 This is how good Indonesian bootmakers can be. A well-made, handmade, solid boot finally finished. There are some issues which I'll point out, but overall this is a boot I like having on my feet. How are you going? Welcome to Bootlossophy. My name is Tech. I acknowledge the Wajik people who are the traditional custodians of the lands here in Perth on which I'm filming. This is the Fortis Boots collaboration with the happiness carpenter and it's called the Gold Rush. This is my first lace-to-toe style boot and also my first logger or woodsman heel boot. This style of boot falls into the work boot category, but while sturdy enough, this is a more fashion-leaning item and probably not suitable for the manual workplace. It takes the style of the lace-to-toe logger boot and cleans up the lines a lot using a new Fortis Last designed by John Bristo, who is the happiness carpenter on Instagram and YouTube. It is an 8-inch boot measuring from the top of the heel to the collar and the high one and a half inch heel emphasises that height. It has a comfortable rounded toe last with a reasonably high profile and bump toe, which gives a lot of comfort on foot, which I'll talk about later. The lace-to-toe pattern, so-called because it laces quite low on the instep, almost to the toes, gives it a US Pacific Northwest forestry vibe with really well-designed and curvy, dare I say, elegant vamp and quarter pieces. Lace-to-toe boots originally offer stability when working on uneven ground and the design allows you to spread the tension of the laces over a larger area, which means that you can tighten the laces without pinching any particular area. You can also adjust which parts of the boot you apply tension to and which you might loosen up. There's a long heel counterpiece that helps with heel stability and a backstay that goes up the shaft to end at a pull loop. The stitching includes Fortis's signature loop. The sole is stacks of leather layers with a beautifully sanded and finished logger heel. And the Dr. Soul Cream Supergrip sole finishes the look of a solid but smart-looking boot. Being workwear-style, I think you can wear this with anything from rugged workwear to jeans casual. So any fade of jeans, canvas pants, brown and neutral colors, blacks and gray pants topped by flannel shirts, maybe trucker jackets or waxed outdoor jackets and maybe even leather jackets. American manual laborers are not going to like this. And I understand why because this style of boot more than any other worn by boot collectors who do not work with their hands is mostly an appropriation of their uniform and badge of honor. But the post-COVID world today is not about uniforms anymore really, but about what you're comfortable with. It's as much umbrage as a stockbroker might take when a manual laborer wears a suit to a party and decides to add a pocket square. The world's clothing choices have moved on from the professions. Before I talk about construction, I'll just quickly mention the background to both Fortis boots from Bandung in Indonesia and John Bristo, the happiness carpenter. I already have several Fortis boots. Check out my review up there of their Dhaka Lasted service boot. Fortis was founded by Saini Ramdani in 2020 in Bandung, Indonesia. I'll link their Instagram in the description below. Boot enthusiasts will recognize Bandung as an epicenter of quality handmade bootmaking and is recognized as one of the world's centers of quality bootmaking like the US Pacific Northwest, like Leon in Mexico, and like Northampton. Like most Bandung bootmakers, Fortis is a handmade MTO bootmaker. They have a few proprietary lasts which will form the basis of a number of different styles and they can make pretty much any type of boot that you want. The process is not for the faint of heart because they don't have websites and you make an approach first by email, WhatsApp or through Instagram. You choose a design from the pictures on the Instagram and then you choose the leathers, the construction, the soles and so on. And you send them a measurement of your feet with a 50% deposit of the quoted cost. Then you wait. If they are a popular brand you may wait up to three months or more and you may need to really prompt them for updates. Some context may explain this model. These are all artisan handmade brands working out of what you and I would probably call a backyard shed, not a factory. Their craftspeople work on little stools or sitting on the floor with kids in traffic running all around them. To us it would be total chaos. The owners are responsible for everything and most don't speak English all that well. Most are great on social media but not able to navigate making a website and their margins are not good enough to hire a webmaster if they can even find one. You'll find most of them though honest to the hilt and very eager to please. Customer service if you don't mind the few days of radio silence when you first write to them actually quite excellent. On this boot Fort is collaborated with John the happiness carpenter. Now John is a working carpenter and boot collector based in my US geography is not great. I think he's in Southern California with family ties to Mexico and visits there often. With that background he has a big collection of work boots which he actually uses on the job as well as he and collecting engineers and other pretty awesome heritage boots. John is one of the nicest guys on the internet and his Instagram account is full of boots family and love. His YouTube videos are open honest and giving. I'll leave links to both of them below. You can also watch John's launch of the Gold Rush Collaboration Boot up there. Now let's look at the construction of these Gold Rush boots. As usual I'll start from the bottom and take a look at the construction method first. These are the most beautifully hand stitched Goodyear welted boots I have ever seen. For those of you who don't know the Goodyear welting method of construction connects the uppers to the sole construction using a thin leather strip called the welt that goes all the way around the perimeter of the boot. On the inside the leather insole has a slit hand carved into it and through that it's stitched to the turned in uppers and to the inside edge of the welt which you can't see. On the outside the outside edge of the welt is stitched through to the midsole and to the outsole. In this way no single stitch holes go all the way from outside the boot to the inside of the boot hence making it very water resistant. Goodyear welting is also recraftable because when the sole wears out you can cut the stitch, peel off the outsole and glue on a new one and re-stitch it back on and in theory never even disturb the welt or the inside of the boot. Usually there is a single stitch on the outside edge going all the way around the boot but in this case there's a 270 degree stitch and then another second stitch that goes 360 degrees around the whole boot but what a second stitch. The stitch that goes all the way around the boot is a beautiful chain stitch and it's in two colors gold and cream yet on the underside you only see the two plain cream stitches. Not only is this just beautiful it's hand stitched. The 40s people sit there and stitch through all that layers of leather and rubber with an awl and pull the stitches through and then on the top finally create this intricate chain stitch. Taking a look below that you can see the welt edge being about four mils thick veg tan leather then a five mil thick veg tan midsole. The leather edges of the sole and the heel stack are beautifully sanded and polished. As I said earlier this is a logger or woodsman heel. The heel line is tapered and concave tapering from the base of the heel into the ground. The traditional original logger heels were designed for lumber checks for traction, ability to climb up trees and ability to traverse steep uneven ground. If you take a peek under the arch you'll see a bow shape telling you this is shaped over a leather shack but more of that later. To top off the sole the grip and wear is provided by a Dr. Soul Supergrip half sole and a Dr. Soul nearly 20 millimeter thick top lift. The rubber pieces are glued and if not stitched as they are on the front they're nailed into the heel. The balance of the boot including the toe bump is perfectly balanced. The Supergrip sole is comfortable and durable and very grippy in my experience. Inside the boot Fortis uses a leather filler as well as despite the built-up leather arch support a steel shack for rigidity, arch support and torsional control. On the inside Fortis adds a comfort leather half insole just under the heel. The uppers are made from Indonesian veg tent leather which is 2.2 millimeters thick but very supple and soft. This is natural so undyed and after a few months it has turned a light honey color even though we're new it was pretty pink like the skin of a raw pork chop. Go see my unboxing up there. The boot is fully lined and while the lace facings are raw leather cut leather the finishing of the collar is in a I think it's called a French binding it's just superb. The stitching on the uppers hands guiding the pieces through a stitching machine is so precise clean and uniform. The vamp piece is carefully triple stitched to the upper quarter and shaft piece and the heel counter cover overlaps the vamp and it's also carefully triple stitched. The backstay is double stitched with the additional Fortis loop. The toe box feels unstructured other than with the lining leather and the heel counter is leather and longer so that it comes along the size of the boot to give it more rigidity like an old and indie. The tongue is partially gusseted up to the fifth eyelet. This kilty doesn't come with the boot it's from Dale's Leatherworks but somehow it seems to fit the aesthetic I think. Speaking of the eyelets the hardware is bright brass, seven eyelets, four speed hooks and a final locking eyelet at the very top. The hardware is put on firm enough and it's very nicely washed and backed but the speed hooks are actually speed hooks fitted into eyelets. By that I mean that first they put on eyelets regular eyelets and then the speed hooks are fitted through the eyelets and crimped into them. Nothing wrong with that actually I see that in some Leon made boots also as well as a few other European models but there is a tendency in this case where the speed hooks don't have enough grip in the eyelet and they rotate a bit. Not an issue but it is annoying. Now leather care this Indonesian veg tan leather is really easy to care for. It's a four grain leather and you can see all the markings on the surface. It's quite protective from scratches and bumps and it doesn't mark very easily but like all veg tan it will stain when wet but I found that if you're allowed to dry naturally over time the stain doesn't stay on. Cleaning is quite simple brush off dust, wipe with a wet rag and if really dirty you can saddle soap this it'll take that no problems. Conditioning is also easy it's a dry leather in my opinion so it can probably take an oily conditioner for deeper penetration and frankly to help waterproof it. I have conditioned this once with Obernoff's grease and it's soaked in really nicely and it did also darken it but frankly I'm happy with with it in this color than in the raw pork chop pink. In terms of sizing it's an MTO with sizing based on the measurements that you provide so you do have to be careful. I'm having a bit of a to and fro discussion with Sani about my sizing which he has settled as a European 42 which technically equates to a US 9. The problem is I believe I'm a 41.5 or a US 8.5 and I'm trying to convince him that my original drawing of my foot was using a thick marker pen it may not have been accurate but to cut a long story short Sani has made all my fortress boots as a 42 and they are big on my feet so I'm now accustomed to putting in a shop bought foam arch support insole or I wear thick socks and with either of those solutions they then fit comfortably. The important thing is that they're not long at the heel to ball measurement and only marginally longer at the toe I mean it's really a half size longer at the toe which is hardly any more than a thumb. To come in this short story shorter my advice is that these are true to size and make sure you draw and measure your feet properly and then you leave it to them. If you get your measurement right they will get it right. Despite my uncertainty about the sizing with those fixes these are just so damn comfortable they really feel almost bespoke to my feet. The fit all around my foot is good that's a tribute to the last. The bend and the flex is perfect and the comfort underfoot with all that leather is just responsive and perfectly shock absorbing. These cost me US $350 in May 2023 postage inclusive. I don't have much to say to justify that value yes it is a local VegTen leather but it's really good. Everything else I mean look at the Goodyear welt stitching and look at the stitching and finish overall. Are you kidding? Of course it's value for the money. You cannot get this level of handmade boot with that finishing for less than 700 US dollars at least. So there you have it guys I hope you enjoyed this review of the Fortis Carpenter Gold Rush lace to toe boots. I know many of you may not like this style and others may not like that it's a fancy work boot stolen from the feet of people who wear Drew's loggers but I'm telling you if you get past that this is really impressive it's a pretty boot. It's not totally my style but I do like wearing it because it's so comfortable and I reach for it you know more often than I thought I would. So there you go I hope you click on the thumbs up like button to help out my channel and if you're not already subscribed come on I hope you will because there's lots more coming something for everyone's taste. Until the next time take care and see you again soon.