 G'day, welcome to Bootlossophy. How you going? If you're new here, my name is Tech. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, the Wajik people of Nungabuja. Today on Bootlossophy, I'm taking a look at the Taylor Stitch Ranch Boots. This is the Ranch Boot in Saddle Tan Leather from online rugged menswear brand Taylor Stitch. A Ranch Boot is usually a Western work boot. From what I gather, Roper Boots are sometimes Ranch Boots, but Ranch Boots are not always Roper Boots. Basically, Western boots can be categorized into cowboy boots built for riding with a tall and angled cowboy heel. Roper boots are made for those who rope cattle and have a flatter heel and Ranch Boots are for walking and working in with a shorter shaft and a normal block heel. In any case, they are pull-on boots, but not of the Chelsea variety. So it's a little confusing to hear these been called Roper Boots, since they look like Chelsea boots with these elasticated sides. Well, that's because they are Chelsea boots, really. Taylor Stitch obviously made them to be usable as work boots on a farm or cattle station and put them onto a Vibram 430 mini lug sole for that good old country grip. They look like quite a tall boot, but they're only six inches at the shaft. The optical illusion is aided by the sleek design and narrow ankles, which provides a slim feel to the boot. That slim look is reinforced by the almond shaped toe framed by a natural colored storm well. It's actually a very pretty boot, but also feels tough and durable. So that gives you a clue as to what outfits to pair them with. You can wear them in casual social occasions, as well as out in the yard doing some yard work. In a smart casual occasion, this saddle tan leather pops well with gray or black monotone monochrome outfits. Otherwise, they're probably more suited to more relaxed casual occasions where you can wear dark denim and button down shirts or even more relaxing that in faded denim and t-shirts or polo shirts. Light wash denim and t-shirts would also work because you're going into work wear territory there and maybe pull on a shirt over the t-shirt for a beer at the bar. The color is a standout and will go with any neutral tones. These ranch boots are made in Leon, Mexico, the so-called shoe making capital of the world, where contracted factories make shoes and boots for a number of notable American brands from Thursday Boots to Frye, Tacobas, even Wolverine. Taylor Stitch is an online menswear brand with two physical stores in San Francisco, selling rugged menswear from footwear to shirts, pants and jeans, knitwear and outerwear and coats. Apart from ranch boots, they also make and sell their brand in Chuckers and a low plain-toe service boot that they call the trench boot. Alongside the ranch boot, probably the most well-known boot design is the Moto boot, a sleek also low capital boot. The values they speak about are well-made products, constructed well and responsibly built for the long haul. In their mission on their website, they speak of building a better, more responsible company. They talk about making sure the people who work for them and those who work in their partner factories are protected and have access to a better life. They talk about protecting places through predominantly recycling and the use of materials. Now I don't really want to go on and on about it. Sometimes I see mission statements on websites that say great things and sometimes I often make the wonder how much they mean it. As well in this case, some of the clothing are made in China. Now not that that means poor quality and not a country that protects wildlife and the environment necessarily. But that did put a lot of people off. Values and vision statements are about living it and not just saying it. And while their website is sleek and well written in pretty good marketing speak, which can in itself be suspicious, I have researched what they do and I can see that they have put their money with their mouth is through various funding of development funds, charities and some of their partnerships. So let's head straight into the construction of these boots. As usual, I'll start from the bottom and work my way up. The ranch boot is built on top of a Vibram 430 mini lug rubber sole. Vibram, I'm sure you know by now, is an Italian company founded by an Italian mountain climber called Vitali Brimani in the 1930s. They now manufacture in three countries apart from Italy, including in the US, and they're famous for the commando lug sole that Vitali Brimani invented. Now this is a lower profile version of that lug sole. It has the same pattern of radiating and star shaped lugs, but only lower so that while remaining grippy, the profile is low and it can be quite dressy from the side. The heel, as befits ranch work boots, is a lower flat heel to avoid catching it on rope symptoms. There is a thick mini lug top lift on top of a leather heel stack. Now there's not enough information about it, but the heel stack and the midsole, at least from the sanded edges, looks like leather rather than leather-borne. The rubber outsole is glued and stitched to the midsole and welled in a Goodyear-welded form of construction. You can check out my video explaining Goodyear-weld in detail, but basically a strip of leather runs around the edge of the boot. The uppers are sewn to the inside edge of the welt on the inside and on the outside the welt is sewn to the midsole and outsole where the stitches can show through. Looking at the edge you can see the rubber outsole, it's about four millimeters thick and then I think a leather midsole and the edge of the three millimeter thick welt. In this case this welt is a storm welt. That's a welt where a lip is carved into the leather. You can tell because the edge of the lip is finished and not raw cut leather. The lip is then pushed up against the uppers when the welt is sewn through. Goodyear-welded shoes are water resistant and the storm welt lip just increases that water resistance. Inside the boot they use a cork filling to fill the cavity in the foot of the boot caused by the welt. And then on top of that is what looks and feels like a leather covered poron insole. On top of that is a removable leather top foam comfort insole. Frankly it's nothing to shout home about. The foam while comfortably squishy I guess actually feels like styrofoam rather than proper rubber or a good foam and the leather topping it isn't the best. Still inside the boot is fully leather lined it feels nice and soft to the touch but it does wrinkle a lot and in some places it's already looking worn and these boots are less than a year old. The uppers leather outside is in a saddle tan color. The color reminds me of the saddle tan diesel boot from Grant Stone. The Grant Stone saddle tan is from Italian Badalasi Carlo tannery. These are not. They are from La Farc tannery in Mexico. It's not Badalasi Carlo but don't turn your nose up at La Farc. It's well known and it has produced some really well thought of leathers and some of the leather used by for example Thursday can pass off as among the best of that middle range of leathers. These are nice. They are full grain meaning that it's the top layer of the hide and while I think it's slightly corrected to get rid of most of the scars and pores you can still see the animal grain on the surface. It's aging quite well and yes it creases but leather creases. It's not a fine sugary and tight breaking the creasing like top leathers but this is a work boot made for the mud and dirt so it's not that bad. I like the look of it. The color is a real pop and that's probably one of the main reasons why I like this leather. The pattern of the uppers it's that simple. There are two back pieces and a front vamp piece and they're sewn together under both sides of the elastic gore. Some Chelsea boots that are not hole cut have stitching at the vent right at the instep. I think this design with the stitching under the gore makes this a much sleeker slimmer looking design. The gore itself also helps it look tall and sleek. It runs a little narrower and a little longer than some of my other Chelsea boots including my RM Williams boots. The elastic doesn't feel too bad and I think it will last well enough without going flabby. Right at the top the edges are rolled in and there are two pull tabs. They're actually very nice. They're handy pull tabs. Big enough loops to get your fingers in and pull so to leather care. I think this is going to be a relatively easy leather to care for. If you really are cleaning up stables in these boots you will need to hose them down from time to time and saddle soap them. Now I don't think that's going to harm them the leather looks fairly durable but a word of warning if you do hose them down get them wet untreated be prepared to have a heart attack the first time you do it because the water will wet the leather and darken them and create spots but don't panic. Once they dry the color comes back like nothing happened. After that happened to me I experimented and I found that a coat of good old-fashioned dubbing waterproofing wax will protect them from the worst water stains. They will still darken at the creases where the water can creep in and I think I have to reapply the dubbing wax quite frequently but it will work as a waterproofer. If you don't scrub out stables a good brushing every now and then to keep the worst of the scratchy sand and dirt off will do. When they do need conditioning which I don't think is going to be often with this type of leather I use a very waxy conditioner like Venetian Shoe Cream but after conditioning I'd apply another coat of waterproofing wax like like dubbing or a beeswax product. As for sizing these only come in a D or average width so your choices are somewhat limited. I measure a US 8.5 on the brand device in D width but for most American boots I wear a half size down from true. So in Thursdays for example Grant Stone, Parkhurst, Ellen Edmonds, Wolverine, even Truman I wear an 8D. These are an 8D and they fit snug. I have played with taking out that removable insert and adding in a thin vegetarian leather insole and that does relieve the snugness a little bit but it doesn't quite feel right in terms of how it fits. So I persevere with the insole and over time the snugness has decreased. After a while they are still perhaps not my most comfortable fit in terms of narrowness but I can wear them without feeling like they pinch. The plus side is that being snug that means as a Chelsea boot they fit without feeling like they're going to fly off since you can't cinch laces up to tighten them you need that instep and snugness to keep them on. The comfort underfoot is okay. I'm guessing thanks mainly to the poron and the removable insole but I do wish they were made just a tiny bit wider. As for those of you with wide feet I've got no advice. I feel that unlike many boots that come in one width where you can size up a bit I'm not sure that will apply to these. They are made narrow. I suspect that if you size up they might fit you for width but you may find the length a little irritating so if you're wider than a d-width these may not work for you. So now down to value these are listed on the Taylor Stitch website at US $348. Now let's compare them with the boots in that range. Grandstone make Chelsea's that sell for 340 to 370 US bucks depending on the level. I don't have any of the Chelsea boots but based on the quality of your diesel and brass boots that I do have from Grandstone those I think are going to be better made at only a few dollars more. Take Thursday Boot Company they have three different styles of Chelsea's also made in Leon Mexico. They all sell for under 200 US. Now to be honest I think they're as good as these are except these have real Vibram mini lug sole whereas the Thursday boots use their own proprietary day night lookalike soles where the rubber might not be quite as good. It is also possible that Thursdays are a bit less durable than these being the fact that they're actually built more fashion forward. Now as supply chains get better parkers are back and they're now selling a Chelsea boot design made in Europe for 398 US dollars. Being parkers I expect quality and ruggedness to be good. You want a rough work boot type of Chelsea? Well Bordon from Columbia make their Isidro Chelsea in rugged Italian leathers on a Vibram commander sole for 309 US dollars. I have them and they are built as tough as the original Tucano lace up combat boots really great value. So all in all comparable boots put this ranch boot in some serious competition. I can't say that I think they're the best value out of all of that choice. So there you have it. What do you think of these Taylor Stitch ranch boots? They look very attractive in shape and in color. They're versatile in use and wear. On the other hand I'm not sure their material makes them the best value mid-range Chelsea boots out there and their comfort is to me to my feet a tiny bit too snug. 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