The Truth: Why barefoot boots aren't durable (Bearfoot Bruin)

after the Barefoot hiking boot video I was really shocked at how many of these brands are using fake leather or no leather at all for an application like hiking where leather really performs better than almost any other material and I'd argue better than any material and none of them were really built in a traditional way they're all cemented together and so after that video the comment section was completely flooded with recommendations and asking us to cut apart the Barefoot Barefoot boots and so I reached out to Barefoot was like hey you want to throw your hat in the ring they said yes so let's cut this thing in half run it through our test and really see if this is an actual durable Barefoot Boot and thanks to Barefoot for sponsoring this video and let's start going through the details starting with the leather first because leather is one of the most durable and versatile materials that you can make Footwear out of and I'd also argue that it's one of the most natural materials you could make Footwear out of and it's better for the environment than all the synthetic plastic based boots and shoes that we've seen recently so why do none of these Barefoot boot companies make their products out of real leather well there seems to be a really common Trend with Barefoot Brands whether it's like eco-friendly vegan in Granola type consumer which there's nothing wrong with you know if that's your thing there's no it's not a big deal I understand not wanted to wear a dead animal around your foot but not every single one of the Barefoot Brands is that way and Barefoot is a unique brand amongst all these other brands because they value a lot of the same things where they they really value the sustainability returning to nature but they also see the value in being a part of nature instead of being apart from nature which seems to be how a lot of these other Barefoot Brands view their Footwear so what's the deal with the leather well this leather is two to two point five millimeters thick so right around what we see with the Heritage work boot world and the type of leather that this is is a buffed or nubuck full grain leather where they essentially take that cross-section of leather and they sand down the very top portion of it which gives it that kind of matte microfiber texture and then they also put a little light layer of wax on top that does a few things it makes it slightly more water resistant it gives it that matte finish it also hides imperfection caused by bug bites barbed wire scars branding scars because cause they're just removing the very top surface which can hide a lot of those flaws but sometimes when they're making this leather they get a little heavy-handed on the sanding and they completely remove all that grain if not just a little bit of sliver left in there so we took our macro lens put it on the cross section and as you can see this leather has not been over Santa there's still plenty of that structural grain pattern in there next if we look at the lining you can see it's partially lined in the shaft and then it's fully lined in the vamp which is exactly what you expect from a more Heritage style made Boot and the lining is a pretty decent leather and that's one thing about having products made in Mexico Mexico makes really good leather for an affordable price and they make really good boots and shoes but more importantly they actually have a dedicated leather counter cover on the inside which is shockingly rare for a boot of this price point and then if we look at the insole so it's a kind of an interesting insole because it's not removable and it's leather topped foam with a little bit of edge binding around it which I thought was kind of odd I don't really understand why they did that because to me that would just cause a potential high pressure point on your big toe and your pinky toe for you if you're standing on that all day so maybe there's something with the internal structure that that they have to do that so we'll see we get it cut in half but more importantly if you slightly peel away that insole you'll see oh a beautiful veg tan leather insole finally one of these boots has some decent materials throughout the sole construction veg tan Leathers is basically the industry standard for a high quality material insole because it's super durable it's flexible it absorbs your sweat it's breathable it doesn't mold and it doesn't stink nearly as fast as synthetic materials and so that's why you see these 600 boots why they all have veg tan leather insoles you'll notice there's a little teeny Blake stitch on the inside which is a little bit confusing because I just assumed this was a Goodyear welted boot because you can see the Goodyear welt on the outside here actually now that I'm thinking about it I don't know if you could make this boot a Goodyear welted boot because the way that that creates a void on the inside would run really counter to what you're trying to do with a Barefoot boot it would just add a lot of bulk a lot of unnecessary materials ruin the flexibility and so I'm gonna guess that this is a fake Goodyear welt probably a Blake Stitch maybe it's not quite as durable as a stitch down a Goodyear welted construction it is still a sewn construction so you have the cement and that stitching that you have to break through to get this shoe to delaminate but there are some advantages to a Blake Stitch that these other styles so constructions don't have there's no visible stitching on the outside that you could potentially wear through or accidentally cut through or braid through it's a very slim and water resistant and protected construction style I don't love the fact there's a fake Goodyear welt if it is fake but I kind of get it if you want the rugged look and you want the visible stitching on the outside but you want the slim silhouette and the slim fill Under Foot you kind of have to have the Blake Stitch but the most important thing about this whole construction is that these are actually resolvable and not that any of these Brands don't have resale services but a lot of them you have to ship the shoe back in and you have to pay a premium to have them resold which is really awesome but also a lot of them don't have a resale service so you spend 200 bucks on a boot with a really thin outsole with not leather materials and synthetics all the way through and then you wear it out in nine months and then somehow that's more eco-friendly than a leather boot that's resolvable say you wear through this outsole you can take this to any local cobbler and all they do is peel this outsole off and glue a new one on this is a really uniquely designed boot because you'll notice here they have these little Flex cutouts that eliminate that bite at the top of your foot it looks like it has a toe cap it has some unique paneling the eyelets are really interesting the way that they gusset this tongue is they puncture through both sides of the upper and fold it over to create the eyelets which I assume would make it a little bit more durable it might sacrifice some of the water resistance and even like this little split at the back so you don't get the high pressure point and that's your calf you can tell a lot of thought went into designing this boot so now it's got them in half foreign [Music] all right we got it cut in half so let's see what's inside [Music] so is it a true toe cap no it is not but at least it is that really thick leather I guess to be fair like these already are ridiculously wide so with another another layer of leather on top would make them even wider is it a real Goodyear welt no it is not that is a fake Goodyear welt but like I mentioned it does make sense with what they're trying to do with this boot and now that we can see on the inside we know that this is a true Blake Stitch construction binding and sewing together that insole the upper and the midsole together and how thick is that veg tan leather insole it's only about one millimeter thick so not nearly as thick as what we see in some of the real work boots These Boots need to be flexible people like the agility of it and so ideally it'd be thicker but at least there is a veg tan leather insole so is this a true durable Barefoot boot that you can actually rely on that's built traditionally that's made of high quality materials yes it is you know there is room for improvement I'm not saying this is a perfect boot by any means but it's 240 dollars and you get a lot for 240 especially from a small company small batch with high quality materials and a decent construction so the pros of this boot really are the the good leather basically through the entire construction you have a really good lining material you have a true dedicated counter cover on the inside and you have about 16 or 17 millimeters of material protecting you from the ground you still get the the flexibility you still get the Barefoot fill the zero drop the wide toe box but you're not going to be wearing your feet out anytime you want to go walk around in these but that is also a con not quite as flexible because the leather upper is a little bit stiffer it's not quite as breathable it's a little bit less ground feel underfoot but all things considered I think this is a pretty impressive boot because if you compare it to like a thorough good it has just as good as leather as the thorough good it has a similar construction with the similar materials but has real veg Tan on the inside they both have a fake welt one's real one's not one's Blake Stitch one's Goodyear weld but if we use that as kind of our price ruler if you put it side by side for a more affordable boot it's pretty easy to see see how I came to the conclusion that these are worth the price so this boot really is interesting and a very niche market where everyone seems to be doing the exact same things barefoot's doing it completely different with a different ethos with a different perspective and they're making a true high quality Barefoot boot so check out Barefoot via links in the description and thank you guys for supporting this Channel and this series it means a lot to me so thank you see ya [Music]

Channel: Rose Anvil

Views: 203,979

Keywords: barefoot boots, barefoot boots mens, barefoot boots reviews, barefoot hiking boots, barefoot shoes, barefoot shoes for work, barefoot shoes review, barefoot shoes transition, barefoot tactical boots, best boots, best leather boots, cut in half, cut in half review, handmade shoes, jk boots rose anvil, leather, leather boots, leather shoes, red wing boots, red wing iron ranger, rose anvil best boots, rose anvil nicks, rose anvil red wing, rose anvil review, usa shoes

Id: bjnUGHMnmD4

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023