 I've had these boots for nearly eight months and I've tried to wear them a lot because they look like they deserve to be worn hard. This is Wicket and Craig Oil Latigo or Latigo. And it's a really great leather in comfort and feel and honestly I think we'll continue to patina well. Let's take a look. G'day, welcome to Bootlossophy and my name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on. The Wajik people of Nungabuja. This is the Bordon Tucano boot. I put up an unboxing video of it last May which you can see up there in the corner. And so I've been able to put it to the wear test for about eight months. I made a joke in my Instagram account that I forgot to break it in but of course I have. Full disclosure, I have a lot of boots so rotation for me is pretty crazy and maybe I've put in a couple of hundred or so kilometers wearing them or about a hundred hundred and fifty miles. Not a lot but as you can see they're in good condition but they are broken in, the joke aside. And the uppers have definitely relaxed into the folds and creases that they'll take on in life. I always have a problem categorizing this style of lace-up boot. Similar to the Iron Ranger in the bulky toe cap but also low profile enough to be casual would you call this style a service boot or a work boot in its aesthetic? Bordon call them jumper boots so they lean towards the service boot side. To me they're built like a service boot but the wider toe box and the blunt nose seems to tick them over into work boot looks. They have a 16-inch shaft, a two-piece backstay, wide rounded toe box and a block heel and they could fall into either category. The eye-catching details are the thick raft of a midsole that the uppers are stitched down onto the constantly moving red color of the uppers and the wide forefoot. You can pair these with any denim whether slim fit or regular and they also go well with earth colored or neutral colored chinos for a casual look. I have three other pairs of boots from Bordon and you can see my review of the second ever Group MTO Tucano boot up here. Now Bordon was founded in Colombia in 2019 by Andrea Silva and Natalia Herrera. They started by making shoes and Chelsea boots in Europe for the Colombian market and then in 2021 they moved production back to Colombia and started to make these combat style boots. Their business model was centered around Group MTOs opening up their books I think two times a year and then making the boots after orders are received and confirmed. In this way and selling only through their website prices are kept down because inventory and warehousing costs are minimized. But this also ties in to one of their corporate values which is to maintain an eco-friendly production process, use natural materials and cut down on waste. While the uppers are sourced from European tanneries as well as US tanneries for quality reasons they combine these with locally sourced vegetarian leather for mid-soles and in-soles and the other leather parts. Their first Group MTO in September of 2021 of the Tucano boot produced a Blake stitched boot because I understand they couldn't actually source a Goodyear welting machine in Colombia. If you want to know the difference between Blake stitched Goodyear welted and stitched down construction go and see my video about the different types of construction up there. Their second Group MTO was in November of 2021 in which they switched back to a stitched down form of construction. A third Group MTO took place in April 2022 in which they also offered a plain-toed service boot called the 1S. In this batch they also introduced leather choices from other tanneries like Mariam from Italy. In August of 2022 their fourth batch included a rugged Chelsea boot called the Isidro and you can watch my review of them up there. This particular version in Wicked and Craig's Oil Letigo came out in their April 2023 MTO batch. I've lost touch a bit but I think they finished their seventh batch and their next probably around April 2024 I think will be their eighth. I'll leave a link to their website below but unless you're watching this when an MTO is actually live you'll probably have to sign up for their newsletter to let you know when they start another batch. But let's dive into the construction. As usual I'll start at the bottom. Now all my other tucana boots are either Commando Souls or in the case of one Isidro Chelsea on a thick Vibram wedge sole. These are my first Bordeaux boots on a studded rubber outsole similar to a Day Night outsole. Now Day Night is a UK company but so is this from Itzhide which I'm currently researching. Boot collectors will know about Vibram's history with their Commando lugged sole but I'm actually following a trail that says British manufacturer Itzhide were actually the ones who invented that particular Commando lugged pattern during the Second World War in response to kitting out the new units of Marine Commando raiding parties being formed to raid the coast of Nazi occupied Europe. This studded outsole is first glued and then stitched to the midsole and the uppers using the stitched down form of construction. The uppers are lasted or they're shaped around the mould of a boot shape and then the edges are flared out and sewn directly to the midsole and through that to the outsole. You can see the stitch both on top of the midsole edge and at the bottom of the outsole. Looking from the top you can see the uppers flared out in the front of the boot so the stitched down construction is in the front three quarters of the boot while the back is glued and then nailed to the midsole. Again looking from the top you can see two stitches in white the first stitching the uppers to the midsole only and then the outsole is glued on underneath and the second stitch goes through the whole lot that's why you only see one stitch at the bottom and as a design style the stitches at the top are white while the stitch underneath is in red. The heel which is a stacked leather and a rubber top lift is glued and also nailed to the midsole. The midsole is Colombian veg tanned leather and it's about seven or eight millimetres thick which is really pretty thick. The rubber outsole is five mills thick so you have well over a centimetre of protection under your feet. Inside the boot is a hand shaped five millimetre leather insole and between that and the midsole is a cork filler embedded into which is a steel and leather shank piece. The two shank pieces goes in between the heel and the ball of the foot to provide arch support and torsional stability over rough ground and up ladders. The leather shank piece further reinforces that gap and creates this bow under the arch and finally inside the boot is a heel to arch leather sock liner with a thin foam pad directly under the heel. Up on top this is a real toe cap. It really is a second layer of leather on top of the toe box. The uppers are from Wicked and Craig a tannery founded in 1867 and situated in Pennsylvania famous for their veg tanned leathers. In fact I might be wrong but I think I read somewhere that they may be the only solely veg tanned tannery left in the US. This is the oil litigo or lettego leather which is veg tanned and then dipped in a mixture of oils and waxes. The combination makes it strong and durable but also very flexible. The oils and tallows give it a great pull up effect. In fact it's so full of oils and waxes that initially it seems to leach oil a little bit and a lot of brushing was required to spread it out. The heel counter is leather and inside there's a rough out patch to help with grip in the heel. The quarters are cut a little further forward and I'm told this helps to snug up the fit when you cinch up the laces. The vamp is lined with Bordon signature red leather lining but the shaft itself is unlined which is a bit of a shame I really love that red lining. There's a very functional leather pull loop at the back but my personal inclination is that it's actually probably not necessary you know. It's easy enough to pull up the boot because of the eyelet and speed hook configuration and the pull loop always catches the back of my pants. The hardware is five antique brass eyelets and three antique brass speed hooks. This combination will allow you to really open up the throat and put your feet in or pull them out. The hardware, it isn't backed but they are pressed well enough that I've found that they don't actually scratch the tongue which is itself a semi-gusseted tongue gusseted right up to the first speed hook that you get to which is really pretty high up in an average boot. The stitching is really good. The stitch down construction is not the most amazing stitch density but it is even and consistent and clean which done by hand is pretty good for a small boot maker. The stitching on the uppers is also consistent and clean. It's triple stitched at the toe cap, quadruple stitched at the quarters, double stitched in the backstay and single stitched everywhere else. The leather strip backing the hardware and the collar is well and cleanly stitched. As for leather care, this oil litigo is easy to look after. Being so rich with oil, I found that in the early days it did seem to pick up dust so it needed quite a lot of brushing initially but that's the general recommendation of any leathers anyway. Brush your boots often to prevent the buildup of dust, dirt and sandy particles which can cause your boots long term harm. As for conditioning, I didn't think this needed a lot but unless you're constantly walking through puddles and soaking it through. I'd probably look to conditioning this maybe two to four times a year depending on where. I think any good oil or wax based conditioner can be used with a caution about the heavier mink oils in Obanoff's type greases. I've used Venetian shoe cream on this and it turned out well and once I did get it soaked and when it dried felt a little canvassy. So I used a bit of liquid meats with oil and it absorbed it quite quickly and restored itself without darkening much. Because it's oil infused and the oil will move and pull up inside it, the leather will scuff but that's life and patina. As for sizing, Bordeaux recommends that you size a half down from your Brannock size or they say take the same size in your American Heritage brands. For example, if you take an 8 in Iron Rangers take an 8 in these. I measure US 8.5 on the Brannock device and I wear 9 or 9.5 on different brands of sneakers but my usual size in American Heritage boots in Iron Rangers is 8 in D width. In these I ordered a US 8 which in their European size is 41. Their boots come in E, double E and triple E widths and I got an E width. The extra width doesn't seem to be a problem and maybe an European E is really a slightly wider D. The wide round tow box is really comfortable because it is quite anatomical and it just doesn't squeeze. In terms of comfort, I did find these were hard under the foot. I'm not sure what the issue was but these are my first pair of Bordeaux that were not on commando or wage soles. So maybe the outsole itself was the issue or maybe the hardness of the thick midsole was an issue combined with this thin rubber outsole or maybe in this pair the cork filling was applied a little less thick than normal, I don't know. I end up putting in a thin foam Dr. Scholl's comfort insert and the problem was solved. Braking was not particularly easy primarily because of that thick leather in the midsole. It took a while to flex and there was quite a few days of heel slip and no blisters but it came close. Eventually the sole construction broke in and the snugness of the heel and the waist became an advantage rather than the punishment because it really gripped the back half of my foot. Over the last few months the uppers became more and more malleable and as you can see they've settled into the curves and creases that fit into the movement of my ankles and feet. They are really comfortable and while a snug fit around the heel and the waist the room in the toes is just right. These were just under US $350 but you can also get waxy suede versions around a 330 mark. I just don't find that bad value. I know it's a small and relatively unknown maker from South America but I have seen them improve in fits and starts from batch to batch improving quality control and consistency. I'm sure you'll find other reviews that say there's an issue here, an issue there but these are handmade boots from a small workshop and so I don't expect vibrant consistency. What you do get though is sturdy reliability in a good looking boot with good natural materials. I think they're good for that price. Overall then most of what I see is on the plus side of the ledger. The hardness under the foot is strange and all my other Bordeaux boots have been really comfortable. I'm not even sure I put that on the minus side really just somewhere in the middle under slightly annoying and the Dr. Shawl insert just fixed it. Hey if you like this review please don't forget to click on the like button and if you're not subscribed yet why not and if you like to see more boot reviews click on subscribe as well and the YouTube algorithm will bring you more of those. Until the next one, stay safe and I'll see you soon.