Why $650 bear hunting boots are my PERFECT boots - JK Boots

my absolute most favorite types of boots even after cutting hundreds and hundreds of pairs in half is still the Pacific Northwest boots they can trace their lineage back 100 plus years to when loggers first ventured out west to contend with the Untamed force of the Pacific Northwest and stake their claim in that green gold rush and those boots needed to be as durable and high quality as humanly possible because of those really intense and harsh working conditions that basically were Untouched by man for hundreds and hundreds of years now fast forward 100 years and a few of these Brands still make the style of boot which is a really cool Testament to this style of boot and people are still choosing this 100y old style of boot over more modern synthetic and foam based boots and it's basically remained unchanged for over 100 years but that doesn't mean they're perfect and they're not without their flaws and those flaws are inherent to how heavyduty these are and they're super tall they're super rigid and clunky they're ridiculously heavy and that's not to say these boots are bad because for the right application they're clearly unbeatable for over 100 years but for me I wanted a more approachable and easy pacific northwest boot because I don't have one of the hardest working jobs in the world and I wanted to to take all the best attributes of these p&w boots but still make them lighter more flexible more comfortable and that's why this collaboration with JK was initially called the ppnw or the perfect Pacific Northwest boot because I wanted to make the perfect version of these boots for anything from casual wear to hiking light work hard work heavy duty work and bear hunting in the Pacific Northwest which I'm doing right now if you're watching this while this is releasing I'm up in Pacific Northwest in a pair of these trying to track down a bear so what is this boot well the brand is is JK it's a collaboration I'm doing with JK the style is the be Slayers and this is the grizzly color way so grizzly bear Slayers it weigh 2 10 oz they retail for $650 they're made in Spokane Washington USA the positioning is basically this whole video but there's only 500 available so if you're watching this and they're already sold out you can get on the limited edition email list which will get you early access on the next drop so you don't miss out also all your sizing information everything you need to know to order there might be some other colors coming out like maybe some black bear Slayers maybe some Kodiak bear layers so if you do want a pair of these check them out below if they're sold out get on that email list so how did I try to make the the pbnw or my perfect bear hunting boot let's start with the issue of this style where the boot uppers are super rigid and super hard to break in well for bear hunting I still wanted some of the structure and the rigidity cuz sometimes we're walking on logging roads that are really easy for miles and miles other times we're off fighting through the Fallen trees and the really thick tick infested brush so I wanted to balance that structure and the flexibility so how did we do that by using bison leather this stuff is absolutely cra czy I love this leather cuz it's just as thick as these other Leathers that JK uses it's still 3.5 mm thick most boots are anywhere from 2 to 2.5 mm thick but it's significantly more flexible and malleable because this is shrunken bison it doesn't look like it from the outside cuz did the flesh out so it looks like bare fur but bison naturally has more of a pebble texture to it but the way that cyle does this leather is it's a shrunken bison so instead of stretching it out and make it as tight as possible they let the leather shrink so it emphasizes these Pebbles which give this leather natural break points would make it really soft and malleable but that doesn't mean it necessarily weakens the leather it might not be nearly as rigid and supportive as the regular Leathers but it still took 140 lbs to puncture through that's still in the top 15 puncture tests that we've ran on leather then why the flesh out besides it looking like bare fur well the the flesh side this more suede looking side is more abrasion resistant because all these little fibers that you see on the flesh side kind of move out of the way when you're trying to cut it or when abrasion is happening it's kind of like when you've mowed your lawn and it's way too long you end up like mulling the lawn like three times cuz you just keep cutting tops of grass and you're not cutting the bottom of the grass versus when you're supposed to cut grass when it's a little bit lower same principle with this this is like long grass you're trying to cut through but it's not without its downsides and it's a collaboration so I want to point out the downsides and one of them is it's not going to be as supportive as the other ones and it does stretch out a lot which has its pros and cons because it does allow you to stretch out the boot to fit you better especially in the toe but it's not going to have that same rigid cast likee feeling as some other leathers and at the end of the day it's still 3.5 mm thick and especially over your InStep where all this flexing happens that's a lot of leather over top of your InStep where your boot needs to be flexible and malleable which for bear hunting I wanted because Pacific Northwest has super Steep inclines and declines but also sometimes we ride in four-wheelers sometimes around the electric bikes and I just don't want casts on my feet I want the agility and versatility of a more flexible booth and so how did we fix that problem of having less range of motion and that binding over top of your InStep with flex teeth and this is nothing new like White's fire hybrid boot has a little cutout out but I don't think anyone's done quite as many Flex teeths and and relief Cuts as we have on this boot which give you even more range of motion and you can see it actually works you can see where those Flex Points are coming up through the leather and showing up at these Flex teeth and the result of that is it cuts down on the amount of leather that's over top of your InStep but also gives the leather places to move so you don't have all that rolling and bunching over top of your InStep but once again it's not without its downside because you're not going to get quite as much Support over the InStep with the flex teeth and it's a New Concept I've never really seen anyone do a Heritage boot with that many Flex teeth in it and I've tested it and I've used them quite a bit but we haven't had thousands of boots out there tested for years and years on many different people with different types of feet with different jobs but I just love it I think it looks so good and it's aggressive it matches the the luggin and the bare Slayer kind of look to the outsole And So It just fits the name perfectly too but even with the flex teeth and relief you get you can still get a little bit of that pain and that bite over top of your InStep when you're first breaking them in or even after a long day of work or really deep on a trail and one way I learned how to fix that was when I was a wildland firefighter when I first fell in love with this style of boot like 10 years ago I was taught how to do box Lacy because when you're 10 Mi deep on a firefighting hike or on a bear hunt and you start getting that pain you have to fix it you don't really have a choice because if you get tons of blisters over your InStep you're out for the next couple days so basically what you do is you unlace the boot down below the eyelets and then you relace it by skipping one of the eyelets and creating a box- like shape to alleviate all that pressure over top of your InStep while still keeping the boot tight on your foot problem with doing that is it's a huge pain to unlace your boots especially out on a trail not only you have to untie them and undo the speed hooks but you actually have to undo the laces not that big of a deal but it is still a pain and so I thought I came up with a brilliant idea of how to fix this but then we realized that the Germans did it in the'80s but we call it the Box lacing system where we alternated eyelet speed hook eyelet so that all you have to do to get this box lace is undo your speed Hooks and when you get to that first eyelet you just take the slack pull off from the speed hooks in between the eyelets cinch that up and then relace it up then if you did it right you can take up all that slack by lacing it up to the top speed hook where usually it's an eyelet that most people never even use but what are the downsides of this well some people are still going to have to retie them because of ankle and InStep combinations it's not going to take up all the slack still easier than relacing it but some people are going to have to retie it and when it is box Lac you do have more possibility of dirt and grime getting into the inside of the boot but it is fully gusseted and so it's just in the gusset you just dump it out at the end of the day but what about the other issue that's common with the style of boot being super heavy and ridiculously rigid cuz for me when I'm bear hunting if we do accidentally stumble across the Grizz I need to be able to outrun my little brother so that I can live and JK boots has already solved that problem to a pretty good degree with their OT Boot and that's why for me it's my favorite Pacific Northwest Boot and the way it works is instead of a fulllength leather midsole that you can see in this JK Superduty runs all the way through you can see it on the outside with the OT boot you have that same layer but it's tapered down to a point and feathered down so you don't have all that rigidity in the toe but you still get the stability in the heel so that you can do this with a full Boot and you can barely do that with half a boot of the regular boots and the result of that is obviously you get the flexibility and the maneuverability be able to outrun your little brother but there's also reduces some of the weight by a little bit not a ton and we've done a couple other things to try to reduce the weight but what are the downsides to this OT style of construction well some people like the style of boot because of how rigid they are they like that full length leather midsole on their Superduty boots because it is going to give you more support more leather to break into the shape of your foot underneath of your foot it's going to be more stable more protective from the ground even though this boot still took 354 lbs to puncture through which is number four of all results not the most scientific but it's ballparks so they're still like way over the top and ridiculous and the way I see JK's boot line is similar to the Ford line especially since they name their boots Super Duties they're climbing lineman boots with all the panels and patches I see that as your F350 about as heavy duty of a truck that you can get from Ford can tow anything can carry anything anything it's giant it can withstand just about anything then I look at their Super Duties as kind of their F250 a little bit lower than the F350s a little bit lighter a little more versatile but still a heavy duty truck and a heavy duty boot then I look at their OT boots as more of kind of like your F-150s you're really versatile boot still clearly ready for work full size full everything but it's not a full onton truck like the F350 and that's why a lot more people buy the F-150 then I look at their more affordable 300 line like the Ford Mavericks so where does the be Slayer fit in that Spectrum well to me it's kind of the Raptor of the Ford Range because it's based on the F-150 or the OT boot so it's super light while still being really heavy duty but everything is cranked up to 11 it's made to be off-road it's made to be faster lighter heavy duty more aggressive more luggy and that's exactly what this boot is compared to the OT Boot and I think that's a good way to kind of demonstrate what the purpose of this boot is compared to more of their heavy duty stuff and even though all their boots are made for different purposes they're all still built on the same last that gives you that ridiculously high arch support which is one of my favorite things about about this style of boot so instead of trying to reduce that and change it for the bare Slayers I wanted to emphasize that arch support by taking their normal panel here that usually swoops up and gets out of the way of your foot and on the inside where you need that arch support we took inspiration from a World War I Canadian boot where their panel drops straight down and so what that does is it creates an extra panel so that when you tie these it pulls out a little bit tighter gives you a little bit more arch support and it really just hugs your arch it's like a little bear hug for your arch and especially where on the inside we'll show you you get it cut in half you still have this panel on the inside it builds up that arch support on top of the arch support that you get from this really aggressive lass that they build their boots on and I just like the asymmetry of it I like the functionality of it but there is still downsides to it cuz not everybody likes that really heavy arch support and it is a right of passage to break this kind of boot in to a point where you actually really start to feel the comfort from all that leather and all the art support it's going to take a few weeks of pretty heavy use to get them to shape to the shape of your foot but once they are it feels like you're putting your hand in a really well-worn pair of work gloves or an old baseball mitt where your foot just kind of snaps into place because all that leather has shaped around your foot and especially under your foot giving you that footprint but it is something you have to earn you have to pay the price to get that kind of fit and that comfort and one thing we try to do to improve the comfort of this style of boot especially underfoot is the outsole because we are using the honey vium outsole which we chose not just because Bears love honey but because where we hunt it's very similar terrain to what loggers and firefighters are in all day every day and they use basically the Black version of this out soole that's a little bit harder at a 75 Shore a this comes in at a 60 Shore a so it's going to be a little more grippy it's going to be a little bit more soft underfoot but the downside of it is it does wear down faster than the Black version of that outsole but still you get quite a bit of life out of it but for a little spot and stock hunting I wanted just a little more Squish and comfort compared to the harder blackouts and then really the last thing we changed about this boot was the height because most JK boots are eight plus Ines tall so I I wanted to make them just a little bit shorter to reduce some of the weight to add a little bit of comfort while still giving you the protection and keeping Jun from getting to the inside of your boots so we ended up going at 7 in because to me that balances that height perfectly because you have not just the three isets three box lacing and three speed hooks which I like a lot but it gives you just enough leverage it gives you just enough height to be effective without being overly high for jobs and other application you don't need a super tall boot for so now let's cut these things in half and I'll show you what's on the inside and how all these features kind of work together especially the arch support compared to basically any other style of boot yeah I hate doing this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right we got it cut in half and just so you know these are my personal pair of be Slayers I had just barely gotten these boots to a point where they're really starting to get broken in I probably put 30 mil of hiking in them I oiled them up I could feel the insole breaking in the shape of my foot I could feel everything kind of forming but we had to cut them in half and so just wanted to express how sad that was it's part of the deal got to cut them in half after after you test them so you can show people so let's see what's [Music] inside so I've also got to break in a brand new pair over the the bear hunt so I'll be I'll be documenting that and showing everybody while I'm on the bear hunt probably while you're watching this but now you can really see what I meant by this arch support and you can see how especially on this side how that Vamp still goes all the way to the inside so right here where it's hugging your arch you have like the 3 and 1/2 mm of Bison another 3 and 12 mm of bison and another millimeter of this lining leather so that's like 8 mm of leather gripping your arch and you can feel a difference it's it's kind of crazy how much it cradles your foot and you can also see all the little hidden layers on the inside that you can't see from the outside like this ridiculously thick counter I honestly wish these were just a little bit thinner but you can see that 6 mm veg tan leather insole that I was talking about shaping perfectly to the shape of my foot you can see where my big toe was ball of my foot breaking it in kind of sad then underneath that you can see this black line of filler leather that fills up that void caused by that upper being wrapped underneath then below that you've got that feathered down leather midsole we talked about it's also about 6 mm thick and then a 3 and 1/2 mm rip rubber slipo so even still even though you've removed a layer you've still got like an inch of material underneath of your foot and so now that we've seen everything and you've seen all the internal guts did be pull it off is this the perfect Pacific Northwest boot is this my perfect bear hunting boot I think it's about as close to a perfect Pacific Northwest boot as anyone has made while still maintaining all the best attributes of this style of boot but also I designed it and it's built for me so take that with a grain of salt but I'm really happy with the result I like the way it feels I love how it cradles my Arch and it has all these features while still being flexible with the Box lacing and the flex teeth the OT style construction so I love it but it's not without its downsides because anytime you take something to the most extreme there's always going to be trade-offs like the weight these are still really heavy boots even though we reduce some of the weight and even though when these are really broken in there still hard leather and hard rubber underneath your foot compared to a really really soft and light foam based boot they're just completely different things and those foam boots are always going to be squishier and softer Under Foot but at the same time those softer squishy boots don't have the stability and rigidity of these boots so it's a trade-off the break-in is still going to be ridiculously hard even with all these features and the leather that's just how these boots are unfortunately JK has super wide options so if you do get a pair of these don't be afraid to go wide if you like wide boots and we also put sizing guide in the links below and maybe finally these are pricey boots they're twice the price of most other hiking boots and that's because they're made in the United States and they're about as handmade as you get and that costs a lot of money and on top of that these are going to be a pain for JK to make especially the team that's actually sewing all this has to sew around the flex teeth and just keep these panels asymmetrical without sewing the wrong one on the wrong side of the boot sewing these extra panels so huge shout out to Tim at JK for being willing to make this boot especially the production team being willing to make 500 of these because this is my most favorite thing to do with the business right now I love taking all these time honored types of boots and infusing everything that I've learned from cutting hundreds and hundreds of boots and shoes apart to try to make truly unique Footwear that you really can't get anywhere else solve problems that no one's ever solved before in unique ways and also they're called bear Slayers it's just fun to do I love I love everything about it and are these officially be Slayers if you're watching this the week of the launch of this video I'm currently up in the Pacific Northwest trying to slay a bear well future me here's a quick update and if you don't like graphic content just skip forward 10 seconds there's your warning switch it now so clearly proof of concept I slay the Bear in them these are officially now christened the bear Slayers so thank you guys for supporting these it's a huge part of how we're able to afford to cut brand new stuff apart every single week and it's what's helped us get this business to where it's at today and where we're head in the future so if you want a pair of these check them out below if they're sold out sign up for the limited edition email list so you can get Early Access for the next drop so thank you guys for everything you do checking out the bear Slayers it's so fun so thank you guys see you it opens [Applause] up I think it's

Channel: Rose Anvil

Views: 27,739

Keywords: jk boots, work boots, pnw boots, leather boots, jk boots review, best boots, best work boots, whites boots, pacific northwest boots, rose anvil, rose anvil review, nicks boots, handmade boots, boot review, work boot review, cut in half, wesco boots, jk boots ot, franks boots, jk work boots, nicks handmade boots, mens boots, work boots for men, mens style, whats inside, jk boots rose anvil, pacific north west boots, jk ot boots, hiking boots, leather boots for men

Id: wlBfTicVT5g

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2024