 G'day, welcome to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Tech and Brutalosophy is all about boots. I come to you from Wajik Country in Perth, Western Australia, and I recognize the traditional custodians of this land. Today, I'm going to take a look at the New York bootmaker, Parker's brand's Capto Richmond boot. This one in Gaucho Moose from Charles F. Stead, Tannery in Leeds, England. So before we start with the boot, let's rewind and take a look at the maker Parker's brand. I've reviewed several other Parker's boots before, like this one up here. They're plain-toe Allen boot in dark rose Dublin leather from Halloween. Those were factory seconds and in the review, I showed that the so-called QC defect was livable with and that the factory second price is totally worth the cost. Then there's the iconic green kudu boot up here, which is making a comeback. Such a distinctive boot with southern African antelope leather. The southern African antelope is called a kudu, which is also tanned by Charles F. Stead in Leeds, which specializes in suede and exotic leathers that shows the animal's scars and veins tanned in the leather. I've also taken a look at another Parker's Capto Richmond boot, this one up here, in the original almond shape number 18 last and in the raised reverse wax mohawk, rough out leather again from CF Stead. So just very briefly, Parker's was started in 2018 by Andrew Savisco, a former stock analyst who saw the need in America for quality boots that didn't cost a fortune. Parker's is a small batch manufacturer, which means that Andrew will make small runs with different leathers and make-ups of his boots, and often when those items run out, they run out. As a one-man band contracting independent factories to make his boots, Andrew doesn't run to keeping large stocks of hides to maintain stock boots, so the changes to make-ups are literally confined to small batches. Andrew is extremely customer focused and attempts to support the American labor and supply chain, but Parker's has been particularly hard hit by the supply chain problems caused by COVID, especially over 2021, when Parker's practically ran out of material to make boots with. You might want to watch my video comparing Parker's to Grant Stone, up here, to see my take on the vision and values that drive Andrew. In its short history, Parker's has developed a fiercely loyal group of enthusiasts, drawn mainly I think by the mission that Andrew set himself. I'm not an American, and so the drive for maintaining a U.S. supply chain isn't the appealing factor for me, but the drive into a clear mission does resonate, as well I think because of the very personal and open relationship that Andrew has with his customers. Those of us who have bought Parker's in the past have been empathetic, very empathetically concerned for Parker's in Andrew's supply chain problems. For now, those problems are less acute, and Andrew has started phase two of his development of Parker's. Amongst other things, he's developed a relationship with a second American factory, as well as generally diversified supply chains, and that has met contracting some patterns to a Spanish factory, while still finishing and maintaining them, as well as other patterns in New York state. Phase two has also met the development of different widths, different new styles, upgraded components in heel counters and toe stiffeners, upgraded shanks, and making the cap toe pattern a true cap toe. At the same time Parker's continues to use their own 602 last, designed by Andrew, and named after the serial number of the U.S. Navy landing ship Tank that his grandfather was on in World War II with the Korean War. So as things change, they stay the same. Taking a look at the boot, this is the Richmond model, a cap toe service boot with plain stitching at the toe cap. Parker's also has a brogue cap toe model called the Delaware. A service boot is a widely general category, but mainly its design looks back at the type of boots issued to service men and women in the world wars. Modern service boot patterns are less bulky, especially in the toe box, and they've been sleeked up to be more dressy. Andrew will switch up leathers and soles, but also switch subtle differences in the design of different makeups of the same model. Andrew will switch between a one piece and a two piece backstay, different all eyelets versus eyelets and speed hook combinations, and in this case, a slightly different height. Most Parker service boot patterns are six inches high from the heel to the top of the shaft. This one is just under five inches, so it feels more like a World War II U.S. Navy or U.S. Marines boondocker. The color of the moose leather makes it even more reminiscent of the boondocker used in the Pacific War. The color and texture of the moose hide and the rugged commander sole, the lugs also apparent from the side, make this a very rugged looking and feeling boot. It has a medium toe spring, helping it look like rugged work wear. The toe spring of a boot or shoe is the slightly turned up tip of the boot, or the distance between the ground and the tip of the boot when you lay the boot flat. This one is definitely noticeable at about three and a bit centimeters or just over an inch. That sounds a lot, but it's not particularly aggressive in the world of boots. A boot is boot with a toe spring to make it more comfortable when you're walking. It doesn't need the sole to bend as much when you walk. You tend to roll a bit as your foot bends forwards. This means it's easier during break in and over time, theoretically, a little less creasing at the vent. Interesting historical fact, in olden times shoes with little or no toe spring indicated you were of the richer classes. We're talking the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Shoes with no or low toe spring tended to be bespoke shoes with very thin, flexible leather soles that indicated folk who didn't need to do much walking. They were driven from the manor house to the club, don't you know? Walking around the manor was all on carpet, eh? What? What? On the other hand, workers had sturdier boots with thicker soles and needed toe spring to be more comfy as they walked around all day, or even when kneeling. The rugged and almost aggressively textured look of this moose leather combined with the pattern makes the boot exclusively casual. But I think it's not an exclusively rugged casual look. I'm sure you can wear this with light mid-wash or faded jeans with check-fee shirts and rugged jackets like a lumber jack, but you can also wear it with almost western-style jeans, shirts and jackets, and you can get away with these boots in a smart casual occasion under chinos and t-shirts, polo shirts, or even button-down shirts and wear them on afternoons at the pub or lunch at a cafe or at a barbecue with friends. They're built tough so you can take them on a hike, wearing anything from jeans to cargo pants or even modern technical gear. The sandy earthy light brown leather is certainly versatile and goes with denim, brown and other earth tones. It will pop with dark colors like black or navy, and I've seen someone on Instagram wear them with red jeans. Not my look, but very interesting contrast. But they are certainly not dressy. I'm not sure they're dressy enough to wear as business casual, you know, with nice dressy pants or button-down and a blazer. That's probably a little too dressy for these. Now let's take a look at the construction. I usually go from the bottom up, but in this case this is such a very interesting leather, so let's start from the top and make our way down. Right off the bat, this is called Gaucho Moose from the Charles F. Stead tannery in Leeds, England. Truman boots have also used this leather before. I think Gaucho is the color, maybe I don't know, reminiscent of the soil and the pampas? I don't know, never been there. I can't see why else a South American cowboy Gaucho would be likened to a moose. Anyway, Charles F. Stead is a renowned tannery in England that's been around since the 1800s, the 1890s to be exact. It's always been famous for tanning suede and chamois and in recent years made some very interesting exotic leathers from less commonly used hides like Southern African antelope called kudu and in this case moose leather or more accurately Scandinavian elk. This is a full grain leather as opposed to a suede. When a full thickness hide is received at the tannery it's split, running it through a horizontal rolling razor that splits the hide. The top half with the side that used to have hair on is taken off to make smooth full grain leathers or they turned over and made into rough out. Sometimes the grain or used to be hairstyles is sanded or corrected into top grain leather or sanded even more to reveal some of the nap in the fibers and then made into newbuck. The bottom half where the flesh used to be on one side is sanded and buffed and made into suede. This is that top full grain leather. That means the moose or Scandinavian elk hide is split and this is the top half. The top or grain side is not corrected and tanned as it is. This means that all the surface texture of the animal, the hair holes and the pores, the scars and the scratches it had in life, they're all revealed in this leather. Now just in case you're a bit squeamish, as in the case of kudu from southern Africa the animals are not killed just for their skin. In the case of kudu they are pests of farmers because they grow into large herds that do damage across crops and the savannah and they're culled. The meat is distributed to villages and the skin sold to tenories. It's the same with kangaroos in Australia, not the cute bouncy big mice that you might think. Roos are terrible pests and quite over stocked in the wild so they're often culled. The meat is sold to restaurants as a native delicacy, the oils made into bush medicine and the skin sold to tenories. Scandinavian elk is the same. According to the website Wild Sweden there are more elk in Sweden per square kilometer than in any country in the world. About 100,000 are shot during a highly regulated hunting season so that the herds are kept to a total of 300,000 animals in the country in order to maintain the population. About 100,000 are born in spring and so allowed to recycle the total population. The hunting culling is a conservancy exercise to keep the population healthy. The hunted elk meat is shared apparently within very set rules but also sold in butchers and supermarkets for various Scandinavian dishes. The leather that's used in these boots are beautifully textured and feel quite dry, not unlike the stead kudu used by Parkhurst. Parkhurst tends not to wax or polish the boots whereas some boot makers like Grant Stone will polish up kudu and textured leathers before they box and send them off to customers. It is extremely soft and supple, feels nappy like suede but it isn't and when I first got these they almost felt like the canvas you get in lovingly used basketball high tops. As I said earlier it's a five inch boot rather than the usual six inches. The collar is reinforced but it's unfinished. It has eight brown color eyelets, one more than I'd expect with a shorter boot but aesthetically surprisingly balanced. The tongue is semi-gusseted up to the fifth eyelet pleasing because with the very supple leather it stops the soft tongue from sliding around. The tongue is a little short. Often when I lace up to the eighth eyelet and tie the knot the tongue gets caught up in the knotting or annoyingly slips below the knot. The toe box is very lightly structured. I can feel a stiffener, you can hear it. Probably Parkhurst's usual solastic stiffener but it's very soft and you can easily depress that toe cap. The toe cap in these is not a real toe cap, it's not an extra piece of leather sewn on top of the vamp. It's actually a toe cap sewn onto the cut off vamp. The vamp piece doesn't come all the way down to the toe. The stitching is double and triple stitched, especially where it counts for sturdiness and long-term use. The stitching is neat, it's not without fault but with the rugged vibe that Parkhurst boots make they're not glaringly unattractive. Certainly they don't look like structural mistakes, just a symptom of your handmade nature. A human hand has guided the sewing machine and as we all know human hands are not perfect. The heel is stiffer than the toe box. I'm pretty sure that's an external solastic heel counter. I can feel it under this backstay. It's a two piece backstay, the strip that covers the stitching of the quarter at the back and the heel cut backstay that covers the heel counter. Inside the boot is unlined. Honestly with this soft suede feeling leather it's perfect unlined. The whole front of the boot is lined with some soft leather for comfort. Looking inside there's a solid piece of veg tent insole glued in and on top of that under your heel is another short piece of darker veg tent leather for comfort and protection. The construction method is Goodyear welting. A thin strip of leather called the welt is run around the edge of the uppers sewn onto the uppers on the inside and then the outsole is glued on and reinforced with a stitch that goes through the welt and the outsole. This is a 360 degree Goodyear welt. It runs right around the boot. This is seen as the gold standard of shoe construction because a Goodyear welted sole is re-soleable or at least more easily re-soleable and it's meant to be more water resistant because there are no stitch holes that go all the way through the boot from the outside to wick water inside directly in. In this case this is a split reverse veg tan leather welt. That thin strip of leather is split halfway through from the inside edge. The bottom half that split is sewn onto the uppers as normal but the upper half that split is flanged outwards and then pushed up against the uppers on the outside forming an extra moisture barrier. Inside the sole inside the cavity caused by that encircling welt Andrew uses cork as a midsole filler. Glue to that underneath is a veg tan leather midsole. This leather cork leather in and midsole construction is meant to be another gold standard in boot making. It's meant to be more conforming to the shape of your feet as you wear and compress those natural materials over time. Inside that cork midsole is a fiberglass shank. A shank runs this gap between the heel and the foot pad giving you arch support and torsional stability as well. Most people think that a shank should be steel and many boot makers will use steel but I'm very happy with fiberglass. It's light and if you can make bulletproof vests from fiberglass your shank should be okay. Also because I travel a lot for my work it's very airport friendly and I appreciate that. Right underneath the outsole is a rubber commando lugged outsole from English sole manufacturers Itzheid. I feel that this is a slightly softer rubber compound than Vibram's Montana commando sole but not so much as you notice a difference when you're walking only when you use your thumbnails to push it in. The heel is made up of a real leather stack on top of the rubber sole layer and then on top of that is a thick Itzheid commando heel. Apart from being glued the heel is also nailed in with clinch nails from the outside. That's partly why the leather heel pad insole is inside there. The clinch nails are driven in from the outside to the inside and when they're driven through and hit the anvil the sharp ends clinch to hold the heel on. The heel pad helps to protect your heels from any bumpy and potentially sharp snags. This thing is well put together. Now how do you take care of this leather? The quick answer is I have no idea but let's just look at this logically. It's not a smooth four grain leather like chrome excel or Dublin or Essex and so on so I'd leave out waxy conditioners. So no wax creams, no Venetian shoe cream, no Sofie Renovateur. Parkers recommend Smith's leather balm for most of their products. I've never used Smith's so I won't comment except to say that it looks like an oil or wax based balm maybe beeswax so I don't think I would use it especially if I wanted to retain this matte dry look to the mousse hide. So feeling the texture I do the usual cleaning methods, a good brushing unless it's heavily soiled then I wipe with a damp cloth to clean it. If there are marks that I don't like I use a stiff suede brush and an eraser. For more thorough cleaning I try Timberland's Renew Buck Cleaner. As for conditioning and I haven't conditioned these yet I'm tempted to use a suede conditioner. I mean this leather is dry and even my hands feel dry just touching it and although it's not nappy it feels like new buck to the touch. Even after conditioning not only do I not want a darkened leather I also don't want to lose that papery dry feel to it. So when I conditioned this I think I'm going to try a roll on suede and new buck conditioner from Echo. You can also I guess try a suede suede spray conditioner just be careful you use the neutral because they come in coloured versions. Tarago also make a similar spray product only not as expensive and then to protect it from marks I try Timberland's Balm Proofer spray. Now as a disclaimer I haven't cleaned or conditioned these yet other than a brushing now and then. So if you use any of the products I've mentioned here and I'll put links to where you can get them in the description below please please test them on an inconspicuous spot first like here. I don't want to be responsible for destroying the colour or texture of your boots all right. When I finally do condition these I'm going to try the Timberland and Echo products only because I've used them before in my spruce kudu and other new bucks and I've got good results. I'll bring you a video on how that went. Okay now let's turn to sizing fit and comfort I'll talk US sizing since these are American boots but for UK and Australian viewers our size numbers are one number down from US so a US 8 is our 7 okay. Right my measured US size on a brannock device is an 8.5 in D or average width in fact I'm ever so slightly more than D in the ball of the foot usually when I buy US heritage style boots I size a half down I find American lasts run a little large unlike European lasts and some American dress shoe lasts where I go true to size so usually in American quality boots I would order an 8d previously before park has offered different widths the a 602 last came in only one width the 602 last is a combination last where the heel is a different width measurement from the ball of the foot so it starts as a B width at the heel I think and then opens up to a D width at the ball of the foot so when you order a size 8 you get a combination B to D width in that size you know I love this last it suits my feet the heel is snug keeps me locked in place the waist is also snug gives me the feeling of our support and the ball of the foot are wide enough not to cause any squeeze at all often that's the spot where you feel the most pain and the toe box is rounded and generous and so your toes don't feel squeezed and you have room to flex I think some people with wide feet may have an issue with this last they may have to size up so if you have any concerns at all get in touch with Andrew through the email on his website and he'll see you right for me I take an eight in all park has boots whether in this 602 last or in their previous 18 last they're usually comfortable but in this case this felt a little more snug all around than my other park has boots I think this speaks of the handmade nature of these boots there will be slight variations to how an individual bootmaker will stretch the uppers around the last some with more strength some with less also this is a pretty stretchy leather so I guess when you pull it over the last it will give more and then when you release it there'll be more of a spring back at any rate after several wears the leather has stretched for me and so is still more snug than my other park has boots but they're not tight apart from that feeling that it was more snug than usual comfort out of the box was great I've never had an uncomfortable break in wearing park has boots the last and nailing the right size for me means that everything just works this sole though vegetarian midsole and thick lug sole it did need a few weeks of breaking in to flex it at the point where my feet flex but it wasn't painful and thank goodness for toe spring right at the full price of 378 us dollars it's the high end of what I buy I will sometimes buy more expensive boots from Truman or whites but I tend to buy those on sale as seconds or from eBay so paying full price for these shows my attitude to value from parkhurst I think they're worth it you get a pretty unique boot and boot leather makeup you get obvious quality in boot design and boot manufacture I can't see anything wrong with these other than some not precise stitching but I think that's forgivable for a rugged handmade boot this building construction leads to durability a good fit and comfort okay the arch support is not as good as an ordinary white arch ease but that combination last helps to make your arches feel supported they're priced in the same range as Grant stone some red-wing models they're more than Thursday and about a hundred less than Truman and Oak Street bootmakers I think that's fair they're made with better materials than entry level Thursdays and they're not as rugged as Truman so I think they sit well in between those two let me say up front I'm biased in a social media thread some of my friends and I are there on the enthusiast group compared notes and we all agreed that the personal connection with Andrew is so good that when we buy another brand we almost feel as if we need to apologize to Andrew so are they worth it a full disclosure done yes I think they're worth it there you have it my review of the parkhurst Richmond boot instead gaucho mousse I hope you like my review I have loads more videos on boot reviews unboxings brand comparisons and other leather goods to come so if you don't want to miss those click on the subscribe button below if you like the video even if you're already subscribed don't forget to click on that too it really helps me out because YouTube recognizes people like the content and will show this to more people who might be interested it'll help me grow my channel so thank you and until the next time take care and I'll see you then