesday, I wore the Turnouts. Then on Thursday, I wore the uh Craftsman. And then on Friday, I wore the Turnouts again. So, let me tell you my experience of them. This I find, and I'll I might change. In my previous series, I changed my opinion on these boots as I wore them in different situations. These I find very comfortable for walking around, for doing some work, because it has that generous last. You know, your your toes have lots of space, but also your foot has a lot of space. Uh in my sizing of R.M. Williams, my true size is 7.5 UK Australia. That's 8.5 US. And I'm a D width in US, which is an average width. So, I should be taking R.M. Williams 7.5G, which because R.M. Williams is true to size. You don't have to uh size half down. But what I've found in the past is I had uh bought originally one of these in a 7 and 1/2. And at the store, the lady said, "That looks a bit snug. Go and get a 7 and 1/2 H, which is one one width up." And I found those quite uncomfortable for two reasons. One is the toe box was a bit short. Uh the second was that because it was wide all all around, it wasn't like a combination last which is narrow and then wide, I found it being quite sloppy and yet the toe box was quite short. So, the next shop I went to, they said, "Okay, go for an 8G." So, a half size up. And in both of these, I find the 8G fits really, really well. I don't need thick boot socks. Um, and I don't need an insert, although, um, I think in this one, I have put just a comfortable Ecco insert just for a bit of extra squish. Not for volume. >> [snorts] >> So, weirdly, going a half size up in R.M. Williams does help me. This one, I followed the same 8G method. But I reckon I can get away with a 7 and 1/2 because it is a generous last. This one, I think it's probably true to size because what I do have to do is either wear thick wool boot socks or if I'm wearing thinner wool socks or thinner cotton socks like dress socks, I do have to put an insert in for volume. So, that's interesting. Um, often with most of my brands, I buy one size. It's very rare that I in one brand have to go up or down. Uh, so, when I wore the, um, uh, turnouts to work, you know, it was a very casual, quiet affair because it was our first week back. It was a half a week. So, I was really relaxed at my desk. Really comfortable boot. And, um, one of the things I did find about it was that uh, the leather is much more supple than this one. So, they are, oh, I I bought them nearly a year apart. I'd suggest they're made over a year apart because they've been new old stock. And I'm pretty sure they've changed the leather supplier. This yearling is not anywhere as soft and luxurious as this yearling. So, in terms of wear, very little to report to you this week. It was a cheats week. I think next week as I wear them more, I will bring you more of the situations and how they felt and and and wore. And starting next week, I might pick one and despite the earlier reviews I've done, I might pick one and just go through it and take them in turns as I go and as I develop how I feel about wearing them. And also show you in in, you know, five short weeks whether any changes happen to the leather. Okay. So, that's the introduction to five weeks in RM Williams. That's an introduction if you don't know RM Williams to some of their boots. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a bit of a rambling introduction because I just wanted to get this on record. So, come back next week for week two. And until then, don't forget to subscribe, like, and comment. Take care out there. It's still a crazy world. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Petrol, fuel, gas is still expensive. So, let's hope in future when somebody sees this, they'll go, "What the hell is he talking about? It's totally affordable." Take care. See you soon. >> [music]