Bearfoot Bruin Vs Jim Green African Ranger/The Most Durable Barefoot Boots Go Toe to Toe

there's just something about a No Frills classic leather work boot it's a Charming classic piece of equipment that seems to scream blue color hard work unfortunately this is a style that has been largely ignored by the Barefoot shoe industry at least until recently Barefoot and Jim green seem to be the first two companies to notice this hole in the industry and have filled it with two fantastic offerings the bruan by Barefoot and the Jim green barefoot African Ranger these two boots have pleasantly surprised us with the quality of materials and the classic work boot features that provide longevity ruggedness and comfort in this video we'll discuss what they have in common how they're different and hopefully help you decide which is for you as we set these boots to go Toe to Toe hey folks I'm glad you're here my name is Chris and this is the sons of sver YouTube channel where there's no such thing as bad weather only bad gear obviously today we are talking about two very unique boots in the Barefoot shoe industry and that is the Barefoot breu and the jimm green barefoot African Ranger the reason why these are unique is while you will find other Barefoot boots like the LMS Boulder Summit and Boulder grip and other Boulder boots from LMS that we love a couple others in the industry as well there are leather boots out there but these are like very classic hard rugged style leather work boots there are some features that they have that kind of set them apart from the the rest of the industry that we're going to talk about but honestly there is not a third brand that makes a Barefoot boot like this that we've come across so far at least if there is one that you know of let us know down in the comment section that's actually how we came across the Jim Green in the first place after we did the review of the Bruin I think that was close to after the rose Anvil video came out of the announcement of the barefoot African Ranger and people flooded our comment section with requests to see this specific shoe featured on the channel we were also asked to put these two boots head-to-head against each other so obviously give the people what they want again we're going to go through a handful of the features to compare these guys to each other and at the end of the video we'll give our opinions on which one we like better and why to start us off with our first category I'm going to send things over to Eric so when it comes to the way that the boots were built and their durability they were built slightly differently but I think the thing that we need to take away from this is that both of them are unique in the Barefoot shoe industry and that these are boots that have been built with repairability in mind you can take them to a cobbler and those Souls can be replaced when you need to do that and both of these were built with durability in mind above weight and above flexibility and that makes them unique and makes them really cool I do think that the gym green does Edge out the Barefoot just a little bit here in the durability and construction Arena and that's because the gym green has an actual toe cap so this is double the material on the toe cap here and when Rose Anvil cut into the breu he found that this wasn't a real toe cap so it's just the single piece of material not quite as durable as with the gym green and then some other things too when it comes to like the lacing system this is a completely separate piece of Leather So if one of these eyelets were ever to break then you could go and you could replace it with another piece of leather and you'd be good to go now this is highly improbable because you have two pieces of leather that would have to break for one of these eyelids but if it was broken then that would be a much harder fix making these I think just a little bit less durable than the gym greens obviously they're both made to last and again they can both be repaired and that's one thing that is so great about both of them the first thing that I'm going to be talking about is weight these boys are both going to come in a bit heftier than some of your other Barefoot boots weight definitely wasn't something that these companies kept in mind when it came to minimalist characteristics I think you can't really shave that much off when it comes to working with these more rugged materials but the gy green African Ranger comes in at 1 lb 8.6 Oz while the Barefoot bruan comes in at 1 lb 8.2 oz in my opinion you're splitting hairs when it comes to the weight between the two of them let's compare them to some other boots this is the Saro Brave 3 it has not been featured on the Channel with its own review yet but that is coming and it comes in at just over a pound this is the afor mentioned LMS Boulder Summit and it comes in at 14.8 oz so our two example boots are coming in quite a bit lighter but again when you're working with very high quality leathers and some really dense rugged rubber outsoles you're going to expect that weight to come along for the ride while I do notice that weight when I am working or hiking in these I would say that it's not too much or anything like that I don't feel like they're slowing me down or causing me extra leg fatigue or anything like that but they are noticeably heavier on your feet for sure so the next category that we're going to talk about is the comfort of the Two Boots and I am going to have to give it to the gy green I do think that this is overall the more comfortable boot this one came out of the box very comfortable and I talked about that in our video that reviews this boot and the padded cuff here is very nice the veg tan insole that you have really molds to your foot so out of the box it was really nice to wear and then it just gets better and better over time so when it came to the Barefoot Brewing this thing came out of the box much more uncomfortable it was a lot stiffer the leather definitely needed some time to soften up and break in it's not as flexible either this is requiring a lot more effort to get it to do that than with the gym green and then another thing that I noticed with it that was uncomfortable was all this extra material at the tongue would kind of bunch up on top of your foot and you could really feel it again that leather has softened up and it has gotten better over time but right out of the box this one took some getting used to and there are still some things about it that aren't super comfortable whereas the gym green has just been getting better and better the back part of the shoe that you can see there that would be right on your heel that piece of leather is actually pretty rough and if I'm wearing these too long or using them a little bit more athletically like on a hike or something then that rough leather rubs on my heel and almost gives me a blister so we do find the gy greens to be more comfortable overall the next aspect of these boots that I'm going to talk about is the traction patterns well I think the traction patterns on both of these shoes do pretty well I'm going to give the advantage here to the barefoot African Ranger and the reason why is because specifically on icy surfaces whether it was ice on the trail in the mountains or Frost over on the driveways that I walk up and down at work all day as a delivery driver somehow these boots almost feel sticky to those surfaces obviously if you push yourself hard enough you're going to slide on Ice no matter what you're wearing unless you're wearing like spikes or something like that but these really did seem to almost stick to those surfaces a bit more I will say to the benefit of the almost gimmicky bear claw traction pattern on the bottom of the Bruin they work just as well as the African Rangers on gravel and dry concrete and all of the other surfaces the only Advantage I'm giving to the Jim Green Iron Al considering it's the African Ranger boot is on Ice definitely not something that it was purpose-built for but I think the traction patterns on both of these shoes perform well again just giving a little advantage to the jym green with its performance when it came to Slippery surfaces before I pass things back over to Eric for the next category I want to talk about an affiliate and that is creepers toe socks we love creepers you can't see them all the time in our videos because they're covered by our pants and our shoes obviously but we wear them almost constantly every shot of me in the mountains with the African Rangers specifically I am wearing creeper Stow socks we found that they perform well in all conditions and they were our favorite sock when it came to a seven sock comparison that we did you can click this card to head over to that video if you're interested in checking out creepers head down to the link in the description there's also a discount code down there that you can use if you decide to buy some and you want to save some money the next thing I want to talk about is our patreon page we just started our patreon page we have some free content that is up for you guys to go and view but we would love it if you would subscribe to our exclusive content that we are also posting on there is only a dollar a month the exclusive content that we're posting is similar to some of the free samples that we've put on there it's really behind the scenes what shoes am I wearing today at work showing you some of the behind the scenes of the unboxing videos that I make for in stagram also showing you the process of taking some of the b-roll shots that way you'll be able to see a lot of these shoes in work and in progress before the final review comes out if you're interested in checking out that patreon page head down to the link in the description and again it is only $1 a month to get access to that exclusive content we would very much appreciate it now I'm pass things back over to Eric so that he can talk to you about the next category of comparison all right so the next thing that we're going to talk about is stack height on the Two Boots and this is actually going to be a pretty interesting conversation the Barefoot Bruin comes in at 15 mm and the Jim green African Ranger comes in at 13.5 but Chris swears that the Bruin has more ground feel than the Jim green does and I'm not so sure that I completely agree with that but I think there might be something to it just based off of looking at the two so if you look at the two outsoles side by side the Bruins is thinner than the gim greens now when you look at the midsole the Bruins is thicker than the JY greens so it all kind of equals out but I think that the reason why he might be getting a little bit more ground feel is just because that rubber outs soole on the Bruin is thinner than the gy greens now for me I feel like the gy green has a little bit more ground feel and that's just based off of an experience that I had the very first time that I put on a minimalist shoe so my first Barefoot shoe was a zero prio I was out walking around in it I went across the street and as you're crossing the street there's those yellow metal plates that have the little bumps in them and for the first time in my life I walked over those and felt those and I totally remember that happening and being like Oh my goodness like I can feel everything underneath my feet so that's always kind of my Benchmark for ground feel and in comparing the two of these I can feel the those bumps when I'm wearing the gym green and I can't feel them when I'm wearing the Barefoot now that might have something to do with the flexibility I think that the Barefoot has a much more dense rubber even though it's thinner it's quite a bit more dense feeling when you compare the two and the gym greens while it might be a thicker rubber isn't quite as dense so it flexes just a little bit better and that might be while I'm feeling what I am but both of these do have good ground feeling for a boot obviously around 13 and 1 12 to 15 mm of Stack height you're not going to feel everything underneath your feet but with both of these we feel like they have enough ground feel especially for a boot the next category of comparison I'm going to talk about when it comes to these boots is the width of the toe boxes I'm going to roll in some b-roll here so you can get some closeup shots of those toe boxes right next to each other you should be able to tell at least I can that the Barefoot Bruin is a little bit wider Eric and I are pretty sure that the Bruins toe box is the widest toe box that we've worked with so far we get a lot of comments from people saying that this shoe wasn't wide enough or that shoe wasn't wide enough we found that both of these boots had ample space for our toes toplay out especially if we are wearing toe socks Barefoot actually makes their own toe socks that will be featured in our next toe sock Roundup video so keep an eye out for that but yeah I would say the gy green has more volume overall and it's wider from heel up to the toe box but the bruan while a little bit more tapered back towards the heel definitely has a wider toe box and honestly personally that's why I find that I like the fit of the Brewin better it just seems to Contour to my foot very nicely and then I get that nice big wide splaying toe box at the end all right the next one should be pretty short to talk about I'm going to talk about the sizing and the Bruins seem to run just a little bit small so normally I get a US men's size 9 and that's what I got with them and it's not hard for me to shove my toes all the way to the front of those boots I definitely think you could go a half size up that's what I have for my Barefoot Ursa I went with a 9 and 1/2 and those fit perfectly so when it comes to the ruins definitely consider a half size up the gym greens seem to fit more true to size the last category of comparison that I'm going to talk to you about is actually going to be pretty short and then I'm going to give you my final thoughts on which one I like better but the Barefoot bruan comes in at 250 bucks kind of steep I think it's actually the most expensive Barefoot shoe that we've ever reviewed while the Jim green barefoot African Ranger comes in at 100 $189 so there's a bit of a marked difference there but when it comes to which one I like better which one feels better on my feet which one am I probably going to reach for more often than the other it's going to be the Barefoot brewing for me one of the reasons I will give you is that I actually really like high ankles when it comes to boots especially definitely boots and when it comes to shoes in general I know it's kind of goofy in the summer if you're wearing shorts and then you wear like a high top shoe of some kind some people can pull it off I think I've got the calves for it personally but I do also like low ankle shoes one of my very favorite barefoot shoes is the LMS Primal Zen and that is a low ankle shoe but I really like high ankles especially for boots if I'm taking this out into snow or if I'm kicking up gravel and stuff the high ankle is going to keep that stuff out of my shoe and I also just just think it looks cooler it also has just as much if not more versatility but I can wear these to church just like I can the jym greens I think they both actually look very good in formal settings my wife had me wear these for our family pictures so that tells you her opinion on the Bruin I have loved wearing these things at work they make my feet feel so protected one last thing I'll mention is just a little bit of thoughtfulness from barefoot in something that I originally thought was a total failure of the boot but ended up being one of my favorite features and now I'm considering deliberately damaging the boot in order to get this but a lot of you who have stuck with the channel for a while know my aversion to lace hooks which both of these boots have one of the lace hooks on the Bruin actually snapped off but underneath each lace Hook is an eyelet that is fully functional so I'm actually tempted to snap off this one as well just to make them even so I can lace up to here and then I can have the hooks up there I can ignore the hooks if I want to or use them whatever I am feeling at the moment but I think that is very cleverly done that's not a feature you get with the gym greens although I don't think that these lace hooks are going to snap off they seem to be made a little bit more sturdy I still love this SHO I 100% rocket at work I could totally wear this casually I think it kind of depends on the weather I understand why a lot of the features were built in like a low ankle you're going to be wearing shorts in Africa and if you're check trekking through Africa personally I would still want a little higher ankle to keep stuff on the ground in Africa out of my shoe but I think that the puff here the padding hugs your ankle pretty well to keep stuff out out for the most part still love this boot I just love the Brewin more so that's it for me I'm going to send things over to Eric and then he's going to give you our outro for the video so when it comes to picking a winner of these two boots I am going to give it to the Jim green African Ranger and that came down to the fact that it costs less I think that it looks better I think that it's more comfortable at least in my experience it has been and I think that it functions overall better than the Brewin does now it's not blowing the Brewin out of the water by any means these two boots are very similar and they both provide a ton of value the fact that they can be resold the fact that they've been built with durability in mind but they still have those Barefoot qualities is just awesome but I think that the JY green does Edge out the breu in my opinion I know Chris's opinion is different and that's great that doesn't always happen but I think that it's good for your decision-making process to see two different trains of thoughts two different different situations and needs and hopefully that's helped you to sort through all the information and decide which one would be best for you all right folks thanks for the view we really appreciate it we hope that this information was helpful to you especially if you've been looking at these two boots and trying to decide which one hopefully we've helped you reach that decision today we do have a bunch more of these planned out but we would love to hear down in the comment section which shoes you want to see go toe-to-toe with each other so leave us a comment let us know which you would want to see compared and there are a bunch of different places that you can continue to follow along with us online we now have a patreon account that we're pretty excited about that's new to us in 2024 it costs just $1 a month and you'll be able to get exclusive content from us you'll be able to see behind the scenes and more up-to-date posts about the gear that we're working with we also have an Instagram account so go and follow us there to see other posts and we have a straa account that we're really active on strava's really cool it's this app that's like the social media for being outdoorsy and athletic and exercising so if you follow us there you can see the activities that we're up to we always detail the gear that we're using on those activities and we'd love to see the things that you're up to and the gear that you are using so follow us on straa we'll continue to build up that Community there and as always we will see you in the [Music] mountains

Channel: Sons of Sever

Views: 12,820

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Id: BLf6igUN44U

Length: 20min 28sec (1228 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024