Unboxing barefoot boots designed for African Rangers (Jim Green)

inside this box I've got a somewhat collaborative boot that I've done with Jim greens it's not a full collaboration because if this launch goes well Jim green wants to run this on their main site and have it as an offering moving forward if it goes well no guarantees by any means and you know I didn't really change a whole lot of the upper most of the collaborative bits are the internal components so this would be more like a design collab I would say or collab and or like a consultation collaboration it's a better ring to it consultation collaboration but it still I still had a lot of my hands in the design a lot of fingers in the pie or whatever whatever the expression is because if you don't know who Jim green is they're a South African boot company that's just recently in the last like four or five years got maybe even three or four years got into the U.S market I've been working with Jim green basically ever since basically since their first batch of boots hit the American Shore we've been doing reviews of them and working with these guys and they've been really successful because of the value that they bring for the the dollar because if you don't know what the value equation is they'll put it here it's basically how much you get per dollar spent and Jim green due to the fact that they're made in South Africa the exchange rate and all these other factors that you end up with a really high quality boot for a really good price and and we've done like three or four videos with them and I had never actually met the CEO Gareth in person until this summer maybe it was last fall or something where he came out to an outdoor show like a trade show called out a retailer here in Salt Lake City flew all the way from South Africa so we went over there we said hi hung out with them at the booth a little bit went to dinner afterwards and just started generally chatting about everything we've done together some ideas for boot collaborations I have which is like my favorite thing to do I love I love the whole collaboration thing that we do with with all these Brands and we started discussing barefoot shoes because we just finished that Barefoot Boot and shoe Series where it was kind of disappointing if I'm being honest you know there's a lot of it costs a lot of money for not a lot of substance for a lot of those Brands there's some good brands you know Vivo barefoot's awesome limbs is awesome there's plenty of good brands in there but that just there wasn't one boot that did it how I would have liked to have done it and so me and Gareth of Jim green were just chatting about that and kind of not even on purpose started designing a boot together and then over the next few months we just went back and forth started playing with some Concepts Jim green started running it down the road and we do a call which would be like 1am my time 8 A.M their time so I was just like so tired and like done for the day and while they're just getting started so I was like it was It's Kind of a Funny call every time I have a call with with Gareth just because of the time difference but we started designing this this boot there'd be a zero drop wide toe box boot built in a traditional way so you get all the benefits of a Heritage style boot plus all the benefits of the zero drop Barefoot style shoes but done better because the problem with all those like a zero drop Barefoot boots is they're so thin and they're so flimsy I don't want to feel every single stick and Twig and rock underneath my foot I understand there's a need for it and people like that for certain reasons but for me I just want a lot of those attributes without the obnoxious aspect of paying a lot of money for not a lot of substance and for bear like wearing boots but barely feeling like you're wearing boots and I wanted to kind of combine the two of them and Jim green was up for it I ended up with this box right here that has the final version of it so let's open this thing up and see what's on the inside might notice there's not any packaging or tape around it because I've already opened them how it goes with collaborations you know I can't I can't really do a true unboxing until I know I have the final version I probably still could have but it's more fun to do a little mock unboxing but these are the boots so pretty clearly based on the African Ranger boots very very similar upper almost I think that's the exact same upper actually and so what I want to do is compare this new zero drop African Ranger to the regular one to show you what I wanted to change why I changed certain things and how we ended up with this boot that looks really similar but it's actually very different when it comes to how you wear it and how it feels underfoot so first number one maybe the biggest thing is the outsole but you'll notice on on my version It's a completely different outsole pattern on the bottom it's a completely different width and the biggest aspect of this that makes it that zero drop is that it is the same width all the way across the sole so what we did is we took the compound from the African Ranger wedge Sole and started applying it to this outsole we ran through eight different versions different compounds that we ended up with one that we really liked which included initially actually I think I have it here somewhere so initially it didn't have this this extra toe bumper there a little extra thickness and we noticed it was wearing out the toe and the heel a little bit faster because of those lugs we added that on there changed the pattern slightly made it you know played with the different widths and and densities of those little triangles and and we did it eight millimeters thick so uh pretty decent thickness it's it's about the same thickness as the toe bit of the regular African Rangers and I feel like eight millimeters is a good balance between still being flexible and movable and malleable and still being able to feel some of what's underneath your foot without being so non-existent that it's uncomfortable to walk around in because you're feeling every single uh crack in the sidewalk and one of the coolest things about this outsole is because of the pattern that we chose it grabs on to Mud but not nearly as much as like a really thick lugged outside we made it so the lugs are close enough that you get a lot of wear without wearing out the sole really quick but they're not so tight that mud really gets stuck in there it's at this really nice sweet spot and it's not that mud doesn't get stuck in here but it is surprisingly easy to get it out and not that it's the most unique outsole ever but I did design it and with the help of Jim green but the initial concept and everything was was my idea which was really fun to be able to design an outsole with the brand and the durometer if we throw the tester on there real quick comes in a 52 short a I think we did a good job with the outsole I think it bounces the durability of a thicker outsole while still being able to feel what's underneath your foot we balance the squishiness while still being a mostly a durable outsole it's never going to last nearly as long as a really hard rubber outsole but it's not going to wear out really quick and I think we achieved making a zero drop outsole look really cool it has that luggy almost V Vibram V100 look to it I'm really happy with how the outsole turned out and we also made it super easy to resole and replace because all you have to do is take this to any of your local cobblers that are reputable peel off this old outsole slap a new one on there and you're good to go and that's because of the next layer up we did a rubber midsole because if you didn't know Rubber and leather bonds really well together initially but once you really start wearing them the problem is rubber and leather shrink and grow and absorb water at different rates so especially if you're in water that leather can shrink which pulls it away from the outsole causing delamination that's why in the majority of these boots you see at least a tiny slip sole in there and that's the exact same reason we did it with this this boot as well because there's no visible stitching here and so to make it as strong as of a of an adhesion as possible we want to do rubber to Rubber and then that rubber slip sole is sewn to the next layers above which is maybe my most favorite layer because as you know I love leather and I love leather boots and Jim green has you know they have I think maybe one model that has leather in the insole but the vast majority of them use a material that's similar to fiberboard but it's a lot more it's a lot more fibrous and it's a lot heartier it's more durable it doesn't delaminate nearly as much it acts a lot like leather but it's missing some of the properties of leather like compressing the shape of your foot absorbing your sweat the leather doesn't smell nearly as bad as synthetics it looks better and maybe the number one benefit of leather is it compresses the shape of your foot giving you that perfect footprint inside of your boot that makes it feel like a well-worn glove sliding in just takes that that hand print it kind of feels like a well-worn baseball mitt that's how it feels when you're when you have a leather boot that has a leather insole it's just a really unique feeling and then another thing that we changed was the regular African Rangers have a steel shank in them because these are much more of a work boot they're supposed to be sturdier whereas These Boots part of the idea is to make them flexible bendable As Natural feeling underfoot as possible so putting a metal shank in there as a little bit worried that it would kind of ruin the whole idea of this boot so we just had them pull it because most Shanks are either used for two reasons to support the bridge that gap between the heel and the forefoot caused by a heel or to give you something to basically stand on if you're going to be on ladders all day hitting your shoe on shovels all day you want something to to support your arch so you're not wearing out your feet all day so with this boot it didn't really need it and if anything it benefits from not having a shank because you can do this kind of thing with them see if I can get it touch yeah so that's why we didn't do shank and and we put these through quite a bit of testing especially on the South African end Gareth or these These Boots quite a bit he put him through a really long test which was him walking through the South African Wilderness for three days straight with uh 20 kilogram backpack on it which I don't know what that converts to when when pounds but it sounds like a lot another change that we did that was really small that most people wouldn't even notice is we removed the toe stiffener that's originally in the African Rangers and just went with no toe stiffeners and the idea behind that was toast sniffers you it makes it a little bit harder for the toe box to shape to the shape of your foot but it does structure it it helps it prevent from collapsing but with this boot where I want it as natural as possible and as almost feeling like as close to not wearing boots while still wearing boots as possible I wanted to remove that which allows the boot to form to your foot faster it allows these sides to expand out for your toes the only downside of a non-structured toe box is it can collapse a lot faster which puts pressure on the top of your toes until that leather gets its memory and is shaped around your toes so it's a small difference but I think it's worth noting and then maybe the the final thing that we change for this design was because the regular African Rangers has a little bit of a heel the last of this shoe is built on which is that that hard plastic shoe shape that gives the shoe its shape if we built it on that last the toe would be lifted up because we dropped the heel making the toe spring up which is not very anatomical and it puts pressure on your toes in a weird way and so they went back to the drawing board for the last and basically took the last that's made Jim green really popular United States on the Razorback and the African Ranger and took that same shape and just kind of flattened the toe out dropped it down and made it a lot more zero drop while still being able to be worn as a normal Boot and so that allows them to make the boots the exact same way the same processes because it's like I said it's still a 360 Stitch down construction that sews through the upper that leather mids leather insole and then that rubber slip sole which I guess you could call a midsole and it's the same way that Jim green does it with a double layer stitching all the way around making them these are probably the easiest boots in the world to resold they and I actually and you could do it at home and we're working on a video with like how to resell your own boots at home with affordable equipment and tools because some of these boots are just you could do from home for really cheap and then the coolest thing about this whole African Ranger boot is the name comes from real African Rangers who protect the wildlife and the environment down in South Africa from poachers and big corporations come in there's plenty of there's a lot to talk about with that but the cool thing about the African Ranger boot is Jim green donates one boot for every 10 African Rangers sold and so they're quite literally making a huge difference in the African Ranger community and protecting the environment and setting these guys up with high quality boots that actually make a difference in their lives and so it is cool to be able to buy and support a brand that's supporting the people that built the brand you know there's a lot of us brands that will claim that kind of BS but you can just see through it's just marketing BS you know it's a classic thing with American companies where Jim green is actually making a difference and then from the rest of the boot up it's basically the exact same same boot as the African Ranger and that's kind of why I was like it's like a consultation collaboration because you know I didn't I didn't have a full uh freedom to do whatever I wanted I just was kind of Consulting on the the soul bits and so ultimately what is this boot why would you want one well it's a good weekend boot it's a good camping boot it's a good hot weather boot if you're working in hot weather and it's really good for easy on and easy off it's got the speed hooks on it so if you're in a job that you're always taking your boots off and put them back on but you need a boot this is a good option for it and basically for me anytime that I want to wear a pair of boots but I don't want to deal with the obnoxious aspects of wearing a boot I end up throwing these on or if I've like worn my feet out from breaking in a pair of boots or my arches hurt or something's going on I can throw these on and it basically feels like I'm walking around Barefoot it is it's as close to feeling like you're not wearing a boot while wearing a boot as I've ever felt obviously I helped design it so I'm biased but it but that was the goal of it and I think we achieved it because it is a very unique feeling Boot and it gets rid of some of the the pain points that a lot of people have with boots like having your toes squished having a high heel being really heavy being really loud and clumpy being very restrictive of your ankle and your foot and being super hot it's basically another maybe another example is it says close to a sneaker as you can get while still being built like a boot so that's the uh I don't even know it's called The Rose Anvil version of the African Rangers the zero drop African Rangers the Barefoot Rangers African Rangers I don't even know what we're calling it if I'm being honest but now let's figure out how to size this thing because buying these is going to be a little bit tricky and we'll go over that after the sizing because there's only a limited stock that you can order right now so you need to figure out your sizing if you already know your gym green size this fits like the rest of your gym greens but just to kind of give you the breakdown of how I feel in them and how I would size them so number one step figure out your brown oak size we'll put a link in the description to a sizing video from previous collabs that you can learn how to size your your foot on the Brannock Device which is that that metal thing you put your foot in at all the shoe stores you can go to any shoe store it'll do it for free but once you have that figured out then you can use this information to figure out what which is going to be best for you and so I noticed that with these boots they fit pretty true to my Brannock size if if I don't mind it having a little bit of touching of the side of my feet it's not snug necessarily but my feet my toes are pretty far up in the boot you know I only have like a finger width away from the tip of the boot and so I would say go true to size if you want a little bit more snug of a fit if you want plenty of wiggle room if you're going to wear thick socks if you like having nothing touching your toes go half a size up from your Brannock and then this is where it gets tricky so if you want to run an insole in this because they are hard they're just a flat sheet of leather and if you want to run some sort of Squish in there what you need to do is take your brand oxides and go half a size up if you want a little bit tighter of a fit or go full size up if you want plenty of room if you're going to wear socks if you're going to like if you don't want anything touching your toes so just to reiterate I'm a 10 on the Brannock a 10 fits me well snug without an insole 10 and a half gives me plenty of wiggle room for anything I would need if I'm going to run an insole I would go a 10 and a half or more snug fit or I'd go an 11 for plenty of wiggle room with the insole so re-watch that over and over if it didn't make any sense to you because I think I got it down but it's just confusing in general with any of these boot sizing that's why we do these videos before the launch so you have plenty of time to figure it out because I have a feeling these are going to go pretty quick because these the price of these are only ten dollars more than the African Rangers they're going to retail for 189 and this is due to the extra costs that from the midsole and the leather insole from the labor it takes to do the leather insole from the cost and to make new molds for the outsole the cost of the new lasts so honestly a 10 increase is pretty fair and I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed with that but where this gets tricky and really cool actually is is Jim green took a big gamble on this project they already made 631 pairs of these they made 392 in the fudge color and 239 in the brown color which are in stock ready to go and as soon as you order them they'll be to your door within two to six days if you're in the United States because they're stocked here in the United States which is really unique for most of these collabs the brands take the pre-order and then they make them after the order is done and it can take six to nine months sometimes we're where once again Jim green took a huge gamble on this project to get him over here so you guys can have him in hand as soon as possible so so if you order quick there's a good chance that you'll get your size if you miss out on your size you're watching this after the launch and they're all sold out you can still pre-order them and they should be delivered by Christmas unless something goes catastrophic or something bad happens with production or shortages but they're targeting a delivery for the pre-order before Christmas so the initial backs batch of 600 plus they're in stock they're ready to ship they'll get to you two to six days if they're sold out in your size or the color or whatever you want just go to the pre-order listing which I'll have in the description of the cut in half video and probably this video get your pre-order in it should be that it should be to you before Christmas and when do these actually release well they'll be out this Thursday so you have a few days to figure out your sizing get all your ducks in a row so you know exactly when to order how you're going to order and to and like all the rest of the collaborations we do if you want Early Access by two hours make sure you're signed up for the limited edition email list via the link in my description and wherever else you're seeing this because that email list is for only for limited edition products that we make collaborations uh keep you in loop with the big sales we do throughout the year and anything that's just not our normal marketing and branding that's just the unique projects that all goes to limited edition email list so be sure to sign up for that for this collaboration but all the rest of the collaborations that are coming up and like I said these boots officially launch at 10 A.M on Thursday mountain time so noon on the East nine on the west 10 on mountain time and so the official pre-order will start at 8 A.M mountain time if you're on the limited edition email list and because it's such a unique boot amongst all the other boots like this with a wide toe box I think they're gonna go pretty quick so just fair warning I'm not trying I swear I'm not trying to Hype it up and like make some fake scarcity I just want you guys to be aware or not be basically not be mad at me if they sell out in like an hour and I was like oh I didn't know I thought they're gonna they might sell out so that's the full breakdown of all the decisions and what we changed on this African Ranger compared to the regular wedge heeled African Ranger and thank you guys for supporting these I love doing collaborations they're so fun I get to work with these Brands I get to design boots that no one's ever done before I get to help Brands try new stuff and bring you guys the boots that nobody else is making that we all want so thank you guys for supporting all these collaborations we do it's probably my favorite part of of this whole Channel and uh don't forget to sign up for limited edition email list they drop on Thursday all the other stuff that we've gone over if there's any information I forgot to add I will put it on this side so you have plenty of time to read all this if there's even anything there thank you guys [Music] it's good

Channel: Rose Anvil 2

Views: 102,257

Keywords: Barefoot african rangers, african ranger, african ranger boot review, african ranger boots, african ranger jim green, african ranger rose anvil, barefoot shoes, barefoot work boots, barefoot work shoes, best boots, best work boots, boot review, how its made, jim green, jim green boots, jim green boots rose anvil, jim green boots sizing, jim green footwear, leather boots, rose anvil 2, south africa, south africa boots, work boot, work boots rose anvil, zero drop shoes

Id: 2igMlByXAF4

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023