 G'day, guys. Welcome to my channel Bootlossophy. If we haven't met before, my name is Tech and I'm coming to you from Widgetlands, Nungabuja in Western Australia. Today, I'm going to open for you this box from Parkhurst Boots. It's a group MTO model. Let's take a look at what it is. So for those of you who have seen my other Parkhurst unboxings, you'll get to recognize this box. Parkhurst uses the same box for shipping as well as the actual boot box. It's an all-in-one, and I think that's great because obviously it's saving carbon, saving recycling and so on. Very, very plain cardboard box. Let's take a look at what's inside. So included in it is a spare pair of laces. In this case, flat Wexcotton laces. This one in black. A card from Andrew Savisco, the owner of Parkhurst. Thank you for your support, enjoy and wear well. Two boot bags. How interesting. They're a different color. They're usually the sort of linen white or black. This time they're in a sort of khaki and no Parkhurst logo. Okay, that's interesting. That's I guess the new sort of editions in the box from Parkhurst 2.0, which I'll talk about in a minute. Inside this tissue paper. Oh, here we go. And as you can see, this is the Parkhurst Niagara Mock-Toe model. This one in a blue calf skin. It's a group MTO, and I'll tell you about that in a minute. Let's get both boots out. I'll just put this box away. So there you are. Let's go into it in some detail. This is a really beautiful pair of boots. So let's look at these boots in some detail and close-up. I couldn't resist. I put them on very quickly. So there's some slight creasing, but don't worry about that, because I did put them on. So let's see what we can see. Clearly this is a Mock-Toe design. It's a Mock Mock-Toe, very similar to the old Indies. It's called a Mock-Toe because of this stitching across the vamp that sort of replicates of American First Nations moccasin shoes done by First Nations Indigenous people. But it's a Mock one. What that is, it's a cosmetic stitching across a one-piece vamp. The pattern is fairly simple. It has one piece of leather that goes across the waist and the vamp. It has two quarters on each side, and there's a one-piece backstay. So fairly simple. So this stitching creates a little bit of interest for the boot. The calf leather in this lovely gorgeous blue feels soft. I think it'll take a great polish if you want it polished. If I use it as a dress shoe, I may very well polish it up. It feels soft and supple yet firm at the same time. One thing I want to point out is very unlike Parkhurst in the past. This is a fully lined boot. It's lined up the shaft. It's lined in the tongue. And yeah, it's lined in the vamp. So it's fully lined with a soft glove leather. Really nice. Parkhurst logo at the bottom. And at the bottom is a half sock liner for a bit of comfort. It's slightly padded. And then inside, I can see and feel a leather insole. If you take a look at the uppers, I've already mentioned this really soft calf skin, supple yet tough at the same time. The stitching looks gorgeous. I mean, there's not a stitch out of place as far as I can see. It's a triple stitch at the quarters, two very close together stitches in this one. Single stitch to put the reinforcement up there across the collar. The collar is rolled into the lining. As you can see, it's not raw. Single stitch along the backstay. And obviously this cosmetic stitch there. The tongue is lined right up to the fifth eyelet. So it's sort of at that level. The hardware is antique brass. One, two, three, four, five eyelets and three speed hooks. That's really a really good combination. The lace is interesting. They're a little bit skinny, I think. But it may be good because it then doesn't crowd out this sort of facing here, which I find in my order in these irritates the hell out of me because they have a hell of a lot of eyelets and speed hooks and they use thick laces, but you can always change the laces. Coming down, my understanding is this is a leather cork and leather sole construction. So the inside, as I said, is a leather, a piece of veg tan leather insole. It sits on a cork footbed, which is used to fill the cavity that's created by this 360 degree Goodyear welt. There is a piece of steel embedded in the cork, which is the shank, and that again is a change for Parkhurst because Parkhurst used to use fiberglass shanks, which I love because that took me through the airport very easily. It's Goodyear welt construction, 360 degrees. What that means is there is a thin piece of leather called the welt that goes all the way around the boot. The uppers are turned in and sewn to the inside edge of the welt, and the outside edge of the welt here is sewn through to the outsole. So in that way, this stitch here, which could potentially wick water upwards, just wicks it up to this level and doesn't go inside the boot. The welt is sewn on the inside and doesn't, no stitches appear on the outside that take any water directly inside. If you take a look at the welt, it's a wheeled welt. It's wheeled to create this nice little pattern, but it's a split reverse welt, which means the welt is split on the inside edge, and the top half is turned up and flanged against the wall of the boot. So it gives you then extra barrier against moisture, a little bit of extra water resistance. The sole itself, let's take a look at what it is. You can see there's the welt, there's the midsole, and there's the outsole. So there's a hell of a lot of leather in there. Leather outsole, obviously, slippery going to be until it sort of scratches up, starts to look ugly, and then it'll grip. I like leather soles. It sounds like glutton for punishment, but I really like leather soles. I think they're elegant. They give a lovely shape. There are no studs popping out and all sorts of things. They're breathable, they're flexible. The only downside is when they're new, they're very slippery. When they're old, they're pretty ugly, but I do like them. The heel stack, again, let's see, welt, one, two, I think three very thick pieces of leather making up the heel stack. Then there's the rubber insert to give you grip, and a leather top lift. Brass nails, good touch. And obviously this leather, I don't know what you call it, mitre, gives you grip as you put your heel down. So all in all, veg 10 leather outsole, veg 10 midsole, veg 10 welt, veg 10 insole, soft calfskin leather, pretty good hardware. These are really good materials. I am really liking this boot. Okay, let's talk a little bit about Parkhurst before we put these boots on. I'll put a link in the description below to the Parkhurst website, which I'll also put on screen as I talk. Parkhurst was started by the owner Andrew Savisco, and it's still pretty much a one-man band. Andrew had a vision where he would be making, he wanted to make really good value boots that weren't at the very high prices, but still gave extremely good quality content. And he had the vision of sourcing all of his materials from US sources, whether they actually be materials made in the US, or if they were made in the UK, for example, Day Night Souls, he would get them sourced from a local supplier so that he kept supply chains within the US. So it's quite an inspirational vision. Unfortunately, COVID hit Parkhurst very hard. Parkhurst make boots in small batches. So in terms of what they had available, they used to get quite interesting innovative leathers and make a limited run so that they then change over leathers. But COVID struck them substantially because supply chains started drying up and Andrew just couldn't get the boots manufactured through the US factory through lockdowns and supply chain issues, lack of materials and supplies and so on. And it hasn't been until recently that Parkhurst turned the corner and I suppose you could call it Parkhurst 2.0 where Andrew reached out to his contacts and found a factory in Spain as well as another factory in New York to take over some of the backlog. And so you'll be starting to see as this video goes up more and more styles and collections start to regenerate. At the moment he's got the Elmwood, which is a Chelsea boot in various leathers and the Niagara, such as this one that you're seeing that I'm reviewing, in also various leathers and gradually he will start to bring in the old Alan and Richmond styles. So that in a nutshell is really where we are with Parkhurst and I'm dying to get these on foot so let's go try them on. Okay I'm very excited to put these on so let's start. So these are, oh that slipped in rather nicely, the glove lining is a new experience in Parkhurst for me. So these are size 8 in Parkhurst's 602M or M602 Last. As you know if you've been watching my channel I'm a US Brannock 8.5D that's my true to size, 8.5D in the US measurement. But in most boots I wear an 8D because as in most boots I tend to size a half down from my true to size to get into these heritage style American boots. So this is no different. I'm wearing an 8 and in terms of sizing as I put them on they feel really good. There's a good, I would say yeah, good thumbs width between the tip and where my big toe is, maybe a little less. The width on both feet, this is the wider foot of mine, the width on both feet is just about right, really nice. There's extra room in this modified 602M Last. There's more volume and I can feel that. I mean my, I can quite easily wiggle my toes. There's plenty of room in there. Interestingly the 602M Last or the old 602M Last is a combination last which means it's a narrow in the heel and the waist and then it widens up at the ball of the foot to the toe. Interestingly these feel a little less snug than some of my other Parkhurst boots. Not uncomfortable but they're just not as fitting in the waist and the heel. Immediately I can feel that the brand new leather soles are a little bit slippery and carpet so I need to be careful when I stand up in case it looks like I'm on a skating rink. Extremely comfortable underfoot as I stand up. I can feel the firmness of the leather cork, leather underneath my feet. Now how can I describe this? It feels like I'm on firm foundations. That leather is flexible but it makes me feel like my feet are planted into them, into the layers of leather and I suppose that'll only just get better. The sole and one of the benefits of a leather sole is quite flexible so I'm not getting a lot of heel slip. I don't think I tied my left boot particularly tight when I tied the laces because I did it in a hurry so I'm slipping slightly in the heel over there but otherwise they feel really comfortable. So in terms of sizing half down from Brannock you may have to contact Andrew if you have particularly wide feet you may have to size up. In terms of comfort these feel really really good. It's been a long time since I've had a pair of boots like these. Now okay I think the arch support is fine but it's probably not up to Alden's standard but you know Alden's have a history in making orthopedic shoes and my Alden 403s really do grip my arches in that cantilever sort of part here. They really mold into my arches. Look these are fine. They don't compare with my White Sand P for example but those have half a cow under them in all leather. So they're good. Fit and comfort I'd say a good eight and a half to nine out of ten maybe closer to the nine and I suspect that over time I'll increase that comfort factor. No tightness no pain spots superb. Definitely two thumbs up. Now finally these are group MTO boots so when I ordered them with the group that was organized by the Parkhurst Enthusiast group in Facebook these came up to us at US $438 so it's well over $300 that Parkhurst used to be built around but the actual materials and the construction in this boot as you saw is definitely a step up above. There are a couple of other ready to wear ready to buy Niagara's on the Parkhurst website in two different leathers with different soles and they sell at the moment for US $418. I do believe Andrew is going to bring this into the ready to wear section. I'm not quite sure what price it is but with the leather sole and the and the extra leather inside I think it might be coming out at the $438 mark. Look I think it represents excellent value. I mean you saw what went into it. You saw the care and attention and I really think at $438 you are getting a really well made boot that will fit into your different casual and potentially even office wear type suits and I think it represents excellent value. I'm going to put a link below in the description to the website where you can take a look at the existing other boots that they have at the moment and perhaps by the time you go in the other models will have come out. So don't forget though before you go there click on the like button and the subscribe button to help me grow my channel and otherwise keep look out for my other videos coming out. Take care guys and I'll see you soon.