 Hi, I'm Tech. Welcome to my channel Boot Lossophy and today I'm looking at Helm's Johnson Boot, a lot to like with a few iffy quality issues. This is the Helm Johnson Boot. Helm is a relatively young company started in 2009 and is based in Austin, Texas. They make a number of different boots and shoes which I believe are made in the US and in Brazil. This Johnson Boot is made in Brazil. They mainly sell online but have a flagship store in Austin. As you can see, their Johnson Boot is clearly designed as a rugged looking combat style boot. It has a taller shaft 8 inches and I guess can be styled jumper boot like those worn by paratroopers in the Second World War to protect your ankles on landing. It has a noticeable cap toe and a rugged but soft lugged sole to reinforce that combat boot style. The cap toe is worth a mention in regard to the aesthetic. It's quite a long cap toe. Some cap toes on my other boots end about half an inch before this one. With the narrow sleek shape of the last, it can accentuate the length and the boot looks a little long in my opinion despite the fit being right. The uppers are made of leather which I'll go into more detail later. That looks matte with a slight sheen again reinforcing the outdoors combat ready style of the boot. It's not a particularly versatile boot in my opinion. It's clearly outdoorsy and military and I found that it wasn't an easy boot to grab for most social occasions except the most casual. So much so that although I've owned it for a few months, I've really only worn it for short walks in the morning 20 or 30 times since I got it. I just haven't been so outdoorsy with COVID going on and I haven't really had a chance to wear it in my rotation of 40 plus boots. I have to say though that aesthetically this could sub for a pair of Dot Martens. They fit into that category that DMs fit into. Let's take a look at the construction. But before we go on, if you're enjoying this video, don't forget to click on the like and subscribe buttons below. It helps me out by telling the algorithm to show this to more people interested in boots and it helps me to serve this review to more people. Ok, back to construction. I'll start from the bottom up. The outsole has its own chunky lug sole. It's made of a squishy rubber composite so that it's pretty comfortable to walk on and I haven't felt any danger damaging it on rough rocky ground. The lug design is not the usual commando pattern like those in the Vibram commando sole. For those of you who don't know what a Vibram commando sole is, Vibram is an Italian sole manufacturing company that makes a lot of different models of outsole that many bootmakers also use. Their commando sole has a pattern that is much copied for their proven ability to grip all kinds of terrain. The Helm Johnson's outsole has lugs as deep as the commando sole but the pattern is a little more forgiving in picking up gravel and stones between the lugs. The form of bars and lugs makes for quite an attractive and different footprint. Going up from there is a composite rubber midsole. This is what creates that distinctive white line at the edge that's a signature of all Helm boots. This and the cushion footbed makes for a very comfortable squish when you walk. After the composite rubber midsole comes a shank and a leather insole. A shank is a thin piece of hard material usually steel but can be leather, wood or in this case fiberglass or plastic. The shank that's situated here provides arch support in this gap between the heel block and the footbed as well as longitudinal stability so that your foot doesn't roll around on rough ground. I mentioned the cushion footbed. Inside the boot is a footbed. It's similar to those comfort removable insoles that you can buy at pharmacies but this one is not removable. The footbed is made of a soft material I think it's poron and it's covered in a leather skin. Poron is a material increasingly used in heritage style boots. It creates a great divide because while it is immediately comfortable may break down over time and could lead to some discomfort later. As opposed or so the argument goes as opposed to a leather and cork insole that molds to the shape of your foot with pressure over time and then keeps its shape like the shape of your feet. However the rubber outsole, rubber composite sole and poron footbed definitely makes for a comfortable boot straight out of the box. Now you see here what looks like welt and stitching. That makes it look like this is a Goodyear welded boot. If you think that you'd be wrong. The Johnson as are all of Helm's boots are Blake stitched. Goodyear welt and Blake stitching are two ways of constructing the boot of attaching the uppers to the sole. In Goodyear welt construction a thin piece of leather called the welt goes around the circumference of the boot. The inside edge is sewn to the uppers on the inside and the outside edge which is what you can see here is then sewn to the midsole and outsole. Blake stitching on the other hand is where the uppers are sewn directly to the midsole and outsole on the inside. A Goodyear welted boot is theoretically more water resistant because it has that extra barrier stopping moisture getting in between the sole and the upper. However I don't really think you'd notice it unless you live in a particularly wet and rainy climate and you made a habit of basically wading through or standing in puddles or rivers. This is good enough. I've certainly walked these boots through some shallow puddles and not felt any wet socks. The Blake stitching construction also makes for a lighter boot. These only weigh about 0.8 or 0.90kg. The other piece that makes this boot come fear of the box is the fully lined leather uppers. The upper leather is called Balthazar leather tanned by the B leather company in the Dominican Republic. It's a full grain leather and their website says that it's hot stuffed with oils and waxes during the tanning process. While very supple and soft on first wear especially in fully lined it's the leather that I have some concerns with. Don't get me wrong it is very supple and in wear quite resilient. I stepped off a curb wrong once and scraped the front of one boot right up against the curb and I thought oh well let's put a big scratch on it. But it was relatively unmarked. It had a scuff that rubbed off like a good hot stuffed leather does. I think the softness and suppleness helps it withstand scratching a little bit. It's almost elastic in the way that it responds. I don't know I can't really describe it I can't put my finger on it but I just don't feel it with this leather. It looks quite highly corrected to me almost like so called genuine leather that has a layer of printed skin to create grain. It feels plasticky almost like PVC car seats. The Johnson has an ungusseted tongue and despite the length of the shaft and therefore the tongue it doesn't slip from left to right helped by the lace loops sewn through the tongue to reach the laces go. But more of these later. It has seven black eyelets and two black speed hooks at the top. A pretty good combination to get the boot on and off relatively easily and they are backed as well. They're not just pressed open. The overall quality control is pretty good with one exception that I'll talk about later. I can't see any loose grain in the, in my opinion, ify leather and there were no loose threads or misstitches anywhere. The stitching is strong enough again with one exception and double stitch everywhere including on the toe cap. For what you get the QC is mostly pretty good. Okay let's take a look at leather care. I usually turn to the bootmaker to see what they recommend for conditioning and looking after the leather. Helm's website don't have any specific articles about the leather care recommendations. However, they supply a number of different products from Blackrock, Hubbard's, Otterwax and Venetian Shoe Cream. The leather is already soft and supple. It doesn't look like it patinas especially hard. So I probably wouldn't do too much with oils and balms and just clean it up in our men. If you want to condition it, if it starts to feel a bit dry just use some Venetian Shoe Cream for hydration and maybe a little polish in the basically matte leather. I'll put a few links below to the products that I use in boots like these. I'll now turn to sizing fit and breaking them in. I'm US size 8.5D going on 8 ¾ E in my brand size. That's the aluminum machine you stand on in the shoe store and they slide things around to find your size, you know that one. I usually fit into 8D boots because heritage boots do tend to run large. Nothing different in this case. I ordered an 8D and they fit very well. The last that Helm uses for this boot, despite the combat boot design and appearance, is quite slim and sleek. As you can see in the toe box in the cap toe here. There is no Claude Hopper Iron Ranger or Timberland look to this. It's relatively slim and sleek from profile as well as from on top. This means that while it fit me well, I did have some early squeeziness just where the cap toe seams are. There was some discomfort there for the first, I don't know, four or five ways maybe. But the leather and stitching eventually stretched and settled down. The tall shaft is new to me. I usually wear 6 inch boots or less. So I don't know if it's my ankles not used to such high boots or the way the quarters are sewn together. But I did have a short period needing to condition and massage the collar so that it didn't bruise my ankles when I tightened the laces. But I can now say after 20 or 30 short ways that they fit snug but comfortable. So overall I don't think breaking in is a thing. Other than the initial pinch at the cap toe seam, there really was no breaking period. The softness of the uppers, the leather lining, the in-cells and squishy out-cells all contributed to comfort out of the box. Let's take a look at what you can wear it with. It's clearly a rugged combat boot so I don't think you can wear it with smart casual or business casual clothing. This is strictly a jeans and t-shirt or a jeans and flannel kind of boot. I think if you wear it as a work boot in a workshop that's fine or if you ride a motorcycle that's sort of where you can get away with. I said earlier it was in the Doc Martens category so think DMs in what you wear with DMs. Black skinny jeans with rolled up cuffs, tapered denim, leather jacket, that sort of thing. Not very versatile but a definite substitute for DMs and possibly quite a lot more comfortable. You know what I wear is my style and you have yours. What do you think you pair it with? As I filmed this video, the Johnson Boot is not listed on the Helm website. I can't see anywhere they've discontinued it. A lot of bootmakers are having problems with supply and the supply chained you to COVID. So it may just be that they've sold out and they're awaiting restocking. When I bought this boot it was listed as US$295 but I bought it on sale in December last year for US$205. I'm pretty pleased with that price. I'm not sure I'd have been as happy at US$295 considering you can get at least similar quality Thursday boots for US$199. And at US$295 you're getting close to Red Wing Heritage Boot prices. As for the value, what are the pros and cons? Firmly in the pro list are the immediate comfort and fit. Despite being a tall boot, the leather is soft and supple. The arch support is pretty good. The shock absorption, excellent. The lunge sole is a definite pro. It's attractive and different. It's very grippy. And the rubber composition is slightly squishy so it walks silently on hard floors and it just feels good underfoot. I haven't worn it over slippery hard surfaces but because of the soft composition I reckon it will grip. It's blake stitched so it's pretty light and so far I've found it to be pretty water resistant in my climate around my neighborhood. On the con side however, there's this. This is the loop of leather sewn onto the tongue to lace through and to keep the tongue from slipping. As I alluded to before, I haven't much of a chance to wear this boot so I mainly worn it for some walks around my neighborhood. In total I'd worn it maybe 20 or 30 times, mostly for an hour or so away. So imagine my surprise when I tightened the laces and this loop ripped off. Yeah, I know. It could happen to any boot. Yeah, I know. People would say, hey, it's a boot dude. Wear it and it will scratch and scuff and things will rip and tear. Yeah, but really for a listed price of $295 and after only 20 or 30 short wears? That's like buying a new car and the dashboard falls off after a couple of rounds around the block. Yeah, it could happen to any car but you don't expect it off a pricey new model. At least I don't. Do you? The other con I think is the leather. There's nothing really wrong with it but being a leather hot stuffed with waxes and oils, it just doesn't feel like other leathers like that. It feels, and weirdly this is one of the pros, it feels a little too soft and supple. As you can hear in my voice, I'm quite conflicted over this. There's nothing really wrong but I'm just not feeling it with this boot. So is it worth it? For $200? Yes. For $295, I'm really not sure. Anyway, that's my personal opinion. Make a bit what you want. Okay, so that's it. That's what I think of the Helm Johnson boot. Good looking, comfy, but I'm just not getting it, you know? Thanks for watching. If you like this video, do me a favor and click on the like button below and it would really help me out if you subscribe as well. And hopefully if you subscribe, it helps you out because I upload more reviews and videos, you will be informed about it. And then there's your bit of entertainment for the week. I have plenty of other boot-related videos in the work, so I'll see you soon. Bye.