 G'day, how you going? Welcome to Bootlossophy and my name is Tech. I come to you from Wajik Country in Western Australia and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land. Today I'm going at it Hammer and Anvil looking at the Red Wing Blacksmith in Copper, Rough and Tough. This is the Red Wing Blacksmith Boot model 3343 in Copper, Rough and Tough oiled tanned leather. It's made by Red Wing Shoes which was founded in 1905 and based in Red Wing, Minnesota in the USA. Red Wing is a huge company with a huge range of models and not just in their heritage range but also in their modern technical work boots range but also across other brands that they own as well such as Works that's spelt with an X, Irish Setter and Vask. Now I don't really care where their boots are made as long as they are well made but for those of you who do care their heritage boots like the blacksmith continue to be made in America. In 1987 Red Wing became an even more vertically integrated company by buying SB Foot tanning which had itself been around since 1872. Red Wing now tanned their own hides, owned the factories that make the boots, owned their own retail stores in America and sell around the world through agents and franchise retailers. You can guess from this that Red Wing is actually a huge company. They rank in the top 50 largest private companies in Minnesota with revenue estimates of around 570 million US dollars a year and they have about 1600 employees. The blacksmith model is similar to the famous Iron Ranger without the toe cap and some other differences like the roll top of the collar and the different backstay shape. While it comes in a variety of different uppers this model number 3343 comes in copper rough and tough which is one of their best sellers. It's a plain toe work boot design six inches high from the heels to the top of the shaft, a good year welded for recraftability, rubber vibram sole and a solid rubber vibram block heel. It uses the same Red Wing number eight last as the Iron Ranger which means it has this bulbous toe box shape and takes on an immediate work boot aesthetic especially in this copper rough and tough leather which just adopts patina like there's no tomorrow. If you're new to boots I'll explain some of the terms I've used like last, good year welting, vibram and patina I'll explain all that later on. For now looking at the style of the boot it's clearly a casual boot, more manual work related than the newer service boot designs that you can easily wear to a professional office. Particularly in this copper rough and tough you can definitely wear this as a manual job work boot if your job doesn't require protective toes because this does not have a steel toe cap. It's tough enough to wear digging things and making things on the job site and the grippy lugged sole gives a comfortable good grip. It's also quite a versatile casual boot, versatile in the whole casual wear spectrum but not in any business casual sense. So not for going into a professional office but pretty much capable of being brushed up after work and meeting the mates at the pub for a drink or going to the local tutorial with your spouse or even going to friends for a barbecue or a picnic. It's suitable to go for a walk, take your dog or even with some comfort reservations going on a longish forest trail hike. That means it's versatile enough to wear with jeans and personally in this color I think any kind of jeans from regular cut to slim and tapered, cuffed or not cuffed, light or dark washed, ripped or unripped, not my style ripped. Denim suits this boot like Jin does with Tonic really. At the same time you can pair these with earth tones like browns and khakis as well as neutral tones like black and navy and even white trousers if you're that way inclined. Up top because of the overall casual vibe they'd go with anything from a t-shirt over ripped jeans to a smart Oxford cloth button down over khaki chinos maybe, layered with a rough textured sports coat or maybe a chore coat and an over shirt or the good old-fashioned leather jacket even. In fact taking this hardy tough design and leather not much you can't wear it with other than a suit. Do not wear it with a suit. Now let's take a look at the construction of these boots and for those of you new to boots I'll explain some of the terms I used earlier. For those of you who know this already bear with me. Taking a look at the bottom these outsole are from Vibram their mini lug sole model number 430. Vibram is an Italian company started by Vitale Bramani in the 1930s when a number of his mountaineering friends died on a climb and he always maintained that if they had had good boots with grippy soles they would not have fallen to their deaths. So he invented the rubber commando sole you'd recognize this pattern anywhere radiating lugs at the outside of the sole and in the center a series of star-shaped studs. The original commando sole has very deep lugs affording great grip especially outdoors. These are the mini lug version in that the lugs are shorter and they're kind of recessed into a hollow in the center of the sole. This gives them superior grip while at the same time looking slim and sleek especially from the side allowing the boot to be worn in more casual and less worky situations without actually standing out. The rubber compound is oil resistant hardy yet with enough give so that you don't feel like you're walking on studded wood. The heel is a one-piece solid rubber block heel and while it has a red wing logo I'm pretty sure it's also by Vibram. The sole is attached to the uppers using the Goodyear welt construction method. This is where a strip of leather or other similar material called the welt goes around the circumference of the boot. This one has a leather welt. The inside edge of the welt is sewn to the uppers on the inside and the outside edge of the welt is sewn on to the sole construction. This one is a 270 degree Goodyear welt as opposed to a 360 degree Goodyear welt. In the 270 degree Goodyear welt rather than have the welt go all the way around the boot it goes about three quarters of the way around the front of the boot. The advantages of a Goodyear welt construction is that it is easily recraftable and it's more water resistant. The stitches and glue holding the outsole to the rest of the boot can be taken apart and the outsole replaced without touching and possibly damaging the uppers. Since the stitches holding the sole to the uppers and the uppers to the sole are different and none of them go all the way through the boot from the inside to the outside, the welt then forms a barrier. There's less of a chance of water that wicks through the boot through a stitch hole because there isn't one that goes all the way through. The disadvantage of a Goodyear welt is that it's a little more clunky. You can see the evident ledge that kind of juts out. It works for work or service boots but not so much for dressier boots and shoes and in fact that's why some boots such as these are 270 degree Goodyear welted. The heel portion is glued and nailed and not sewn through an intervening welt. This allows the back of the boot down to the heel to keep a sleek smooth line without a ledge sticking out. Now moving up inside the boot if you think about it if you saw a thick leather welt around the edge of the boot you're going to create a cavity or depression in the middle of the boot right. In these boots that cavity is filled with cork and then a thick 3 or 4 mil thick insole is put on top. This combination of leather and cork inside the boot is the boot enthusiasts ideal combination because both materials are meant to compress with your weight and shape the insole into the negative image of your feet so making it more comfortable as if the boots were tailor-made for your feet. Inside the cork layer is embedded a triple rib steel shack not very airport friendly but at twice the width of normal steel shanks they give you super support under the arch bridging that gap between heel and foot pad and they give you strong torsion stability on rough ground or going up ladders. Still inside there's a leather heel pad with the red wing logo embossed for extra comfort at the heel and to protect your heel from the clinch nails driven through to hold the heel on securely. The uppers are made from SB foot tannings copper rough and tough leather. I've seen it described as full grain oil tan leather but I've also seen it described as distressed waxy newbuck. Looking at it I tend toward a slightly distressed oil newbuck. I can see the grain texture of the cow on the surface it hasn't been sanded and buffed very much like I expect newbuck to be and in fact it seems very similar to the waxy slightly corrected grain that's crazy horse leather which is a kind of newbuck. If you know for sure what it is I mean for sure let me know in the comments below. In this copper color it's a beautiful leather and it patinas at a glance. Patina is the texture and variation that leather takes on with wear and boot collectors treasure this as a way of individualizing the boots that you own. In some lights it's a dirty brown in other lights it's a reddish tarnished copper color like copper pipes that you've left in the weather. Whatever it is full grain on newbuck it is super super tough. The design is a simple four pieces of two to two and a quarter mil thick leather made up of the vamp and the toe box the two quarters and a single piece backstay. Very elegant because of the simplicity despite the work boot aesthetic very simple lines emphasized by the contrasting white stitching double stitch everywhere except for the famous redwing triple pilgrim stitch at the quarters. The pilgrim stitching machine stitches all three threads at the same time forming a complicated looping stitch. It's so rare and so old that red wings machines are maintained by their own specialized maintenance force. The boot is mainly unlined except for a canvas lining in the vamp and toe box. I believe the toe structure is held up in this bump toe with a leather toe stiffener while the internal heel counter in here is a compressed cardboard heel counter. The internal heel counter is covered on the inside by a piece of rough out or suede to to catch in your sock. The toe stiffener and the heel counter maintain the shape of the boot and helps your heels stick snugly in place. The boot features four brass eyelets three brass bead hooks generously sized but not backed just pressed in and the hardware splayed out at the back to hold them onto the leather. The tongue is semi-gusseted up to that first bead hook. This makes it very secure and it doesn't slip around like on some boots. Finishing at the top the collar is finished off with a rolled leather edge. Being a rough and tough leather I found that this leather doesn't need a lot of care. Whatever it is it is definitely oil tan because I can feel that it's almost pull up packed with oils inside and the surface is moist and waxy. I have given these a light wipe with Timberlands newbuck conditioner but mostly these have just been brushed and brushed and brushed. I don't really recommend a waxy conditioner because even if it isn't newbuck it has a dry paper-ish texture and you do not want to put a layer of wax on top of it. Honestly I find that brushing has been the best maintenance for these boots because of the oil that's in them. I can almost see the oils and waxes moving around and clean up the surface of the boots and just brushing develops the highs and lows that create these dark and light patches and brings up the patina that's so looked for. However sometimes particularly they use these as-work boots I don't. You will need to clean them and if you do or if the leather eventually dries and feels dry you will have to condition them. There's only so much brushing can do. So the leather is tough enough to clean them with saddle soap. Make sure you brush loose dirt and sand off first. You do not want to combine the grit from that sand with sticky stuff like saddle soap or conditioners that forms an abrasive grease that would be the death of the leather. My method of saddle soaping is to use an applicator brush and lather up in the tin and then brush over sections of the boot in a circular motion then wipe that section dry before I move on to the next section. I don't rinse the soap off because it has waxes in the soap and most saddle soaps aren't full of glycerin like hand soaps. As for conditioning well it can't go wrong using red-winged leather care products on a red-winged boot but the only word of warning I have is not to use their leather oil or mink oil. Both will significantly darken the leather. If you care more for waterproof protection maybe then the look then well okay but if you care about this color and want to protect it for as long as possible I use their boot cream the one with Neitzfoot oil in it. For myself I used big four on these before which do not darken the leather. I think big four doesn't penetrate as deep as red wings oils or creams so it's probably not as waterproof and I probably have to apply it more often but I don't mind. Boot care is quite meditative and I'm not intending to wade across a river in these for that amount of waterproof. I'll put a few links to the products in the description below. How about sizing? As I said earlier these are made in the red-winged number eight last. A last is the usually wooden mold that's in the shape of the foot but it's also in the shape of the ultimate shape of the boot. So a last can have a bulbous toe box and a shapely heel or it can be very sleek and slim at the toes and tuck in at the waist and so on. The shape of the last is ultimately what defines the shape of the boot as it's made. The boot maker or machine if it's factory made pulls the leather around the last to get the shape fixes it to the last tightly while he then attaches the insole and then once released the leather takes on the shape of the design. Anyway the red-winged number eight last is quite a roomy last. My true Brannock size forget sneaker sizes go and get your proper size measured at a shoe store. My true Brannock size is an eight and a half D in US sizing. The D signifies width which for me is average. UK sizes are one number down and their width letters are all over the place but generally an average width is a G. In most American heritage boots they size half a size large and so I got an eight D in these same as my iron ranges and my six inch classic mock toes even though those are on a different last. In these blacksmiths they fit about the same as the iron ranger fits nicely and no tightness at all. They're roomy in the toes loose but not floppy in the waist and the heel. I prefer a more snug fit and I like to feel like my boots are hugging my feet but I don't think I could have gone a half another half size down. To get to the fit I like I put in a slightly padded removable insole in both these and the iron ranges or if I take those out and I wear very thick boot socks. The arch support is pretty good once I snug them up and I feel supported in the ankles. The soles even without the padded insole feel comfortable and honestly the more I wear them and the more my feet put in an impression into the leather and cork the more comfy I feel in them. I have worn them for nearly full days walk in the forest reserve perhaps not very challenging terrain but I didn't feel any discomfort. The low mini lugs don't feel like they're pushing up into my feet or anything so they're quite comfortable. Now these are bought lightly used from eBay so it's probably unfair to discuss break-in but I believe they were so lightly used that I can almost treat them as new so my impression of nearly out of the box is pretty good. The leather while tough is supple so no experience of that leather digging in or anything. There were no hot spots and no real heel slip mostly I think because they are the right size often the key to a good break-in. If you're not at all sure about sizing get some advice from Redwing or Try Grail and Co that's G-R-A-Y-L-E dot Co. It's a website that collects reviews and sizing data from loads of people across different boots and makeups. The stats go toward averaging out the experience and offering you a size for your feet in a particular boot. The more people who enter a review and the stats the more accurate that sizing will be so go check it out G-R-A-Y-L-E dot Co. As I said I bought these on eBay. I have a little checklist that I go through to do a due diligence on secondhand boots which so far has held up for me except on a couple of occasions when my desire for a boot got the better of my due diligence process and my common sense. If you'd like to know what I look for let me know in the comments below and I'll do a video on it. Anyway I checked that these were hardly used not even lightly used the heel was in really good nick the sole as you can see is hardly marked and there were no foot marks in the leather in sole. I got them for just over 200 Aussie dollars a steel when they sell brand new here for over 560 Aussie. So for me the cost was a steel but what about if you bought them new? Well I think in the US they sell for about 300 US dollars so let's take that for a measure. What do you get? You get a heritage maker's design and make construction. You get a really good leather and quality materials for the sole, insole and overall construction including that triple ribbed steel shank. You get Goodyear welter which is like the gold mark of boots. Okay it is produced in the thousands so maybe QC can be a little bit slippery. I haven't seen that in this boot by the way but I've heard that mistakes happen. Leather selection can be a bit iffy and stitching can be a little slip shot. All in all though as a US 300 dollar boot there's not that many to beat it especially if you like this bump toe work boot design. In Australia at 560 bucks that's a bit more iffy. You're starting to compare them in prices RM Williams and all that refined boot making that goes into those even into their work boots. I didn't and I would not buy them new in Australia so finding an almost untouched pair on eBay at 200 dollars it's fantastic. I'm not saying the exact bargain is available but you have to look don't you. So there you have it the Redwing blacksmith model 33 43 in copper rough and tough. I hope you liked the review let me know in the comments below and don't forget to please click on the like button if you liked the video. It will help me get this video out to more people who might like to see it and it will help me grow my channel and if you haven't already by the way please click on the subscribe especially if you want to see more boot reviews. I will be bringing you more boot reviews and unboxing videos and whatever else as I go so don't miss out on them. Until then take care and I'll see you soon.