 I love collaboration boots, especially when they're between one of the great Pacific Northwest brands and one of my favorite brands of boots. If you want to know how you take a comfortable last and build it on a perfect chassis, stick around. I'll tell you all the things I like about this boot and the one thing that I don't. How you going? Welcome back to Bootlossophy and if you're new here, my name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, the budget people. This is the Nix and Parkhurst collaboration boot called the V1. Nix announced it as the first ever collaboration between two boot companies. There's a lot I like about it, but when I summarized my review at the end of this video with pros and cons, I'll tell you about the one thing that I don't like about it. So this is the Nix Parkhurst V1. Nix made this, taking the classic Falcon boot and its usual full leather stitch down construction and built it around Parkhurst's iconic 602 last to create a sleeker and dressier profile. Looking at it, it isn't actually that different from the classic configuration Falcon except that the toe box profile and more pronounced almond toe shape is sleeker. It's perhaps more of a service boot design than a work boot design plain toe, slightly over a six inch high shaft, big leather pull loop, flat block heel, bright brass eyelets and speed hooks and constructed with Nix usual stitch down construction. I'll explain all that when I get into construction. They came with super long leather laces, but I found the twisted brown and light tan look of the laces. I found them a little too distracting, so I swapped them for these Whites MP flat wax cotton laces. I see no point in having a dressier lasted boot and be distracted by thick two-tone leather laces even though I ordinarily like leather laces in the right boots. You can see what they look like with the stock laces in this picture and you'll probably see the bright white stitching on the stitch down construction as well. I brushed them with some brown boot cream to tone down the contrast for the same reason as swapping over the laces. A little too stark and distracting. You can catch them in all the out of the box glory in this unboxing video up here. I'm still working out what outfits they best go with, but I think at the end of the day it's going to end up being jeans mainly, whether in denim, black or earth tones like brown. These kaki chinos will also probably work and that's probably as dressy as they'll go. One thing I have found in the last couple of weeks wearing this around, the very big pull loops get in the way of my slimmer jeans and even some of my straight leg jeans. I tend to tailor my jeans and pants to break just on my instep. This means that even with looser fitting pants, when I sit down and sort of crook my legs, the pants hem rises to just above the top of the shaft and catches the pull loops. I've been shaking my pants down a lot these last couple of weeks. Now let's talk about the brands. Parkus was founded in 2018 as a small batch direct-to-consumer company by Andrew Savisco, a former stock analyst who was motivated to make a quality boot for around a 300 to 400 dollar mark and in doing so try to keep industry localized. Parkhurst's most iconic last is the a 602 last, named after the landing ship tank that Andrew's grandfather served on in the Second World War. Building his foundational plain-toe allen boots and captoe Richmond boots on them, he's created some innovative make-ups with really different leathers like kudu, mohawk and moose as well as trying out different oil or combination tan leathers from tanneries like Seidel instead of the ubiquitous homine chromic cell. The 602 last is applauded by Parkhurst fans. A last is the 3D shaped mold around which a particular boot is built. The design ends up taking on the shape of the last. Andrew designed the 602 last himself when often the boot makers will go to last designers and their license of shape to use as theirs. It's a combination last in that it's molded with a narrow heel and waist, starting I believe with a B or C width heel and then widening out to an E width forefoot combined with a rounded almond shaped toe. This means that it grips your heel but offers comfort around the ball of your feet and does not squeeze your toes while still looking dressy, sleek and sharp. This is the last that Nyx took as the collaborative piece. Nyx's lasts tend to be high arched and with a more consistent width up and down the foot, mostly with a rounded and higher profile toe box. You can see why being grounded on work, logging and firefighting boots that their lasts offer comfort in the field and for standing up all day. Nyx with no apostrophe and more correctly Nyx handmade boots was started by Russian immigrant Nyx Blahucin, I hope I got that right in 1964. He eventually sold the company to co-worker Gary Meyers in 1980 before retiring. In 1991 the company was sold again to Nyx Patrilli who in turn sold it in 1999 to Dick Hosely and then in 2013 it was sold again to current owner Steve Moe. This is how interrelated the Pacific Northwest boot companies are. The original Nyx worked for White's Boots before he started Nyx. Nick Patrilli's brother Frank, who also worked at Nyx, left to start Frank's Boots in 2016. John Kadzi who worked for Nyx in the late 90s for a few years also left and started JK Boots. It's interesting to me how the Pacific Northwest is so well known for work and heritage boot making but so many of its best known companies have totally interrelated roots and they're all within a relatively small geographical footprint. Nyx is primarily a work boot manufacturer specializing in outdoor work boots for builders and trades and people who work in the logging industry, linemen and so on. American bush firefighters are regular customers as well. They entered the heritage service boot type world in the 2010s with the Arrobert boot. Take a look at my review up there. They now offer what is a what is potentially a confusing array of articles and models but basically classify them as work boots, heritage boots and fire duty boots. The Falcon and a few other service boot styles are in the heritage section. As for the construction of this boot, my information is a little scant and I'm gathering bits and pieces from Nyx own very informative and entertaining YouTube channels as well as a little bit from what Andrew Savisco told me. Let's see what we can gather and I'll start with the construction method which is the stitch down construction method. To see the different types of construction methods take a look at this video up there where I explain the main methods. Basically the leather pieces making up the uppers are stitched together and then last it that is they're pulled down tightly over the last and the front of the uppers are then flared out in readiness to stitch to the midsole. Inside the insole is assembled and stitched on then the flared out uppers are stitched down onto the leather midsole to the outsole. As you can see it's a double row stitch down and both stitches go through the uppers midsole as well as the outsole. The midsole is a solid five millimeters thick of really thick vegetarian leather. I don't know how thick the insole is but it's not flimsy and the rubber outsole is about itself eight millimeters thick so this is a solid raft that this boot sits on. The outside by the way is the outsole is Vibram 700 rubber outsole or commonly known as the V bar sole due to the V shape pattern on it. It is low profile so it befits a casual dress boot but it is reasonably grippy on everything except the wettest and slicker stuff. The back half of the boot is glued sewn and nailed to the insole construction. The heel block is made up of stacked leather pieces and topped by a Vibram Quarbog heel. This boot is full of names that are hard to pronounce. As it's built in the Knicks way I think the inside of the boot under the arch is built up with shaped leather pieces and a leather shack to build up the arch similar to Knicks usual H&W moderate arch support. You can feel the level of the arch inside at about halfway up the inside arch area and there is a slight bulge under the arch for all that leather support. It feels superb and I'll expand on that when I talk about fit and comfort. Moving on up I chose brown chrome excel for the uppers because it was a quick shift option and I didn't have to wait although even then quick shift meant a wait from May to August. Did I tell you that Knicks business model is built to order right? A quick shift wait time of three months is pretty good in that context. Others who opted for other less quickly available stock leathers they're still waiting. Chrome excel as you probably know is tanned by Horween tannery a tannery that started in 1905 inventing the famous combination tan chrome excel in 1911. It is a pull-up leather and used by almost every quality boot maker out there. Used here it's hard to show you the pull-up because my thumbs are a bit sore and this cut of chrome excel used is so damn thick it's about three millimeters thick. The structured toe puff is slastic but the external heel counter is veg tan leather and it's tough. There is a two-piece backstay protecting the heel counter with the central piece moving up and protecting the Achilles tendon and attached to that is the beefy pull loop. The stitching on the uppers isn't going anywhere it's triple stitched in the bottom backstay multiple chevron stitched in the Achilles backstay and quadruple stitched at the quarters. For as big as the hand stitched stitch down stitches are the stitching on the uppers are small consistent and very clean. The hardware is bright brass four eyelets three speed hooks and a top eyelet. They're evenly spaced and feel very solid in the brass material and also in the way that they're fixed. The tongue is a fully gusseted tongue I think it might be made of chrome excel as well but it is a much thinner hide one and a half to two millimeters and so it's very malleable that's great because you need to fold it over itself I use this S shape since it's fully gusted. The boots come with chrome excel cuties false tongues to protect the softer real tongue from being scratched by the hardware and to keep dirt off the falls of the real tongue. The top of the shaft is reinforced by a piece of chrome excel that's very nicely rolled for comfort and I guess looks as well. It's a beautifully constructed boot all sturdy and solid so solid in fact there with all that leather weighs in at a hefty 1.1 kilos per boot it's very heavy I'm having problem holding it but that's not what I dislike about it in fact the heft just feels right you feel protected when you put the boots on and it feels like oh you know you're wearing something substantial and important as for leather care it is chrome excel so as usual number one keep it clean of dust dirt and gritty things which are the enemy of leather. Two condition it now and then with a conditioner of your choice the boots come with a small container of boot grease which I've been told is actually obanoffs. Some people may not like putting obanoffs on chrome excel because it will darken the leather. I can see why you would use chrome use obanoffs. If you use this as a work boot the obanoffs grease would help the moderately water resistant boot become a much more water resistant boot. If you have to wash the boot if it gets dirty and then it dries out I prefer conditioning it with some neat foot oil which doesn't darken the leather but if it really isn't dried out and all you're doing is some regular conditioning I recommend venetian shoe cream in neutral. Just a thin smear let it haze and absorb and then brush it off with a good quality horsehair brush. Venetian will also give it a soft polish. Now let's take a look at sizing and how the fit of this collab boot feels as against a standard parko 602 boot. When I first bought my first Nix I took a stab and chose my usual size in heritage boots 8D which is a half size down from my brannock size of 8.5D. Now that fit well so I did the same sizing here it's a good fit there was hardly any break in in fact on the second day I went for a six kilometer walk with no bad effects whatsoever. The heel and waist lock in the arch support is great the ball of the foot is snug like a firm handshake and there's enough room for my toes to wiggle but not so much that I have to find grip when I'm walking. When these arrived and I put them on my Instagram account Andrew Savisco messaged me and asked how they fit. I told them what I still feel now the fit is good but a tiny bit more generous than in one of his boots. The arch support is much more apparent of course on P&W construction and the length visually looks longer but I don't think it is. I understand that as all that leather under my arch settles down with my weight on them my foot will gradually slip down the slope and fill up the toe box more. Right now there's a little more than the thumbs width in the front of my toes so I expect that will settle in. There is no sense of being loose about it. The sturdy feel of the build the arch the firmness of the uppers all combined to keep you reminded you have a pair of boots on your feet and that they are sturdy and real boots and important I can't describe that feeling any better. Now these boots cost 599 US dollars when I ordered back in May 2023. That's a lot of money in Australia especially the postage cost wait for it 123 US dollars ah that total Australian $1,134 even I have to admit that was a lot but 599 US about 940 dollars for the boots has to be separated from the highway robbery that is 123 or Aussie 200 dollars for postage. Come on USPS at 599 US these are incredibly well built. Vibex service boots are 700 US white MPs are 600 so it's all in the ballpark would you pay that much depends on what you get I think to me these come well made and feeling important so yeah value seems to match price so even the cost isn't what I don't like about this so what is it that I don't like about these boots on the pro side I put firmly the fit and comfort definitely the sturdiness of materials and construction the arch support is worth a mention the look and aesthetics of a casual dress service boot that feels like a work boot is well up there as well and the feeling when you put these on the feeling that I have something important on my feet on the con side one and only one thing I really dislike about these boots they're called the Knicks cross parkhurst v1 for a reason there's going to be a v2 that means I'll have to buy the v2 when it comes out oh god I hate that but hey you probably love it because that means if you like and subscribe I'll have to do another unboxing and another review of the v2 so go on click on like and make sure you're subscribed until then take care and I'll see you again soon