 This is going to be controversial. I have five pairs of Truman boots spanning much of their boot-making history. Now I like my Truman boots, but I don't love them. G'day, my name is Tech and welcome back to my channel Bootlossophy. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands I live and work on here in Perth in Western Australia, the Wajik people. My journey with Truman boots began in April of 2022. When I bought my first pair of Truman boots in a seconds and samples sale, it was this pair of boots in Seidel's Light Natural Limerick. You can see the review of them up here. Now, I don't believe it's a second because I haven't seen this leather being used before, so I think this was a sample that happened to be in my size. It's on Truman's most popular last, the 79 last. In fact, all of my Truman boots are in the same 79 last. I was originally put onto the brand by Dale from Dale's Leatherworks because he had so many pairs of Truman boots and sang the praises. I was really impressed and intrigued by this first pair. They looked good, they felt good in this particular last and I enjoyed wearing them. So like all boot collectors, I bought more. Before I go on, I should say a bit about Truman boots for people new to quality Americana heritage style boots or new to Truman as a brand. Truman Boot Company isn't an old-time boot company, even though their designs are based on heritage American boot designs in the work boot or service boot category. The influence is clearly from American heritage work wear. They look like they come from a 100-year-old tradition. The company was actually founded in 2014 by Vince Romano and Truman is the name of Vince's border collie. Truman was a small batch made-to-order company that is focused on making good quality boots and being from the US it became about making a well-made American product. In doing so, they have been part of the revival of an industry that could have disappeared in the US. Vince has said that when he started Truman boots, he set out to make boots that would be unique and last for many years. The boots that they now produce are definitely rugged and tough and the use of very unique and different leathers make whatever they offer on their last truly unique. Truman had a journey themselves. They started in Pennsylvania, that's in the eastern United States and then moved to Colorado which is somewhere in the middle and then moved again finally settling in Oregon in the US Pacific Northwest. Their website said that the moves were motivated by necessity, the need for better factory space, more skilled workers and so on. Vince had stated that he saw the future in having more ready-to-wear inventory rather than remaining a strictly made-to-order company. During the pandemic, their MTO lines really lengthened and as we all came out of the pandemic, Truman moved to a ready-to-ship business model. While not all styles and sizes are always immediately available, they sell up pretty fast. Their models have gone from about six or seven when they first committed to ready-to-ship to about 25 models as I'm recording this. Where before Truman had I think three different lasts, those are the boot-shaped molds in which they formed the uppers, they now focus on only two lasts, the 79 last and the 20 last. Now this I assume makes it easier for production runs. Removing a less popular last means that they have less chances of slow-moving inventory. Now I believe the 79 last was Truman's original last and is used for all of their cap-toe and plain-toe models. It's an almond-shaped last and it's available in B, D and WE widths. The 20 last is used for their mock-toe boots with a little more volume in the toe box and is only available in D width. When they first started they used stitch-down construction where the uppers are lasted and then the edges flared out and stitched down directly to the midsole. As they moved west at some stage, stitch-down was reduced in availability, mainly because of the time it took and the relative cost of the stitch-down and then ultimately all your boots are now good year-welted. As opposed to stitch-down where the uppers are stitched directly to the midsole, in good year-welting the uppers are turned in instead of being flared out and then they are stitched to a welt which is then separately stitched to the midsole and sometimes the outsole as well. So in the opposite of Truman's own journey, slowly meandering across the United States, my Truman journey began with one pair bought in April of 2022 and very quickly accelerated through four more pairs in as little as seven months. I really liked the rugged aesthetic and the interesting letters they came in and as a first experience I really liked the light natural limerick. This was in the 2022 form of good year-welting. The 79 last was roomy for me so that while it formed a snug fit, the toe box had room and despite the almond-shaped toe, it didn't squeeze my toes. I found the support of the uppers and the Vibram 430 mini lug sole perfect for the walks and hikes that my wife and I take on the weekends through our national parks. The 270 degree good year storm welt across the front three quarters of the boot was easily water and mud resistant for those walks. I also liked the aesthetic. Looking down it was a pleasing cross between service boot and work boot aesthetic and it looked rugged. But I liked them enough to be interested in different uppers and then I bought more. So chronologically, in order of when and how I accumulated them, my second pair in May of 2022 was the Smoke Rambler bought from eBay almost new. In August of 2022, two popped up from eBay, the Black Rambler and the most iconic Truman model, the Java waxed flesh. After a hiatus in November of 2022, this Aubergine horse butt appeared on eBay and while I thought I might stop buying Truman boots, I'd never had a horse butt and the price was right because of a small cut on the uppers. However, in terms of chronological order of when Truman offered these boots, the order is mixed up a bit from the order I bought them in. I believe the earliest model in my collection is the Java waxed flesh. The giveaway is that these are stitched down construction, obviously made before they moved to Goodyear welting. Java waxed flesh leather is made by the famous Horween Tanry in Chicago and it's a rough out leather where the rough nappy flesh side is turned outwards and it's also heavily waxed so that when new, it looks almost smooth. Once worn though, the nap starts to show and being on a lighter base in the wax gives a beautifully contrasting patina of nappy reddish brown. This was once Truman's most popular leather but I think in the last few years, it's been taken over by Coach Rambler. Ignore the kilties by the way, that's not original, it's from Dale's Leather Works and I find that Truman boots in particular are really suited to adding false tongues for the work boots style look. It's built with a leather midsole and a foam filler and a fiberglass shank on a commando lug sole made by Goodyear. You can check my initial review up there to learn about fit and sizing but the main thing in my journey is that these have an unstructured toe which is my first unstructured toe box boots. The second earliest pair now is I think the Black Rambler. Rambler is one of Truman's repeat leathers and it's from Charles F. Stett Tanry in Leeds, England. It's a shrunken suede and is such thinner than Java Wex Flesh but being shrunken is really still pretty sturdy. Suede is a split leather after the top layer of grain-side leather is split from the full hide. In the case of the Rambler, it's shrunken in the heated tanning process losing about 30% of the size which also means that the fiber structure shrinks and makes it actually stronger. It's then waxed in the tanning process and produces a tough leather that shows all the imperfections and veins and undulation of the animal skin. This is in Truman's Goodyear welting stage and I think earlier than the Aubergine horse rum because it's a 360-degree Goodyear welt which I believe Truman first tried. It's built on a leather insole, foam-filling again, fiberglass shank again and a leather midsole and then on a day-night studded outsole. Again, check out my review up here for my opinion about sizing. This also had an unstructured toe but the toe-box shape of the same 79 last seems to have developed and it's not as sharply into the almond toe shape which is I think why I prefer the fit. Next chronologically, I think came the Aubergine horse rum but I'm not too sure. I'm guessing the order because this is in a 270-degree welt format and I believe Truman went from the initial experiments with the 360 welt to a 270 welt later. However, they may have come out at relatively the same time because the toe-box on the horse butt is more similar to the black rambler and I think it's still quite a sharp turn into the almond shape. The Aubergine horse butt is also built on a day-night sole and also has a fiberglass shank. I think then the next oldest boot is the smoked rambler. Again, it might be contemporaneous with the light-natural limerick because construction is actually very similar between these two boots. Now the limerick was a sample. There may be a hair's difference in timing during 2022. Both the smoked rambler and the limerick have structured toes and the more rounded toe-box shape and so I think that's why I prefer the fit of these two. The smoked rambler is such an unusual light color, isn't it? That it really goes anywhere and pairs nicely with this olive rough-out kilty from Dale. The smoked rambler makeup is also unusual in that it's on a leather midsole with a vibram half sole in the mini lug pattern. I think this one also has a fiberglass shank as well. For the sake of completeness, my review of the smoked rambler is up there. Now here's the controversial part. You know how I believe that we think something is of value because of what we feel in our hearts, not in the actual calculations that our heads make. I like them because I like the design, particularly the newer ones. Coming off what I can only assume is a newer 79 last with a more rounded toe-box. They are wickedly rugged and work boot-like. I like them because they feel sturdy and protective and this limerick one has been fantastic out in the bush. I actually feel bulletproof. I also really like them for the absolute variety of totally different and rarely used leathers or at least rarely used by other brands. Truman seems to pick the wildest leathers and give them a go and somehow the package works. In the past and even a little while, even for me, there have been bright green and bright blue and bright red uppers, camouflage leathers and horse butts and suede. But I haven't liked them enough to buy them full price. At first I thought my reticence was due to the wait times for the MTOs, especially during the pandemic and I thought that was putting me off. But now I believe that it was simply my heart telling me I don't love them enough to wait as I waited for other MTO boots during that period and the prices at mid US 400s to high 500s. To me, my heart was saying, not that the build and material value wasn't there because clearly they are. But my heart was saying, no, no, that's a little too much dollars for the love that I'm not feeling. Now, I'm not like Rose Anvil, a leather worker who knows his leathers. I don't cut them up and look at each piece and work out the cost of each item piece by piece to see if it all adds up to the price. To me, the whole of the product is what I like or I don't like. And the whole package is how I judge value, not price. We make decisions based on how we feel overall and then we reference our head to balance head and heart. It's about how it makes me feel and while I like Truman boots and I cannot disprove their worth, to me, I'm sorry, but somehow I just don't love them. Don't get me wrong. As a collector, I don't regret my five pairs and I'm pleased I was able to source some earlier versions. But unless a makeup really appeals to my heart, I think my Truman journey may have come to an end. But never say never, right? 007? We'll see. For now, I still subscribe to Truman's website and I go in and check every now and then. Maybe, just maybe, I might still get a coach rambler. Okay, controversy corner is over. I hope you liked my little journey. If you did, please click on the like below and if you're not subscribed, please click on subscribe as well. There's more to come, much more to come in terms of boot reviews in 2024 and I have some plans for other videos on bags and gear and other things. So if you like all of that, subscribe. And until the next video, stay safe and I'll see you soon.