Why African anti-poacher boot are barefoot - (Jim Green)

this gym green boot called the African Ranger was specifically designed for African Rangers who protect the African wildlife and the environment from poachers wildfires invasive species big sketchy corporations and it's gained quite a bit of popularity over the last year because of how comfortable it is how durable it is and how affordable it is but when I did this video last year there's a couple things that I wish Jim green would have done differently he changed some things around and fortunately they listened and asked me to help them make what I think would be the perfect African Ranger boot so we're going to cut this new African Ranger boot in half run it through all of our tests to really figure out if we've made the ultimate anti-poaching African Ranger Boot and if you don't know who Jim green is it's a South African boot company that started in December I guess the story starts in December of 1987 when Gareth the CEO his father Peter Crouch and his grandfather Graham Crouch founded a shoe factory in South Africa called Crouch Footwear and before that they were both working in the shoe industry in shoe factories prior to that so they built their experience and knowledge from working with other companies and then they struck out and built their own company building those loafers for the Crouch footwear company and then in 1992 Jim green was first started in the backyard garage with the idea in mind of making boots that just last and last then not long after founding Jim green they gained quite the reputation and popularity amongst the local community because it really did live up to that rugged name and that the idea of making a boot that really lasts then in the late 90s Jim green became a more popular boot on the larger South African Community along with the introduction of safety boots with steel toes and that's when they really started to take off in the South African market then in 2008 they finally moved all the Jim green production into the Crouch Footwear factory and nothing has changed since then they're still in that factory to this day but one thing has changed because in 2020 at that time 100 of their Footwear made and sold was all in South Africa then just three years later here in 2023 30 of what they make is exported mostly to the United States Germany and Australia and so they've really started to grow in the international markets and worldwide especially here in the the U.S for all the reasons we talked about and one really cool thing about Jim green is they're one of the only if not the only Shoe Factory in South Africa that actually pays 100 of the legal rate plus bonuses obviously dependence which is unique because in South Africa factories are allowed to pay as little as 65 percent of the legal rates so with that along with the whole African Ranger program they have with this where they donate one pair of African Ranger boots for every 10 sold so I just love the fact that Jim green is not only making a difference for the people that work for them their Factory and their employees but also for the people that are actually using their boots and not just buying them for casual boots but the people actually depend on their boots like the African Rangers so what is the African Rangers actually do well a ranger is often referred to as being the front line of conservation they're basically foot soldiers the boots on the ground and the first and sometimes the last line of defense for a lot of the wildlife conservation but it takes a really unique individual to perform the task of a ranger because it's not an easy job there's extreme conditions the physical nature of it where they're walking all day every day it requires a high level Fitness and strength but more importantly for this video the gear that they use has to also stand up to all those harsh conditions so what are those harsh conditions well long walks hot temperatures tons of dirt and water trying to get into all of your gear crazy harsh terrains different elevations to anything from walking on Sand and loose dirt up to the High Country they need to be quiet for the sneaking up on animals all that kind of stuff they need to be extremely durable because you don't want to get stuck out on the in the field with a broken boot or shoe and most importantly they need to be affordable so we're going to use those parameters and needs as a lens to judge this boot to see if we actually pulled it off and see if it's up to the challenge so what is this boot well the brand is Jim green the style is the African Ranger Barefoot they weigh one pound five ounces they retail for 189 dollars and they're made in South Africa and if you want some more information on sizing and more of the backstory and why we decide on certain things make sure you check out the unboxing video on Rose Anvil 2 because it depends on how you like your boots and if you're putting insole on it you'll want to watch that sizing information and Jim green took a huge gamble on this project because they've already made 600 pairs of these that are are already in the United States ready to be shipped to you guys so get your order in because I have a feeling you're going to go fast and if they're out of your size or your color that you want you can still click the pre-order Link in my description get your pre-order in they should be delivered by December or January at the latest so now who designed what on this boot because it's not a typical collaboration because I didn't have complete creative freedom on this it was more of a consultation collaboration because Jim green designed the upper of the boot and I designed everything from the insole down the bottom of the boot so now let's start looking at the upper first through the lens of those parameters that we talked about starting with the hot weather first so what do we do to mitigate that well it's a low top boot you know most boots are six to eight inches to 10 inches tall this is essentially the height of a high top pair of Converse but you get all the benefits of a boot at a sneaker height because to the next issue that dirt and water resistance most people have really tall boots because they don't want stuff getting into the inside of their boot but where this boot has a uniquely High gusseted tongue it goes all the way to the top of the boot whereas most boots even taller than this that don't have a fully gusseted tongue that's about the extent of the gusset anyway but that doesn't prevent stuff from getting to the inside and around the collar of the boot and so that's why this collar is a padded collar because what that allows you to do is cinch down your boots really tight so it seals around your ankle but because it's padded it'll seal around it without being super tight and restrictive so it seals your foot away from the outside world the next thing that helps with both of those is the construction because this is a 360 Stitch down construction where instead of being glued or everything tucked in and then sewn together all the upper is flared out and then stitched down so you don't have any internal stitching where dirt can sneak into crevices or water can seep through but for a ranger boot where if you're out 20 miles on a hike and something falls apart this style of construction is a lot easier to repair anywhere with really basic tools and in general it's just extremely durable but then if we start looking at the leather of this boot it's a 2.2 to 2.5 millimeter thick leather which is right in that ballpark of work boots you know sometimes you see really heavy work boots at 3 to 3.5 but anything under two millimeters doesn't really work thickness and this this is a new Buck leather where the grain is lightly buffed so it still has plenty of that grain left in there that gives you the strength and structure of your leather it also hides scratches easier not that that's a big thing for African Rangers but we did want to test the puncture resistant because those Acacia thorns out there in South Africa are dangerous so we put on the puncture test and it took 159 pounds to puncture through so fifth best leather we've tested and some other quick features that make this more ready for Harsh terrain more durable and more reliable is there's no lining at all throughout this entire boot there's no toe stiffener to actually delaminate and this is a true toe cap because if you're out in the beating around the bush and you're constantly kneeling down and you are wearing the toe of your boot out having twice the thickness of leather is going to go a lot further than having just a single layer or a fake okay and then one really interesting thing that a lot of people have slept on including myself with this particular boot is the dedicated external counter cover because most boots they have a structural part of the heel that's called a counter that gives it so it doesn't collapse and supports your heel and I usually cover it in two ways an internal counter cover where you you have a separate leather patch on the inside that's sewn up and has a seam that you can wear through you can also wear through the leather because it's usually thinner or an external counter cover that doesn't require an internal piece but up the back stay on the inside there's a seam that you could potentially wear through but with this boot because of the way it's built it's an external counter cover without any seams up the back because this is a seamless piece that wraps all the way around the back of the boot so there's absolutely no fail points in that heel you'd have to wear through the leather the counter and the external counter cover before anything failed in the area and then another quick design thing that's worth mentioning is this eyelet panel here most boots it's part of the quarter panel so if you ever pull through one of those or it rips or it breaks you have to redo the entire boot or get a brand new pair of boots but with this it's a separate piece that's sewn on so that's going to give you two benefits one dirt's not going to get nearly as trapped in there because it's easy to get it out and it's not doesn't get stuck in little crevices and if you ever happen to pull through this or it breaks or any have any issues with it instead of throwing the whole boot away you just put a new piece on there are some things to consider with this particular design and these attributes that are baked into it because you're still still not going to be as protective as a taller boot you're still not going to have as durable the boot as like a 600 work boot you know balancing some of these other features and like the breathability the Simplicity you do lose a few things that are worth considering but this boot was designed through the lens of an African Ranger and their specific needs which include my part of the boot which is the lower bit of the boot and for this whole concept I really wanted to focus on the foot health because the most important tool an African Ranger has is their body and their feet because everything else can be replaced everything else can be fixed but if your legs and your feet aren't working you don't work as an African Ranger and a huge part of their job is just walking all day every day so for my part of the boot I really want to prioritize the durability comfort and specifically foot health so the first thing I wanted to do was change the material of the insole from this more matted fiber material into a full grain vegetable tan leather insole now the reason I like this is because it breaks into the shape of your foot it's almost like you put your foot in wet concrete that gives you that footprint so it's going to give you a really stable and durable comfortable feel that's never going to be as comfortable as foam but because of that contouring it's surprisingly comfortable when your foot is in this your foot does not touch a single bit of synthetic material all the way around your foot is leather there's no synthetic anyways which makes this boot extremely durable less fill points it smells less and that's why the hardest working boots in the world have leather insoles and wrap your foot in leather for those exact reasons and I I think this is one of the only if not the only boot that you can buy under 200 bucks it has a full leather insole like this but one thing I wanted to do that's completely different than those heavy duty Pacific Northwest work boots was focus on the wide toe box because we learned a lot of the benefits of a wide toe box and a natural toe box during the Barefoot series and it's just so much more comfortable and unless you really need to have your feet locked in like in the like when you're a logger or a firefighter and you don't want your foot sliding around you don't need your feet locked in to me there's really no reason to have your toes squished because all it does is cause foot injury foot pain plantar fasciitis hammer toes it comes with nothing but issues so for walking all day in various terrain and not exclusively in really jaggedy sharp and steep stuff I really wanted to go with the wide toe box but it comes at a cost because if you are side healing a lot or you're in really steep terrain for extended periods of time your toes will kind of slide around in the boot which can wear them out give you blisters so that's why there's a case to be made for wide toe boxes in certain situations and more squished toe boxes in other situations and along the same lines as the wide toe box I wanted to make this a zero drop boot because I really don't get bothered by a hill or having a lack of a hill but if you're optimizing foot Health you want to prioritize natural movement and the mechanics of the human body which the most natural and works best is on zero drop and like the wide toe box versus narrow toe box there's claims on either side the heel is good for this and that zero drop is good for that there's a huge argument on either of those and I I like a heel for certain reasons I like arch support for certain reasons I like wide toe box zero drop no arch support but for this specific shoe I wanted to be zero drop and it also doesn't have any arch support but you can't you can put an insole in it because in that sizing video on Rose amble 2 we go through uh how to to size for one of the gym Green's insoles to give you a little bit more squish a little more arch support and a little bit more heel elevation but just from the standpoint of optimizing foot Health zero drop with As Natural of a footbed as possible was the goal and what about the lens of being on various terrains from the outsole's perspective because this was a this was a hard one because you for me I wanted to balance in being able to stand on really hard ground for extended periods of time but not being so slippery like a wedge sole but also still having grip and not getting mud stuck in it and that we ended up with this outsole that I that I I did design so it was a really fun part of this build was being able to design the pattern not that it's that unique but the thing I like about this is we went with an eight to nine millimeter outsole so twice as thick as most of the barefoot shoes and about as thick as most wedge soles and other soles at the forefoot all the way across the shoe and so you get the squish of a softer outsole with the durability of this toe and Hill bumper with the grip of the lugs and is it going to last as long as a V100 outsole or some of these really hard rubber ones not even close that's part of the downside of balancing some of these things if we really wanted to last forever we do a really hard outsole but it's going to be a pain to walk in and I wanted to balance in comfort for standing all day and walking all day but that's part of why we made it eight millimeters thick so you have plenty of material to wear through while still balancing some of that ground fill because those barefoot shoes and boots were like two to four millimeters thick of outsole and there's this whole thing where they love being able to fill everything underneath their foot but if you're working in these or you're needing them as a piece of equipment for long days I do not want to fill every single twig and crack in the sidewalk I want some barrier from the ground so that's how we ended up with this eight millimeter outsole and the nice thing about this is if and when you wear through this you should be able to take it to any reputable cobbler and they'll be able to repair this in less than an hour because all you have to do is peel this old outsole off and then glue a new one on because the way we did the midsole was prioritizing adhesion of the outsole to the midsole because there's a lot of Brands out there that will glue rubber to leather which does Bond really well but once you're really beating these around and the the temperature changes the humidity changes they get wet they get dry leather is going to expand and Shrink at a different rate than rubber will which causes that glue to fail and then also your boots delaminating and if you're out in the back country and you have your outsole delaminate it's going to be tough and so at least if that does happen you have that rubber midsole to rely on but more importantly rubber to rubber glues a lot stronger and expands and shrinks at the same rate so the possibilities of delamination are decreased a good amount by gluing the outsole to a rubber slip sole it also gives you a little bit more separation from the ground so you can still feel the ground without the whole Barefoot thing and feeling every twig and cracking the sidewalk and then to the last goal making this boot affordable the way we did that was pretty clear we just removed all the unnecessary bits and kept the vital bits as high quality as possible because it's pretty rare to find a boot under 200 bucks as a leather insole full leather upper all these components and I think that's because we designed this boot through the lens and The Crucible of the needs of an African Ranger so it makes this boot crazy versatile for anything from casual wear to hunting camping sneaking up on animals work because all those features are baked into this boot which make it extremely versatile and affordable so let's cut this thing in half so we can see all the layers and see if we pulled off the perfect Ranger boot foreign [Applause] all right we got the other color cut in half because I'm keeping these as my personal pair so let's see what's inside [Music] foreign [Music] ER sock liner that we didn't talk about just to give you a little extra material at your heel to give you a little more support and comfort and compression you can see that three millimeter veg tan insole a two and a half millimeter rubber slip Sole and that eight millimeter outsole and I just I love the Simplicity of this boot I love when you see a cross section it's just this clean and simple because that usually means more durable less failure points because we've removed all the fluff all the gimmicks it's just the Bare Essentials to make this boot work how we wanted it to work which also helps with that affordability issue because most those guys cannot afford a 600 work boot and if you didn't know 50 of the Rangers don't have access to sufficient boots and gear and over 40 percent of them are required to purchase their own boots and that's why I love that Jim green has that Ranger program for every 10 African Rangers sold a pair of boots gets donated to a real African Ranger and to put it in perspective at this point they've donated well over a thousand pair of boots for free to real African Rangers because of this program so did we pull off the ultimate an African Ranger boot I think we did and I'm really happy how it turned out but obviously I designed it and I'm biased towards it and there are some caveats you have to consider what is it the perfect boot ever made no it's not but that's but the idea is to use the lens of an African Ranger and their specific needs to make a really unique and interesting boot that fills a hole in the market especially in this Barefoot world where you just can't get a zero drop wide toe box boot with any amount of thickness to protecting you from the ground that most people actually need and it's not without its flaws because it's not going to be the most durable boot in the world it's not going to give you the most arch support the outsole being eight millimeters thick isn't going to last as long as a big old chunky Vibram V100 so it's not the perfect boot for all situations and there's certain aspects you have to consider when buying this boot but for this lens of the perfect African Ranger boot I think we did it I think it turned out really good I'm really happy with it it's really cool it's comfortable and it fills that need for me of a boot that just is as natural and anatomical as possible while still being a boot and I love it so let me know what you guys think what you would change change what your opinion is of this and check them out the link in my description like I said there's only 600 that are available in stock right now the rest will be on pre-order so if they're sold out use the pre-order link and watch that roseannevil 2 video for sizing you'll want to do that I promise and thank you guys for supporting these collaborations they're my favorite thing to do I get to convince these Brands to make a boot that doesn't exist on the market that fills a hole that we have all wanted at least for me I wanted a boot like this for really long and that your guys's support allows me to do that and so I'm very grateful for everything you guys do supporting these collaborations and the brand and the channels that we do because it's so fun it's a dream job for me so thank you guys see ya oh [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Rose Anvil

Views: 429,592

Keywords: rose anvil, best boots, jim green, south africa, best work boots, leather boots, jim green boots, boot review, carl murawski, african ranger, jim green footwear, how its made, mens style, best boots 2023, work boots, mens style 2023, red wing, boots for men, nicks handmade boots, best leather boot, hiking boots, best cheap boots, jim green african ranger, mens boots, work boot, rose anvil review, thursday boots, red wing boots, nicks boots, jim green razorback

Id: C68wzVHQqYQ

Length: 18min 34sec (1114 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2023