 I bought these in the Black Friday sale November 21 for 25% off. They were US $360 at the time and the discount brought it down to $270. Two years later, was it a good buy? There are pros and cons. How are you going? Welcome to bootlossophy and if you're new to my channel, my name is Tech. I acknowledge the Wajik people whose lands I live and work on here in Perth, Western Australia. This is the Grant Stone diesel boot in black chrome excel and on a leather sole with a natural coloured welt. Apart from the currently 17 other models that you can get of the diesel boots, they also make one of these in the black chrome excel but with the edges stained black and on Grant Stones proprietary rubber studded sole. I find this one a little less strictly formalised, a little more edgy with the natural welt that framing the black chrome excel. After two years of reasonably regular use, taking it in the context of my big boot collection, it's worn well in places and a bit sus in others. I'm not going to go into a detailed review here, you can watch my full review up there but I wanted to bring you an update mainly focused on how they have worn. To start with, it's obviously a plain toe service boot design. Some might say that with the low profile, it's maybe less of a service boot and more of a dress boot but to be honest, I find the whole categorisation of this type of ankle boot really difficult. In many ways, they fall into the same design as a Parkhursts Allen boot and Vibeaux plain toe service boot. Coming up with a truly unique new boot design is difficult these days. I have collaborated with Fortes boots from Bandung in Indonesia on a couple of designs, the strider and the thorn and while we added some different features, ultimately most boot designs are settled already and any twists are in the small tweaks like the stitching or an extra panel of leather here and there. So let's go with that and call this a service boot. Six inches high, Derby open lacing system, low block heel. These individualistic tweaks come in the use of the natural welp to frame the otherwise preponderous black leather and maybe the hourglass shaped backstay. For those of you who don't know, Grant Stone is an American company based in Michigan but making their boots in a partner Chinese factory in the Chinese resort city of Jiamen. You may have political views about it being made in China and I can't discount that but if you think made in China means cheap and badly made, nasty then take a look at these and you have another thing coming. This is the Apple iPhone of the boot world. The construction itself is Goodyear welted which is widely regarded as a gold standard in boot construction. To dive into Goodyear welting check out my Goodyear welt 101 video up there. The advantages of Goodyear welting are that it is very water resistant. It's a very water resistant form of connecting the sole to the uppers and it's also recraftable meaning you can re-sole this boot theoretically up to an infinite number of times. Being able to re-sole the boot when the outsole is worn means that it will last you many years past cheaper boots thus making costs per year smaller and smaller as the years go by. The interesting thing here is that the leather welt, insole, midsole and outsole are all American veg tanned bends leather. They are constructed with a cork filling and a triple rib steel shank. The layers of leather and cork means that in theory they get more and more comfortable as you wear them because your weight bearing down on the natural layers will depress the leather and cork so as to create your own personal orthopedic support in the shape of your own feet. The shank inserted into the cork layer between the heel and the ball of the foot provides support for the arch of the boot so that it doesn't collapse and it gives stiffness for torsional support over uneven ground. Grant Stone uses a triple rib steel shank, basically thicker than others. The heel is stacked leather, again American veg tan hides and inside it uses a leather heel counter to lock your heels in place. The uppers are Holween's famous chrome excel. Now Holween is a generation's old family tannery based in Chicago and one of their most famous products is chrome excel leather, famously taking 28 days to process including a hot stuffing procedure where a secret blend of oils and waxes are pushed into the leather in heated drums so that the leather is stuffed full of oils and waxes inside. It's said to be self healing because scuffs can be brushed or rubbed out due to the heavy oil and wax content. In lighter coloured leathers it's a pull up leather where pressure from underneath pulls up the colours and you can see the oils and waxes actually shift underneath. In this case the black dye is not struck through meaning that it sits on the surface rather than get fully absorbed into the hide. You can see that when you look at the edge which still shows that natural brown colour of the leather. This so called t-core leather when worn hard will eventually show the black rub off in spots and the t-coloured brown colour will show through. Now for boot collectors the t-core effect is a sought after patina. But now for the important thing, how has it worn in the last two years? Now let me explain that I have over a hundred pairs of boots. I am selling some of them, go check out my website for some, the link is below but that still leaves a lot. Some people log whenever they wear their boots, I wish I was so organised. Trying to average out how often I wear these, I think over two years I probably have to admit to wearing them maybe five full days a month on average. Not a lot I know and I usually wear them either to the office or to some sort of social event where I dress neat casual like say a dinner out to a nice restaurant. So I do admit not really extensive wear which is why as you can see they still look pretty good. So what's happened in that time in terms of comfort, wearability, durability and quality? Well first in terms of comfort they are size right for my feet. I'm a US 8.5 in D width on the Brannock device and I take these as an 8D half a size down. Right out of the box, perfect fit and comfortable. While I have slackened as I buy more boots, at the time my break-in routine was to wear them every day for a week progressively longer from a few hours to a full day and then to wear them every other day for a second week by which time I find that most boots would have broken in. The break-in was easy and the only issue was that a little heel slip as the thick leather mid and out sole was difficult to flex. I did find this stiff lined leather collar dug into my ankles a bit until they loosened up at the end of the first month. The other issue was slipperiness. Built on the leather outsole they are slippery until you wear and scratch the outsole which really didn't take place until probably a couple of months in. I was mostly wearing them on carpet at the time so not enough scratchiness and quite a bit of slip. Over time I found the fully lined boot was firm and at times a little too firm. Weirdly this is one boot that I think could have benefited from not being lined up the shaft but Grant Stone gives dress boot vibes like Alden and so they fully lined their boots to suit. That's fine. Despite the two years where they are still sometimes a little stiff and not at all like my fully lined Alden indies. Now I'm not sure why, whether it's a thicker leather which I don't think so, maybe the lining leather is too thick, maybe or something in the construction of the stitching in the lining to the uppers. Look I don't know. I found the last fit at my feet though and they fit it better and better as I wore them. They were a great fit to start with, the forefoot being wide enough and yet coming to an almond shaped toe for style. I think I can now say that they fit my whole foot perfectly. That famous firm handshake hand holding exercise becomes so intimate that maybe it should be a private experience. I expect the stiffness of the shaft to get better and better but I also expect that it will take more time than I expected. They are easy to choose to pull on but I do see them as a semi dressy boot and not at all for denim and walking in the bush or even in denim and just lying on the sofa and lounging. They look dressy which is why as the T-core started to show through at the heels and at the toes I applied black boot cream to cover them back up. I don't know. To me they didn't look right with that rugged patina. I have a pair of black white MP service boots and the T-core effect is really starting there and they look great for it. Just not on this boot. So in terms of wearability not my everyday pull on boot but one for going to work in an office in or going to neat casual social events, weddings and funerals. Which means in terms of versatility in my life maybe a 7 out of 10 and that because I work in an office. In terms of comfort during wear because of the last and the leather layers under my feet I'd say a good 8 out of 10. The continued slipperiness lost at some points. The leather used by Grant Stone in the sole is different from my other leather sole boots. I have Wolverine 1000 mile boots in leather soles. I have Parkhurst's Niagara boot in leather soles. I have R& Williams' Chelsea's in leather soles. I have cowboy boots and ropers in leather soles. On most of them they use waterlocked soles. The leather soles are heavily impregnated with oil to provide water resistance, some wear resistance and actually reduce slipperiness. The oil actually swells the leather fibres to provide stickiness. The Parker's Niagara is not waterlocked leather either but that Spanish leather feels harder somehow and therefore when it gets scuffed it feels rougher. After only a few weeks I noticed the front of the sole at the toe was wearing a lot more significantly than on my other leather soles. This was initially alarming and I did not want to put on toe taps but after a while I guess once I wore the sole to how my foot kind of pushes off the floor it settled down. I think this leather is softer than others and it's not just the waterlocked oils. Oh by the way a few months ago I discovered an Australian product called Colourlock leather sole oil and I applied it. It's an oil that you just brush on leather soles to replicate the waterlock treatment. These scuffed and worn soles sucked in about four coats before it actually started to show on the surface. It's actually now a little more grippy and I think certainly I feel that it protects the wear a bit too. I know for many of you I haven't worn them enough but from what I have done durability and quality control I think have stood up apart from the initially alarming wear at the toes on the sole. Nothing's come apart. No stitching came loose, no separation of layers of leather, no terrible loose grain in the uppers. Durability and QC are at least 9 out of 10. In summary then I'm still very pleased with these boots. They are now listed at US$380 on their website. Still a good price and I'll put a link to the website below. Even if I intensify the frequency of my wear I just don't see these going to fall apart. At my frequency of wear look even if I double it I don't think I'll need to worry about a resole for another three years or more. Now that becomes a cost per wear of just over US$70 per annum. That's got to be good value. If you dislike the feel of the leather soles but you still like the look of that contrasting welt you can always put a rubber toppy halfsole on them for grip. Out of a subjective score of 10 these score above the 8s in most departments except for me the stiffness of the shaft. But if I wore them more they'd get more supple more quickly. So that's a one scenario score really. The test is would I buy them again? The answer is qualified. On the whole for what they are and their value and for their design and looks yes. But I would need to think about what other boots I have and what outfits or occasions I would wear them with and maybe if I didn't work in an office and already had other neat dress boots I might not buy these because I find that the versatility is restricted to neat casual. However I have 100 pairs of boots so yeah I'd buy them again. Anyway much as I love them as a boot collector that's my honest opinion. I hope you like this long-term review. If you have a pair let me know what you think. I wouldn't mind also hearing from you about the T-core issue. Is it for smart boots like these? Okay so before you go please click on the like button below and if you're not subscribed click on the subscribe button as well. Both of them will really help me get this channel going. So until the next time take care and see you soon.