 G'day guys, how you going? Welcome to my channel Bootlossophy and if you're new here, my name is Tech. I work and live on Wajat Country and I recognize the traditional owners of this land that we share. Today, I'm looking at the Ellen Edmonds Higgins Mill Weatherproof Boot in Lodon Suede and on a soft commando lug sole. This is a variation of Ellen Edmonds Higgins Mill Boot. I have a pair of the more traditional model, this one here in Brown Chrome Excel, which I'll be reviewing later. But this pair is made from suede, sourced from the UK's famous suede tannery, Charles F. Stead. The Higgins Mill is not an old, tiny boot like the Red Wing Iron Ranger or the Wolverine Thousand Mile Boots, but they were first offered by Ellen Edmonds in the 2010s to plug their gap in the burgeoning service boot category. It's a good-looking service boot style, more dressy than service. More specifically, it's a six-inch plain-toe service boot design on a commando lug sole, darkened brass hardware, and a narrow single-piece backstay. There's nothing fancy about it, although the stitching along the side of the quarters makes it distinctive as a Higgins Mill. The Ellen Edmonds 1757 last is a sleek last, no particular toe bump and no bulbous toe puff. It looks like a 21st century dress shoe design. Even with the casual soft suede uppers and the commando sole, it still looks pretty dressy. Now, that's not a bad thing. That sleek look, and in this lowden, foresty, olive-greeny, gray-green suede, it is a very versatile boot. In design, you can wear it with any casual outfit, from smart casual to relaxed t-shirt casual. The lowden suede allows it to match any color you can think of, denim blue, black, navy, brown, khaki, gray, green, and maybe even, no I don't have any, red or burgundy pants. You can pair any of those pants or jeans with button ups or button downs and layer with a short jacket like a bomber or a Harrington, or if you like, style up with a sports coat. They all work with this boot. As a traveling pair of boots, they are perfect, comfortable on a plane trip and airport friendly with a fiberglass shank. Let's take a look at Ellen Edmonds. Ellen Edmonds is a moderate to higher end shoe manufacturing and retail company. It was founded in 1922 by Ebert Ellen and Ralph Spiegel in Wisconsin, and the company was originally called the Ellen Spiegel Shoe Company. In 1946, new partner William Edmonds joined Ebert Ellen's sons who had inherited the company when their father passed away with the Ellen Edmonds Shoe Corporation being born then. The company had grown steadily before that and the company supplied footwear to the US Army and Navy in World War II. It said this gained them a huge following and loyalty amongst returning troops. As they grew, they continued to introduce oxford dress shoes like park avenues and strands that have become American classics. In 2006, an investment firm called Goldner Horn bought 90% of the company and then in 2013, they were in turn bought out by private equity hedge fund Brentwood. And then three years later in 2016, they were sold to listed public company Caleris Inc for $255 million US. Caleris has a market cap today of over $1 billion, so big league. The estimated turnover for Ellen Edmonds itself in financial 2021 was about $119 million US and it was estimated to employ about 500 people. Let's turn to the way these boots are constructed. They are made in Port Washington in company-owned factories. Despite the soft feel of these soft commander soles, they are a good year welter boot. This means that a thin strip of leather called a welt runs around the perimeter of the boot and the uppers are turned in and then sewn to the one edge of the welt on the inside. The midsole, which in this case is also leather, is then sewn to the outside edge of the welt. This form of construction means that no stitch goes directly through an outer part of the sole directly into the inside of the shoe. And that means more water resistance obviously. It also means that you can replace the sole when worn out either just by replacing the rubber outsole by peeling it off. It's just glued to the midsole, it's not stitched. Or by peeling the rubber off and picking the good year welt stitch underneath and also replacing the midsole if that's damaged. This welt is advertised by Ellen Edmonds as a storm welt. But I think if you look at it closely it's more accurately a split-reverse welt. A storm welt has a raised ridge carved into the leather that's pressed up against the outside of the boot to act as a further barrier against water. A split-reverse welt is where a flat welt was partly split and part of the split is flanged upwards to be pushed against the outside of the boot for the same water fighting purposes. The way to tell is to see the edge of the welt that's pushing up is finished or whether that's the raw edge of the leather. These look like the raw edge to me. Just and not on the way the outsole is cemented to the midsole. You hear a lot in boot forums about people looking down at a cement construction shoe. There are a lot of myths about why that's so bad but there really is only one bad point in my opinion and that is they are generally not recraftable so they're generally a throwaway shoe also sometimes not so water-resistant. Now that's bad for the pocket obviously and bad for the environment but glue in itself is not a bad thing nor is it necessarily weaker. On many good year welted shoes the gold standard as it were the outsole is not sewn onto the midsole or the welt but just glued on. Wedged sole boots are an obvious example. This boot is another example but that doesn't make this any weaker the sole isn't going to peel off in any daily normal way. The glues used are strong and very durable and often even when the outsole is stitched on and you can see the stitches underneath the stitches wear out yet the boot doesn't fall apart. So for the newbies don't be concerned about stitches wearing out or a cemented outsole in a well-made boot okay. Anyway in this boot the outsole is in a commando pattern invented by Vitaly Bramani who founded Vibram and you can recognize the pattern in loads of boots the radiating lugs on the outside edge the cross shaped lugs on the inside. However these soles are XL extra light soles a very lightweight injection molded rubbery EVA based foam. It's very lightweight and very spongy softer than my Blunstone's TPU soles in fact softer than any sneaker soles that I've ever had. Apart from being light and comfortable extra light soles are meant to be resilient to absorbing water and oil it is UV resistant flame resistant and environmentally friendly. I'll talk about comfort later but as for durability I have to say that I've owned these boots for a bit under eight months in regular but not frequent wear and while they haven't collapsed and chunks haven't fallen off or anything they have definitely worn at the tip of the toe and at the end of the heel. I think ultimately I'm going to find a trade-off between lightness and comfort and extreme durability. As I said they're glued to the midsole which is interestingly about two mils thick at the forefoot and builds up with a half-slip sole to about eight mils thick at the heel. The welt is about two mils thick itself pretty much regulation stuff. The Higgins mill has a cork filler in the midsole to fill the cavity caused by that two mil thick welt going around the outside and for comfort as it molds to your feet. Usually I can tell but the soft bouncy extra light sole steals all kind of feeling about what's under your feet. There's also a shank in there I think due to the lightness of the boot probably fibreglass. You can tell because if you bent the boot the gap between the heel and the foot pad where the shank usually is doesn't bend like a shankless sneaker. Anyway moving on up inside the boot there's a full length leather foam padded insole that acts as a sock liner. Moving outside now the uppers are suede from Charles F. Stead based in Leeds in England and probably the most famous makers of suede in the world and operating since 1890s so they have some sort of experience. This is their Loden suede describing the type of finish and the proprietary sted green color. It's a gorgeous olive drab foresty gray green that goes with anything. This boot is fully lined even at the tongue and the stitching is neat enough. It's mainly single stitching which I think speaks to the fact that Ellen Edmonds treat this as their venture into service boot fashion market rather than a true heritage boot line that comes from decades of being work or service boots. This includes the normal Higgins mill signature swoosh stitch along the side of the quarters but that's fine. There are a couple of QC issues the ends of the stitches are poorly back stitched and have been burnt a little too obviously to seal the ends. The tongue is not gusted but they do provide slits through which you lace through and that's good enough to prevent the tongue from slipping. This is an Ellen Edmonds weatherproof style boot. You can tell because there's a label. What this means is that the suede is scotch guarded to repel water. The storm well reinforces the water resistance and there is a waterproof lining membrane between the suede and the between the suede uppers and the level lining itself. I haven't waded through a swollen river or anything but I have walked through a couple of medium showers and my feet remain dry. The suede didn't get marked. Hardware is a nice brass five eyelet three speed hook combination. The speed hoots are backed but the eyelets weirdly are not and this causes some concern as they can tear into the suede of the tongue. A little strange to put backing washes on the hooks but not the eyelets. The quarters are nicely proportioned. I have skinny ankles and larger quarter panels can end up with very closed lace facings when I lace up. These are not too wide not too narrow. The toe is unstructured adding to the sneaker-like comfort and feel when you put them on and the heel counter on the inside is very lightly structured. You can see it very easily pushing in. There's a single piece backstay moving up the back of the boot. More design I think than structure really. At the top of the shaft the collar is rolled with a piece of black leather. It also runs down the facings of the quarters. It's a nicely finished boot. More towards dress standards despite being called a casual suede than towards service boot use. Caring for the suede is easy especially for what are essentially very casual boots. The design of the boot are such that you probably don't mind if the suede gets a little roughed up unlike if it were a dressier boot with a flat sole like my Thomas George collection Frio boots that you can check out up here. No in these you don't mind if the nappy suede looks kind of kicked around. It's actually quite a nappy suede. The nappies are a little bit longer than say the suede from the same Charles F. Sted tannery that Grandstone uses in their suede boots like on their coffee suede diesel boot that I've also reviewed before. In fact Grandstone do a number of more dressy suede boots so if you're all that way inclined I'll put a link in the description below. It is an affiliate link you don't pay anymore but I do get a small kickback to help me pay for this channel. Anyway taking care of this loading suede is pretty easy. All you need for most of the time is a suede brush that's a small stiff bristle brush some of them with copper bristles and some with just a stiff natural or plastic bristle. I'll leave a link to some suede care kits in the description below as well. If the suede looks a bit scruffy or dirty brush the suede with a suede brush you can move it in one direction against the nap to remove the dirt and dust and then brush it with a nap to smooth out the appearance. If there are spots on the suede you can use a rubber eraser that comes in a suede kit. You literally rub out the dirt dust off the rubber scraps and then use the suede brush to clean it up and smooth the nap. 90% of the time that's all you need to do. I get that sometimes the suede can get something spilled on it or covered in dirty moisture and if that does happen and brushing or rubbing at it isn't going to help you can use a little suede shampoo. There are two types a spray on suede cleaner but I find that's only useful where the dirt isn't ingrained or widespread. The second type is a suede shampoo which I prefer. It works the same way as saddle soap except that it's more gentle and it tends to be a liquid soap the one I use which is not ridiculously pricey is one by Angelus and I'll leave a link below. Turning to sizing now I'm a US 8.5D on a brand device when I buy heritage style boots service boots work boots I usually have to go a half down from true so in my Thursdays Red Wings, Aldens, Truman's, Grant Stone's, Parkhurst's and many many more I wear an 8D. This is no different an 8D is a perfect fit for me. I do however find that this 1757 last is snug all up the foot. A last is that foot shaped mould that boot makers use to shape the upper surround so that it looks like the shape of the last and in the design. The 1757 last is one of Ellen Edmonds most popular lasts. To me while it's not tight it is snug all the way up my foot usually I like my boots to keep me snug at the heel and the waist so that I feel locked in and it gives arch support and then widen at the ball and round it or at least roomy at the toes. This last is similar to the Thursday Captain Last where it's designed to be sleek and shapely very dressy rather than with a blocked toe that's fine and it does fit me but my preference is not for something like this not something as form fitting as for break in it's what you expect of a soft rubber sole suede boot zero none at all fit it and felt comfortable as soon as I got it not even the sole to break in indeed this extra light sole is obviously shock absorbing very but weirdly here's my complaint I I think it's almost too soft to be totally comfortable does that make sense when I'm walking around in these no doubt they are very comfortable they are very shock absorbing but I do feel strange it's like I'm not quite in control like I'm on a boat and the and the floor is shifting I know it's a strange criticism but there you are another thing is that these boots can be hot I put that down to the waterproof membrane sandwich between the sweat uppers and the lining inside my feet can get sweaty in these and they are definitely not an Australian summer boot as for the price it kind of reflects the esteem with which many shoe buyers and especially American shoe collectors hold Alan Edmonds on the Alan Edmonds website they list for 445 US dollars but are often discounted to under 300 dollars on Amazon in the official Alan Edmonds amazon store you can see from the link below that they are listed at around US 300 dollar mark depending on when you look and what sizes you choose and if you are outside the US Amazon has the advantage of free shipping and returns if you're a prime member as an Australian that translates to around 430 bucks now that's not bad in Australia you're looking at a red wing iron ranger around 550 Aussie or a Wolverine 1000 mile at around 500 Aussie most mid-range heritage style American service boots will land in Australia at about that price range except for maybe Thursday captains they can get for under 400 Aussie dollars mid 300s certainly the quality of the Alan Edmonds compares well with red wing and Wolverine and reflecting the price difference better against the Thursday captain and in versatile loading suede not many comparable boots are made by those many manufacturers if at all I think at that list price you may be paying as much for the Alan Edmonds name as for the quality of this particular boot but at the 300 US dollar mark that's probably a fair price so there you go that's what I think of the Alan Edmonds Higgins Mill boot instead loading suede and on an extra light commander sole I hope you liked the review you know the drill if you liked it help me out and click on the like button below and since YouTube tells me that most of my viewers are regular viewers but not subscribed click on the subscribe button as well right so thanks guys take care and I'll see you soon