 While Grant Stone can be divisive, they are seen as a quality, relatively new entrant to the boot world. My journey with them started in 2021, after exploration into entry-level brands like Thursday and Helm and classics like Thurrogood and Red Wing. In my mind, I've moved from their classic refined make-ups to see more of their rugged looks. Is that true? G'day, welcome back to Bootlossophy, my channel reviewing boots and sometimes other gear. If you're new here, my name is Tech and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands I live on here in Perth, Western Australia, the Wajik people. My journey with Grant Stone started with the purchase of this pair of diesel boots, the Coffee Suede, in a sale in July of 2021. My new boot collection, discounting my long-time Timberland and RM Williams boots, started in 2020 during the lockdowns of the pandemic. I'd bought a couple of boots from Amazon, a Soto-Western boot was the first one I think and then a Thursday captain. And then there was a bit of a frenzy during lockdown, adding Thurrogood's Chippewas, the good ones, more Thursdays and a few Rhodes and Astorflex boots from Huckbury, as well as a few secondhand Red Wings and probably my most expensive boots of that time in a few Parkhurst models. And then I saw this in a sale and plunged into Grant Stone. This was, counting the old Timbs and RM's and all the newer buys, my newer collection up to then, this was my 26 pair of boots. Yeah, it took me that long because I wasn't really sure about Grant Stone, not because of quality expectations that had already been attested to by people like Giants in the boot review world, Dale Basista, Nick English and Karl Moravsky. No, it was because I wasn't certain I liked the style for the price. At the time I was seeing the refined diesel boots in the collection with makeups involving Chromic Cell, Badalassi, Saddle Tan, Italian Veg Tans and other smooth leathers. And they're more refined Leo last as maybe not what I imagined when I closed my eyes and thought of a boot. In my mind, I was seeing an Iron Ranger or my Grail, the White's MP boot. And in the midst of that, I discovered Parkhurst, which seemed to coo combine that modern service boot look with some interesting rugged leathers. I mean, Parkhurst offered a raw, unwaxed, green spruce kudu. Grant Stone's forest kudu looked like a nicely polished and waxed green boot. You can see my POV video about my comparison between Grant Stone and Parkhurst up there. To a large extent, this is still the way I think. But at the time, having heard so much about Grant Stone, look I had to break my duck sooner or later and seeing this on sale at US 220 when they usually sold for about $290 or $300, it seemed an opportune time. But before we go on, a little bit about Grant Stone, the brand. Grant Stone was started in 2016 by Wyatt Gilmour and Josh Lang. So it is relatively new. But jumping to the end at the start, boy, have they grown in the last 7 or 8 years. When they started, they settled on a business model that was direct to consumer, selling only from their website and cutting out the middleman retailers. We've all heard of that these days, right? But this did also mean a reduction in costs because you're not stocking large amounts of inventory in a large, expensive warehouse to send to retailers. There's rents and power and all that that you're cutting out. You only need to manufacture and store the stock that turns over quickly, meaning a small warehouse facility as long as you keep marketing, manufacture and shipping efficient. They also started with a mindset that built quality, not building a product to a price but build into a quality. Making something of a desired quality first, as efficient as you can in terms of time and materials, will land you on a given price and so be it if that is a fair price. So they designed their boots and shoes with quality manufacture, fit and comfort in mind, all wrapped up in some really elegant lasts. This involved choosing top tanneries to source their leathers from and quality bends leather from the U.S. for internal materials like insoles, welts and mid-soles. Construction methods had to match that quality as well. So good new welting, leather heel counters, cork fillers and steel shanks. And finally, labour costs were in the mix. Making their boots in China definitely means a reduction in manufacturing costs starting from labour costs but also including property costs in factory expenses. And I would guess also the ability to backfill ships and freight carriers and thus obtaining lower background costs like storage and shipping. Having a family history with the family of the owners of the factory obviously helps because with that comes trust and the willingness to accommodate. On top of this all, from what I can see they run efficient systems from nearly just in time systems at the manufacturing end to procedures and processes followed on inspections, shipping, reviews and innovation. Any business can improve quality and reduce costs by introducing standard operating procedures that their people are trained in, supervised over and that are regularly reviewed and inspected. From what I can see Grant Stone does all this really well. And so, unarguably, they produce incredibly good products at prices uniformly below what that value dictates. But now let me take you through my journey. Boot number 26 in my collection was the diesel in coffee suede and on a wedge sole. I was actually astounded by the build quality from the Charles Evstead soft suede to the comfort of the wedge sole to the shape and fit of the Leo last and literally blown away by the construction including the almost invisible welt joint. See my review up there. But it wasn't the service boot aesthetic I was exploring at the time because of that wedge sole. So Grant Stone continued to bubble in my mind a bit faster now that I'd seen the quality for myself and the next month in August of 2021, boot number 31 joined the collection. This diesel in Badalasi Carlos saddle tan. At the time these were 370 US dollars in the midst of my spending a few hundreds on second hand boots from eBay. So it was a big leap in price. But I did really fancy the saddle tan color on their website and as a full price boot I thought might as well try something different other than the standard browns that I've been getting in most other boots. I still wasn't entirely sold though because I still thought it leaned toward the more refined and dressy with the leather sole like a service boot but also like a dress boot. Still I did appreciate the quality of the leather and the construction so I didn't dismiss the brand. And then boot number 39 caught my attention. The brass boot was announced initially in the saddle tan on a white wedge sole. Too much like the red wing mock toe I thought and a few weeks later out comes the earth waxy commander on a commando lug sole. Yeah okay now that was different so my trigger finger clicked. The fact that it was only US 298 at the time helped the clicking finger. At some stage about here in late 2021 Grant Stone was inserting itself into being one of my favorite brands certainly in terms of fit and comfort. The dressier service boot design in the diesel was definitely growing on me by that time helped by the comfort of the fit and the quality of the materials. The brass boot and earth just gave it a different dimension and this became my go anywhere boot at the time. Walking on the forest trails that my wife and I take most weekends and in our holidays. I was definitely getting a good impression of Grant Stone. I had some good times when I bought this boot as you can see here. Then moved forward to Black Friday 2021 and I snagged the diesel and black chrome excel again on a leather sole. But you see my mind was still wrapped around Grant Stone being a dressier brand and I chose this instead of the black chrome excel on a black rubber sole that you can get because I thought the leather sole and the natural leather edge framing the black for a refined look would really go well with a suit. This is I have to say my favorite dressy black boot. This was boot number 41 in the collection. I'm actually astounded I bought so many in 2021 because it wasn't over. At about the same time around Black Friday I saw this pair of Edward boots on eBay. Very lightly worn for 237 Australian dollars. Too good to miss. I bought boot number 42. I think I was pretty much into my Grant Stone make some damn fine boots even though they might be dressier than what I'm thinking kind of phase. Having said that though the earth brass boots and these Tobacco Wax Commando Edward boots was seeing me veer into their more rugged uppers. At about this time I joined Stitch Down and at that time Stitch Down offered a discount on Grant Stone so what the hell I had to settle 10. Let's see what the 10 Essex looks like in comparison and this was boot number 46 arriving in January of 2022. As you can see I was trending to Grant Stone even though a lot of my other buyers included Parkhurst boots and catching more red wings Alden and Alan Edmonds on eBay at the time. My taste was still very much service boot but my collection had grown to the extent that I sought different leathers. The older these 10 Essex boots get, Essex is from Horween by the way, the older they get the better the leather ages. You can see my long term patina review up there. I can honestly say this pair of diesels in 10 Essex are my most complimented pair of boots. Short hairy men stop me in the street to say how attractive they are. I think it's the shape and the colour. The design of the diesel is sleek, it's refined yet the colour of the 10 Essex mellows into this golden orange unlike the saddle tan which becomes a dark honey. In short hairy men don't find it a feat on my feet. I once made the mistake of waxing it after a coat of Venetian shoe cream which made it way too shiny for the semi-matte Horween Essex leather but I ran a hair dry over it as taught me by Andrew Savisco from Parkhurst which got the wax to kind of suck back into the leather so that it's come back to this kind of semi-matte finish. My journey then took a vacation because I went for over a year before I bought my next pair of Grant Stone boots, these Field Boots in Saddle Tan. I got these in May of 2023 as seconds for I think it was 280 US which is a bargain because I honestly cannot see why these were seconds. It's certainly nothing to do with construction quality or any defect in the leather, potentially the leather was already a little dark and that might have been it. I think I took my year plus vacation because I was kind of sated with diesels and edwards and the brass in my opinion was best in the earth or possibly the bison but too similar. When the Field Boot came up it was a must, a different design, a variant mock toe, my first Grant Stone proprietary wedge sole, the Saddle Tan which I loved on my diesel and it was discounted. That was boot number 85 and my seventh Grant Stone. I'm pretty sure it won't be my last because in the mid 300s the quality beats anything else I can think of but I'm not sure I'll be back to buying one a month for a number of reasons. First of all my mind still tells me that for the quality of build, for the refined finishing and the stitching, the way the welts are put together, the welts stitching, the design of the panels particularly in the diesel and the edward, the last. My mind tells me they're refined dressy boots. Seeing them in Kudu, Ostrich, Bison is cognitive dissonance. I'm not sure that subconsciously I like them too much that way. So second that means that my next purchases will need to be smooth grain uppers that I haven't tried yet. Perhaps a Capto and Danone Leather or an Ottawa and say a Chrome Excel. Those don't give me that cognitive dissonance. At the same time though, they are coming out with rugged leathers on the brass and few boots and the new Garrison boot shows promise for the more rugged boots that are a little more to my taste these days. Finally, while I totally get that for the mid 300s, you get probably a mid $400 boot. It's still in that price range where I could go for other brands like my favourite parkers if they ever came out with more leather variety or try others like more classic red wings or the lower NPNW models like say the White's Perrier to try or maybe a Drew's Logger Boot something quite different or maybe try another Indonesian brand. It is a crowded pool that's free to $500 range. So what next? I missed this year's Black Friday because I was busy and actually otherwise committed but I'd be on the lookout for deals in a Chrome Excel or Suede Ottawa and I'll definitely get a Garrison when a leather I like pops up. The selection of cap toe boots seems to be reducing so I may get one of those before they discontinue if I can pick up a second or one on sale or maybe if I really like one of the leathers. No, my Grant Stone journey is definitely not finished. It has slowed and I'm a little more discerning now but I do like them. I would still buy them. Well, it's on record now isn't it? I have a few more Grant Stone boots to get. I have said it. When I actually get them will be a combination of a few things in the win. What else is in the competition at the time? Getting a good price and the uppers they offer. Anyway, let's see. And you'll see if you click on like and subscribe and let YouTube bring you more reviews from me and remind you when I upload. Make sure you follow my unfinished journey. Until the next time, take care and see you soon.