 G'day, how are you going? Welcome to Brutalosophy and my name is Tech. Now this is where I normally acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, but let's let Qantas do this. Qantas Link would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the airport's land to watch out for people with high RSS to elders, past, present and emerging. So today I'm going to take a look at a comparison between two Aussie lace-up boots. The Thomas George collection Frio and the RM Williams Riccabee boot. So today I'm comparing two Australian lace-up boots in a service boot kind of style derby boot design. The first one is a Thomas George collection service boot called the Frio in a blue suede from Charles Havestead. And the second one is in a black newbuck made by RM Williams. And it's, I'm not sure you call this a service boot. It has a work boot I think style plain toe toe and the toe box itself is kind of a little bit more rounded and more like a work boot than a service boot. So you might be surprised to learn that RM Williams actually makes lace-up boots because they're famous for obviously their Chelsea boots being the craftsmen and other Chelsea boots in their range. But they do make a number of lace-up boots. Most of them are designed for work in the yard on sheep and cattle stations and so on. But they can obviously also be used quite casually in city situations. Apart from this, they also make them the Riccabee and other models in different leathers and full grain smooth leathers and so on. As for the Thomas George collection, they're a newish boot company started in 2020. And these are made in Vietnam, whereas the RM Williams are made in Australia. But they are designed in Melbourne using an old World War II Australian soldiers last, which they use to manufacture these new boots. So let me start by talking about the RM Williams Riccabee boot. No need to introduce RM Williams as a brand obviously, but if you want to know more, go check out my review on the craftsmen and for the history of the RM Williams company, as well as to take a look at the craftsmen. So this is their lace-up boot. It's starting to be quite rare because they're only producing them every so often for different seasons. I think currently on the website as we film, the only model that's left is in a cognac suede. And this black new buck leather is not available at the moment, but they do cycle them through, whether that means it's difficult for them to get the leather in this COVID supply chain world or otherwise. They haven't gone away. It's still one of these staples. Let's go through this boot. So I've already reviewed this boot and you can have a look up there. So I'll only go through it briefly. It's a plain toe. I suppose you would call it a service boot, but I think this might verge on a work boot type of shape because it has a higher profile rounded toe, not as sleek as maybe you'd expect in some service boots. It's got a V700 style rubber sole, a rubber outsole. You'll see that it does not say vibram or vibram, but I'm almost certain that this is made by Vibram for RM Williams. RM Williams are a big enough company that they can ask Vibram to manufacture outsole for them and put their own brand on them. As I said, this is in a new buck leather. So it's really nice and soft leather, quite nappy. The most famous new buck leather I think you'll find is Timberland six inch yellow boot. It has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven brass eyelets, no speed hooks. And it's a little difficult to get on and off unless you get really long laces because you need to get that quite wide open because the last is actually quite a sleek last. So the Derby style opening needs to be pushed right open. It's a fully lined boot, as you can see. It's an un-gusseted tongue, but surprisingly for me, it doesn't move. I think because it's got this little loop where you pass the laces through. And if you have an un-gusseted tongue, I've no idea why bootmakers don't put that in. There's a little cloth pull tab with the usual Made in Australia RM Williams. On the Chelsea boots, you find the address of the headquarters at Five Percy Street in an Adelaide suburb. This size is a 7G. Now, my normal size in RM Williams Chelsea boots is an 8G. That's UK 8. And that's actually about half a size bigger than my true size. But I find these, a 7G, UK 7, that is actually fitting me quite well. A little bit tight in the toe, but otherwise the right length and certainly the right width across the ball of the feet. It has, as I said, a rubber outsole, but the traditional cork and leather combination in the mid and insole and a fiberglass shank. RM Williams is famous for their fiberglass shanks because they say it lasts a hell of a longer than steel, which can rust and break. And also, it's very useful for getting through airports. Now, taking a look at the Thomas George collection service boot, and again, I've already done a review in full, so you can see that up there. So again, I'm not going to run through it in any great detail. But this one is made in Vietnam. Thomas George collection basically started in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, unfortunately. And for them, they tried to find an Australian boot factory, couldn't find one for the price that they were trying to get these made in, and then eventually partnered with a Japanese company that had a factory in Vietnam. So the Japanese company apparently makes really high quality shoes, and therefore the Vietnam factory was tooled up to make quality boots. You can see it's a stitch down design, double stitching. I had a comment on my Instagram when I showed these. Somebody said that stitching was horrible. I'm not entirely sure why. It looks fairly even to me. Maybe he just didn't like the white contrast stitching on the blue. It stitched right through to the outsole, through the midsole. Inside the boot is the normal, again, traditional cork and leather combination. So it molds to the shape of your feet. It's a little thin. If you look at this boot, there's the leather and then there's a midsole, quite a thin midsole through which the uppers are sewn in the front of the of the boot. And then the rear of the boot is nailed and glued on to provide a sleeker sort of shape down the side. It's in dark blue CFS stead suede, five brass eyelets and two speed hooks, providing a little bit easier lacing up. As you can see, the shape is that of a service boot. And apparently this is designed on World War Two Australian service boots. So how do they compare? Firstly, aesthetics. The shape of the toe is quite different. The Thomas George collection is a lot more sleek than this sort of rounded toe box shape of the RM Williams. Not forgetting this, I think, was intended originally as a work boot. And this is, despite it being service boot based, is more of a fashionable casual boot. Obviously the materials are different. In terms of weight, they're roughly the same weight. This one is a stitched down collection. So theoretically a little bit more water resistant than a Goodyear welt. Although many Goodyear welt purists will say this is much more water resistant because there are no stitch holes that go all the way through to the outsole from within the vent. Whereas these stitched down stitches go all the way through from the top of the turned out vent to the bottom of the outsole. But stitched down loyalists will say that's fine because the water will roll off the turned up flared up bit anyway. And it's not going to get inside the boot. In terms of sizing, this is a UK seven and a half boot. So that's my true to size. That's equal to a US eight and a half. This is a UK seven boot. And that's what I normally wear because that's equivalent to a US eight size. But these are ever so slightly tighter than these. You'd expect that. But not so much in the length, funnily enough. It's in the width, even though, I was going to say, even though the width looks the same, but they might be the same at the ball of the feet of the feet. But you can see that at the toe, this one starts to get into an almond shape. In terms of the size, don't forget this is a seven and a half and this is an eight. In terms of sizing, pretty similar. I think you'll find, agree? In terms of comfort, I think the RM Williams is a touch more comfortable. It has this thick rubber Vibram-like, V700-like sole. So it's very grippy and comfortable. I think it has a thicker layer of cork in the filler because I can feel that there's more shock absorption on the ball of the feet. The heel grips a little bit more snug than on the Thomas George collection. In terms of comfort in the toe, this has a structured toe. So it leaves enough room not to squash down onto your toes. This is an unstructured toe, quite soft. And as a result of that and the soft lined suede from Charles F. Stead, it's really beautiful on foot. But underfoot, I think this is a little bit thinner because I can feel when I'm walking pretty much every stone and piece of gravel that I step on. Whereas with these, I'm standing on rubber and that protects me from all the stones and so on. So in summary, there are two very similar boots. In terms of price and value, the RM Williams boot is about $650, nearly $700, Australian dollars. The Thomas George collection is under $400 Australian dollars and they do go on sale from time to time, whereas I found it very difficult to find RM Williams on sale. So in terms of value, not forgetting that this is an Australian tan new buck and this is a Charles F. Stead tan in the UK suede, the value is pretty good reflected in those prices. I think possibly maybe there may be a premium put in the name RM Williams in the pricing of this boot. In terms of the wear, I think both wear reasonably well. This one's slightly less comfortable than this one. The RM Williams has a thick outsole, whereas this is quite a thin, sleek design and therefore not as comfortable underfoot. In terms of style, both are really stylish. You can wear them in casual terms. Dark blue suede may be a little less versatile than a black boot. But that's up to you. So guys, I hope you like that review. It's very rare to find an Australian lace-up boot because Australian boot companies usually make Chelsea work boots or fairly stylish, sleek Chelsea riding boots. I like both of them and I hope you like them. I'll put links to where you can get them below. They're not affiliate links. And if you did like this video, don't forget to click on like. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. Please do. And until the next time, take care and I'll see you soon.