 What? I'm working. Can't you tell? I'm wearing my White's Fulton work boots. I'll tell you about them in a minute when I finish this. How are you going? Welcome back to Boot Lossophy. My name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and seas that I live, and play on the Wajik people from Nungabuja. So this is a boot from White's less expensive Goodyear Welter line, the Fulton. The line includes boots like the Mokto Perry, the Milkwood, and the Chor boot. Now you all know I love my White's MP boots, but they sell for 700 US dollars. So it's a relief to know that you can get a pair of White's for the mid 300s and put them in the range of Grant Stones, Park Hursts, and Red Wings. Sure, they're Goodyear Weltered, and they're not hand-stitched, and they don't have that famous rolled welt. But hey, they're way more affordable. Now if you don't know what I'm talking about regarding the rolled welt, go see one of my reviews of their MP boot up here. At 340 US dollars, many people can say I'll get a famous Pacific Northwest brand at a price I can afford. But if it's Goodyear Weltered, is it really a White's boot? Keep watching, and I'll tell you why in my opinion it is, and the one problem I have with it. I don't know, you tell me, is it a deal breaker? First of all, White's put this in their Workboots page on their website, and they describe it with words and phrases like increased longevity in hard working environments, and durability, and comfort for long days on your feet. So you'd have to say they intend this to be a manual work boot. I make that distinction. There are other forms of work. In that intent, it looks like your classic American heritage mock-toe work boot. This is a real mock-toe in the sense that the stitching of the vamp piece and the sidewalls actually stitches together two pieces of leather, but more of that later. The mock in the mock-toe is short for moccasin, referring to the moccasin shoes made by First Nations Americans before colonialization. A real mock-toe therefore actually wraps a piece of leather under the foot and lasting it from the bottom and then sews that vamp piece on. In this case, it's a real, not so real mock-toe, like a red-wing classic mock where the boot is lasted from the top, but where the two pieces are really stitched together, unlike say a grand stone brass boot where the mock-toe stitch gathers up the full vamp leather and then puckers it up. The height of the sidewalls offers plenty of room for your toes to wiggle and shift around when you're kneeling without causing you any pain. It's eight inches high at the shaft with a padded collar at the top and a pull loop about halfway up. The hardware is bright brass and I like this notch cut into the quarter piece at the glaces. It allows the bend of the foot to work accordingly. It doesn't normally come with a kilty. This one with the jagged edge, not usually my style, but it fits well with this boot. It comes from Dale's Leatherworks. You should look Dale up on Instagram, Dale's Leatherworks, formerly Aerosurfer LV and I'll leave a link to my mate Dale's website below. The aggressively lugged outsole is Vibram's honey lugged soles, cut with lugs as deep and therefore grippy as the V100 Commander soles, but these are a lot squishier and more comfortable. In this brown distressed leather and contrasting stitching, it looks like a work boot for outdoorsy work and certainly off work. It's a very casual boot. I'm not going to insult hard working American blue collar workers by presuming to talk about what work gear to wear with these at their work, but if you're a casual boot collector like me then clearly any kind of outdoorsy outfit will go well with them. I mean jeans of any color, work pants, hey even chinos. I was recently reminded by a viewer of Sam Neill's outfit in the first Jurassic Park movie. Anyone remember the 90s when you wore chunky timberland boots with pleated chinos and a polo shirt or a chambray shirt? Well these will give you that same vibe. The interesting thing about this design is that I've worn it with slim jeans and with looser straight leg jeans and they both work. Otherwise advise a full break in wider pants and tailor the break to just above the instep for skinnier jeans. Before we go on let me briefly say something about white boots. I'm sure most of my subscribers know about them but there will be others new to boots so a little roundup of their history because history it is. Founded in 1853 in eastern USA in Connecticut by Edward White. Over the years his son John moved further west and found opportunity in the logging and mining industries in the Shenandoah Valley. In turn John and his son Otto moved to Spokane in Washington state over in the US Pacific Northwest. Again following opportunity as the western United States was opened up by logging agricultural industries and the mining industries. By the 1920s Otto was in charge and began to develop innovative techniques to make white boots, culminating in the hand-welted construction method and incorporating the rolled welt that I described in this review of the MP boots up there. He also developed their arch ease insole system for durably long-lasting arch support and comfort. In the 1970s the white family finally sold and there have been a few ownership changes since then but whites say that apart from a few years in its 170 year history whites has always been run by a bootmaker. Although whites is now owned by La Crosse Footwear based in Oregon which is ultimately owned by a Japanese parent company the current president Eric Kinney worked in the whites factory for nearly 30 years. If we now turn to construction know that to get to this price range this boot does not incorporate the whites hand-welted construction techniques. It is good year welded and I'll go into that in a minute. Let me start from the bottom and work up. At the bottom is this aggressively lugged vibram honey lug sole. Now vibram is a famed Italian company whose founder Vitaly Brimani decided to make sturdy mountaineering boots with strong grip in 1937 when a few of his friends died on a mountain in a storm because their footwear couldn't get them down. They are famous for their commando lugged soles that feature this pattern of wedge shaped lugs on the perimeter and star shaped lugs in the middle. As an aside I'm trying to research the real history of commando soles because I have been led to believe that the real inventors were the its hide company from the UK who made them for the new marine commando units being formed during the Second World War. Now this is one piece of rubber and is soft compared to vibram's other rubber compounds and it does remind you of the timberland yellow boot. The outsole is glued to a vibram rubber midsole not so much for cost than for durability because rubber glues more securely to rubber than to leather. That rubber midsole is from what I can see stitched through the Goodyear welt to the uppers. So you have a rubber outsole glued to rubber for security and then rubber glued to the leather insole and stitched to the welt. The welt is leather and it's about two or three millimeters thick. If you're not sure what a welt is or does take a look at this video up here. Basically the welt is a thin strip of leather that's stitched to the insole and uppers all the way around the boot. Then the outside edge of the welt is stitched through the midsole in this case but often also all the way through to the outsole. A Goodyear welt shoe provides water resistance because the stitch holes don't go from inside to outside. There are two rows one inside and one outside. And more obviously you can repair them by replacing the sole when it's worn out. You can pick out the outside stitch and re-stitch a new outsole on without disturbing any of the uppers. Inside the boot is a slab of leather insole. This is built on the 1972 Arch Ease Last or it's a boot mold which means that it has a lower arch profile that gives arch support without the more aggressive built up arch support system in their other boots. On top of that is a removable ortholite padded footbed inside. That's a type of removable insole you sometimes get with gym shoes. Moving on up this leather is called Brown Distress. Their website doesn't say which tannery it comes from but they use Seidel and I'm guessing this is from Seidel which is another historic American company founded in 1945. It's described as a full grain water resistant leather upper which I think means that it has been infused with a lot of oils and the tanning process because it does feel oily. Full grain is a leather term that's typically non-specific. It's taken to mean that it's from the top side of the hide it's unsplit and it still retains the tight fibre structure at the very top. However it is sometimes inclusive of slightly corrected or sanded leather still from the top of the hide unlike say suede which is split from the bottom half. All this is leading me to say this is definitely not looking like a full grain where the top is smooth and you can see the scars pores and hair holes. Now to me this looks like a slightly corrected buffed almost new buck surface because it feels very lightly nappy powdery. I could be wrong maybe it is full grain uncorrected leather that's just not polished and it's pumped so full of oils that it feels velvety and matte. Look I'd love to know so if you know for sure please comment below. As I said at the beginning I like the notch cut into the lace facing so that the boot kind of turns the corner when you lace it up avoiding the that break in bite that you can that can occur just where that new leather cuts into your foot. I also like the padded collar that's sewn to the top of the shaft which for an 8 inch boot gives you a lot of comfort. The tongue is almost fully gusseted right up to the second last brass fixing. Now as I said this kilt is from Dale's Leatherworks but even without it the tongue feels comfortable and protective. The hardware is the same as and conforms to all of white standards they are solid heavy brass four eyelets before the bend and then four speed hooks and a final fireman's eyelet at the very top. The speed hooks are the usual solid posts rather than thin bent over hooks. All the hardware however are just pressed in at the back with no washes so they can cut into the kilty or to into the tongue. The uppers are lined with leather in the vamp but unlined in the shaft. The stitching is quadruple stitched at the quarters and triple stitched over the heel cup backstay that covers the external leather heel counter. The back strap doubles into a pull loop and overall the stitching is secure except for one critical spot. When I got the boots you can check the unboxing up here. I was impressed with the stitching quality but after three wears I noticed that on the left boot the stitch at the corner of the mock-toe stitching just here came apart. The thread actually snapped and the two pieces of leather at the corners were starting to come apart only for about you know less than a centimetre mind you but it was where my foot flexed and could have kept wearing and splitting. Now here in Perth sending it back would have been a laugh and to do them justice I'd already worn it outside a couple of times. Anyway I took them to a cobbler uh my cobbler who complained about it but he was able to glue and stitch that corner to his satisfaction. I'm not sure it will stand up in the long run but for now it looks okay. Now I don't know I was I was sorely disappointed when I saw the split. I still am. I know how strongly built all my four pairs of MP boots are and I do love them. Does this mean they're good year well-toed line selling for less are not as reliable? Many would say as in most cases I would that a mid $300 boot is different from a $700 boot but these are whites and they are work boots. Should this have happened? You tell me what do you think? As for leather care I can't find a specific instruction either on the website or on the Seidel website about how to care for this distressed leather. However other websites do provide some tips. The first step like in all leathers is to keep them clean. That means they're good regular brushing. It means wiping down of the damp cloth if dusty and lightly muddy. It may mean saddle soap if really dirty. You can get conditioners specially made for distressed leather too by the way. My research shows a lot of recommendations for Big Moor's distressed leather conditioner. Not big four but a special product. I've had a pair of RM Williams that looked like this leather and they're saddle and leather conditioner. The RM Williams saddle and leather conditioner it's a greasier product. It worked very well there. The added bonus is that with this oilier leather that greasy consistency will soak in and replenish the oils. When this needs conditioning I'll be using that RM product. Turning to sizing it's the usual thing of going down by a half. Newcomers listen and be confused. Your true size is measured by convention on a Brannock device that's that aluminium machine you stand on in shoe stores. Sneakers tend to size a half size more and heritage boots tend to size a half size less. So as an example I measure US 8.5 on the Brannock device so I rely on that as being my true size. My Nike's are US 9. Most of my American heritage boots are US 8. Whites offer these in 14 sizes from 7 to 13.5 with all the half sizes in between. It comes in two widths as well D for average and E for wide feet. Being 8.5 I bought these in an 8. As for comfort I've got nothing but praises. The 1972 Archies last is maybe a little disappointing after feeling the more aggressive arch support in the MP boots in the MP last but they're okay. The ortholite footbed is giving and comfy. The honey lug cells are shock absorbing. The last or the mould shape on which the boot is built around is snug in the heel and the waist and snug but not tight in the ball of the foot but generous in the toe box. It offers the right amount of stability with comfort. The 8 inch shaft is flexible enough to feel comfortable and yet very secure once laced up. Really it gives you a bullet proof feeling when you put these on. The leather feels gorgeous and it needed no break in when I put them on. In fact I was wearing this for long walks within a week of getting them mainly waiting for that welt to flex and reduce the already minimal heel slip. Top marks for comfort in the design. As to value well a $340 boot from White's and I got it on their half yearly sale so that it cost me $380 US dollars including post-stitch to Australia. Now that's under $550 AUD delivered. You'd almost have to say immediately yeah good value but that mock-toe stitch. Let's see it looks great as a stylish work oriented boot. The comfort is just out there and the feeling of security and bossness is unreal. It's not particularly versatile but which high world mock-toe is. For all other than the disappointment of that snap thread I'd say value equals price. There I've already summarized haven't I? Good looking and feeling boots but I'm disappointed. As work boots will they go the distance? I'm not using them as work boots but would that be a deal breaker? I'm glad I have them and I don't complain much. You've seen my videos of boots with forts. I still love them and I wear them but if I were a construction worker particularly in America what would I think? Anyway I hope you like this review. Of course you know what to do right? Click on the like button down below please and if you're not already subscribed click on subscribe. Both will really help my channel get out to more people and will help you by getting YouTube to recommend more videos like these into your feed. Until the next time stay safe and I'll see you soon.