How to Break-in Boots

hello and welcome back you know wearing a properly broken in pair of boots has to be one of the most satisfying feelings that there is and getting there is no easy task but it's just like losing weight or getting in shape the best path is just consistency and patience now Before we jump into different methods on how you can break in your boots it's important to know the mechanics of this whole thing so when you get a boot right these are meant to fit the bell curve of people okay so you buy a nine and a half pair of boots they're supposed to fit most people with that size foot they don't take it to consideration all of the unique issues that people have with their feet with high arches and wide feet if they did they'd have a massive inventory so let's look at the mechanics of this thing all right when you buy your boots they come completely flat no creases no bending they're they're stiff leather and they need to be broken and now this is gonna vary from company to company with thicknesses and stiffnesses but let's just say you know the general boot that you would buy what you're really gonna need to do is break in to areas where your foot pivots and that's right here by the toe and up here by your heel and that's the way your foot naturally bends so the first step that you take in those boots is gonna be the stiffest one of all from then on they're gonna loosen up and what's gonna happen is the top of your your boot here is gonna crease in different ways now depending on the leather you're gonna see it'll be a little bit more noticeable we're really talking about here is Comfort so you're gonna get creasing there because that's where your toe bends and then when you step forward and then step back you're gonna have creasing that goes along here so you can see very clearly the way that these boots here have creased so those are the two areas that we're really gonna want to keep an eye on as we break in our boots but let's start from the beginning if you're watching this video I assume that you probably bought a pair of boots you're having a hard time breaking them in and you're looking for some tips well we're gonna get to that but really the best part and the most essential part of breaking in boots and getting them feeling very very comfortable is in the fit process they have to fit to begin with because you're never going to be able to break out or break in an ill-fitting pair of boots if your toes are jammed up against the front you're gonna be uncomfortable forever or if they're just not wide enough and you have a wide foot and you got you know like an e width but you need a triple e you're never be able to stretch out that footbed so really it comes down to the fit in the beginning when you get these boots I know that we like to shop online these days but it does pay to go to the store and try them on unfortunately some places you just can't do that all right so you want to buy some Thursday boots for example you could go to the New York City store and try them on but what if you don't live close to a store that sells the boots that you want well in that case the best you can do is get measured go to a store they have those brand ik devices the ones that you know we also has kids I mean they still use those it's still kind of like the gold standard where you put your foot in they slide the sides and then they give you your measurement make sure you know your proper size and whether you need a wide boot or not also be mindful that your left foot is probably a little bit different than your right foot so always go with the bigger of the two but ask the guy to measure both feet you know just go there get measured a lot of places have no problem doing it knowing your size is essential if you're gonna order boots online from any of these great manufacturers that I've covered on this channel if possible go custom I know they're more expensive but the last that they use to build most boots they vary it changes so when nine and a half and one will not be in nine and a half in the other or they're gonna fit differently so you never really know what you're gonna get until you try these things on unless you go custom and really there is no better fit than a custom fit boot congratulations you bought your boots you have them in the right size you're looking at them in your house just imagining all the cool stuff you're gonna do when you're in these things this is the way that I begin to break them in now if you have any additional stuff that you want to add let me know in the comments I'm hoping that down there you can get a lot of knowledge from a lot of people after all not one of us is smarter than all of us with the breadth of knowledge you can get some really good stuff so this is what I do I put on the thickest socks that I can wear comfortably inside of my boots so if you have some thick wool socks and could still fit your foot in there without you know losing circulation go ahead and do that because the idea in the beginning is to stretch the leather the best way to do that is sort of exaggerate the size of your foot by using a sock that's a little bit thicker now if you put them on in they're a little bit tight sometimes you might be able to remove the insole just to give yourself a little bit more room inside so that's another option now what you're gonna want to do is wear them around your house for a few hours I know it seems like a long but imagine when you're actually out for the day you don't want to be caught by surprise you know when your heel is slipping you get a blister wear them around your house just do some household stuff don't get them dirty but walk around feel how they they mold with your feet you know if there's a nice interesting pinching points or hot spots or rubbing or anything like that be mindful if there's heel lift if your toes get jammed against the front those are all signs that maybe you got the wrong size at that point stop take them off put them back in the box and return them for the correct size at the end of a few hours you'll have a very good idea whether these boots are gonna work or not for you and at that point you could begin wearing them outside when you decide that you're ready to venture out with your new boots bring your old pair with you just throw them in the back of the car with an extra set of socks you may be very glad that you did for example this is what happened to me all right I bought my first pair of real boots that I bought brand-new and I was really excited about where the discontinued allen edmonds Odin Wald's and I had a real issue with those because I have high arches which means that the top of my foot is always pushing against the top of my boot and that gets really really uncomfortable so I wore them to work and after a little while I almost couldn't feel that foot now wearing them around the house I said oh that you know it'll be no problem but eight hours in you know they got really really uncomfortable luckily I brought my other pair of boots so I could swap out to those and I could continue working otherwise I mean if you ever tried to work with boots that are just excruciating ly tight or pinching I mean it's terrible so bring another pair of boots with you at least you have the option to change them out and as a matter of fact when you buy a pair of NICs you know they're very very thick leather and they're hard to break in because they're so robust they really suggest that you bring a pair of boots with you you only wear your NICs for maybe up to lunchtime if you can and then you swap over and let you do that for like a week that you switch back and forth and back and forth because little by little you're gonna be wearing them in and they're gonna get there it's just gonna take some time so make it as easy as possible on you don't just go out go for broke and say alright well that's it I'm wearing them no matter what bring another pair with you you may be happy that you did now unfortunately that's kind of a fairy tale the idea of buying some boots wearing them around your house and then going living happily ever after it just doesn't seem to happen most of the time you're gonna have an issue something's gonna be tight something's gonna be rubbing you know you're gonna have some sort of discomfort so here are different ways to alleviate some of the different problems that you might run into one that I've dealt with on basically every pair of boots that I've bought is my high arches which again means that the top of my arch is basically pushing against the top of the boot what I do to alleviate the pressure there is just skip the eyelets so it may look a little funny but you know run the laces and then go over the point which is really pushing into the boot because you don't want those laces pressing down you're only supposed to be braking in the leather not the laces as a matter of fact new laces feel great so just skip those eyelets and work around it let it kind of relieve the pressure it makes all the difference in the world and this can also help you if you have you know tightness down by the toe box you can move that anywhere you need to so that's something you can do to really alleviate that discomfort you may feel a little bit of pressure right behind your big toe on the outside or right behind your pinky toe most of the time this means that you bought a boot that's a little bit too narrow now this isn't gonna be a huge issue as long as your foot isn't overhanging the actual foot bed because the last thing you want is a welt underneath the ball of your foot it's not gonna feel good at all so if it's just minor what you can do is either use a product that I've had a little bit of success with it's a actual leather softener made by a company named tenderly I'll put a link in the description below if you want to go get it it does help and it's basically a conditioner the conditioner will help soften that leather in that area so you can apply that to wherever the stress is and over time it will help it just relax a little bit now it's not night and day you're not gonna be able to put this stuff on and also it's gonna be this floppy piece of leather but it will help moisturize it and actually moisture is what helps these things really really fit I think that's where the idea of soaking your boots and water and then wearing them all day came from but I just don't recommend that most people are gonna want to do that and there's a lot more friction between wet feet and what leather then there is dry feet and dry leather so they're gonna be extremely uncomfortable I do not recommend that so this tenderly leather softener has worked in the past in a pinch and actually what Nick's boots recommends for the air boots is putting a mixture of Hall and water in a spray bottle spraying it on any tight areas and letting the leather relax this can work too especially if it's in a controlled spot like that the only thing you're gonna want to be careful of in that case is alcohol can remove some dyes and stains so if you have a beautiful pair of boots that has some nice antiquing done on them or a custom paint job you know distressing it might remove that so alcohol is probably to be avoided you may have a little bit of heel slippage that is your heel moving up and down in the back of your boot some companies are very smart I know Beckett Simenon does this where they put a little piece of either suede or rough out leather in the back of their boot where the heel is to prevent that from happening because over time your heels gonna sort of create its own little pocket back there and once it really settles in you shouldn't have a problem but one of the things that you can do and I've had to do is when it's a smooth leather lining what I've done is taken a little bit of sandpaper I know stop cringing and just sand lightly the area where your heel contacts the letter this just scuffs it up a little bit you're not gonna be taking 80 grit and sanding right through it take some 320 or something like that all we want to do is just make it not shiny smooth leather you want to give it a little bit of grip so it can grab that sock that you're wearing and prevent your heel from slipping out when you get friction that's how you get blisters and if you have a blister that's just the skin protecting itself and it's hard to wear your boots for a little while after that most of the time people won't even wear them they'll say no those boots give me blisters can't wear them so preventing friction is key that's one way to prevent your heels slipping out of the boot one other thing that you can do to prevent heel slippage is locking your heel down with the laces now this is why on hiking boots you see those eyelets that are way far back by your heel the idea there is to pull your heel into the boot now there are ways to do that with normal boots that you buy off the shelf so what you're going to want to do is use a surgeon's knot and all you're gonna do is basically wind the two laces together a couple of times right above where your heel is on the boot what this is gonna do it's gonna lock your heel down and not let those laces allow any expansion because you wrapped that around there you have more friction and it's much more difficult for the laces to let go or you know transition any kind of pressure so that will really lock your heel in at least until they've conform to your foot and you no longer need it it's an old hiking technique and it works really well now this final method I really don't suggest unless you're having a real hard time with your boots you can apply a little bit of heat now I don't mean heat gun putting them next to the fire because leather is skin so you're gonna dry the hell out of it now you can you know heat it up a little bit maybe with a hairdryer or something that's a little bit of low heat that's why breaking your two boots is always easier in the summertime because the combination of the moisture your foot gives off naturally and the heat of the outside is really what helps break in that leather most of the time that's not above a hundred degrees and it's not soaking your boots so what we're gonna want to do is sort of accelerate that so if you bought your boots in January and it's really cold outside you can apply a little bit of heat to the areas which you feel like should stretch the only thing is right afterwards I would apply a little bit of leather conditioner because you just basically dried out that section of the leather and you also have to be careful because depending on what kind of leather it is it could become discolored so I don't suggest putting heat on your boots unless it's a really drastic circumstance and they need to fit like right away or it's just something that you can't live without it's a last resort yet it is an option under extreme circumstances so guys I hope this video has been helpful this is how I break in my boots everything from my heavy-duty work boots to dress boots and it just accelerates that process of getting them to the point where they're like a second skin but of course I want to know your tips and tricks what's worked for you if there's anything that I got wrong let me know in the comments below I enjoy talking you guys down there and we can come up with a really good resource for somebody who's just getting into this stuff maybe years from now and they can come to this video and look through the comments and watch it and and really get some good ideas on how they can break their boots in and get to that stage thank you so much for watching I really do appreciate it and I will catch you next time [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Carl Murawski

Views: 310,165

Rating: 4.8100939 out of 5

Keywords: mens style, mens accessories, review, best review, no bs review, new england style consulting, carl murawski, boots, break in, how to break in, break in boots, leather, shoes, comfortable boots, red wing, how to break in boots, how to, new boots, stiff boots, how to soften boots, hot water trick, doc martens, red wing iron ranger, mens style 2021, mens style guide, boot guide, boot tips, mens boots, mens style tips

Id: mkDj81EAXvE

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2019