 Finally, it's in my hands. This is Christian Daniel's follow-up to their Fernando Chelsea boot. This is the Larry Layser boot. Here are my first impressions. G'day. Welcome to Bootlossophy and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of Wodget Country, which is where I live. Now, for those of you who don't know, Christian Daniel as a brand only started in 2022 when they launched with a kickstart campaign for their Fernando Chelsea boot, which I've got in black here. They also came in maple and I chose the Dr. Sol, a half Sol, because I didn't have any at the time. So, what followed this came their Larry Layser boot. This is in Wicked and Craig's Russet Leather, which I'll tell you a little bit about, but it's still made in Leon in Mexico. Now, I'm unclear whether or not Christian, from Christian Daniel, has actually still contracted to a factory or he's actually brought manufacturing in-house, which is his intention. But whichever it is, it's still currently being made in Leon in Mexico. This is their second model, as I said, the Layser Larry boot. It's available in this Wicked and Craig Russet Leather, as well as in a Buck Brown VegTan Leather. I'm not sure the tannery of that one. But let's have a look at what's in the box. Now, obviously, I've already opened the box, but what came with it, apart from the boots, were a couple of business cards from Christian Daniel and also from Dale's Leatherworks, because included in the package is a cuff from Dale's Leatherworks, as well as the key ring from Dale's Leatherworks. So these are great little free gifts. And on top of that, the boots came in plastic bags. I'm not quite sure about that, because I think sometimes they might sweat in the plastic bags, particularly they go through hot countries. But they came in plastic bags inside these Christian Daniel cloth boot bags, which are, I think, really great quality. They're little tassels in the pull strings. So that's what came in the box. Now, let's take a look at the boots themselves in my first impressions. So let's go through the components, which are listed on the website. Now, I haven't had time to do enough research for them, because I got these a few days ago, and I've been wearing them for a couple of days just to see how they feel and where they're in. And I'll tell you about that in a minute. But the components, which I'll read off the website, are the construction is available in 270-degree stitch down or 270-degree Goodyear welt. These are the 270-degree stitch down model, which I chose. The upper, in this case, is russet, that's the color, traditional harness from Wicked and Craig. That's a veg tan leather. And my understanding is that Wicked and Craig is the last remaining only veg tan tannery left in America. I have a belt made of this harness leather, much thicker obviously, and it comes initially as a sort of pale natural color and darkens to a very light honey. It doesn't get much darker than that, I don't think, because I've been wearing the belt for what is it, a couple of years now, and it hasn't darkened all that much, it's just become more supple. So I expect these not to darken tremendously, but I was surprised when I saw it because I thought russet might be an autumn leaf kind of color, reddish, but these are obviously, as you can see, quite a natural color, not as pale, mid sort of level brown as a brown chromic cell, as natural chromic cell, but in the veg tan it has that sandy sort of color. What else? The insole is veg tan leather, the midsole is veg tan leather, the laces thin round cord color matched from guarded goods. So these are my first guarded goods laces, that's interesting. It has a steel shank to give it arch support and stability down there. The outsole is a vibram etan outsole, which is very similar to day night. I mean it looks like day night, but the rubber composition I actually like. I think these are my first etan soles from vibram, and I find the shock absorption on this and the grip quite a bit better than original day night. It's a little bit softer in composition and because of that I think the grip is a little more secure and it's completely resolvable because it's either stitched down or a good year well done. First impressions, I'm impressed by the wicket and craig veg tan leather. It's actually quite thin in the boot, it's less than two millimeters and because of that it feels really quite supple in the shaft, it's unlined in the shaft and lined with leather in the vamp area, which makes it a little bit more, a little less soft and supple in the vamp than it is in the shaft as you can actually see, just for a few days where I'm already starting to roll the leather in the shaft as it as it groups my ankle and fits me. It's a broke pink cap toe as you can see, it's got the pinking and the broguing and it's stitched down. I don't believe it's a real cap toe, I think there's a piece of leather that comes down the vamp and then the cap toe. It has I believe a thermoplastic toe puff, although I think it has a leather heel counter, can't be sure about that. Single piece heel counter, heel backstay, which I think makes it look quite elegant. All brass eyelets, quite small actually, they're not huge eyelets which again makes it reasonably dressy. It's clearly a service boot, slightly less than six inches from the top of the shaft to the top of the heel. You can see the midsole is leather all the way through and the stacked leather heels that's leather as well. The stitch down is actually done very neatly, the stitching is extremely neat and the layer of the vamp that comes down and falls over to be stitched down is also lasted very neatly. The stitching goes through the outsole, double stitch there and then a single stitch continues to the heel and as you can see the heels are actually also nailed in. Construction wise I think it's very secure. There are a couple of loose threads if you're looking for that sort of thing. I point them out but who actually looks at loose thread like that? I don't know. What do you do? Run a magnifying glass over your boots every time you put them on? They don't come apart. Structurally there's sound and if there's a little thread like that you can do two things. You can burn them off, forget about them or you can write on your Facebook post and complain. The Wicked Craig leather is actually quite soft. I just accidentally ran it across my office chair and I cut it. It's not a huge particular problem. Interesting thing which also happened on my Dublin boots from Oak Street Bootmakers. They crease a little ununiformly. The right one creases on the vamp more than my left one and I just think that happens to be which part of the hide is being used per boot. The feel of it is really good. I'll put them on feet so you can have a look but the feel is pretty good, pretty comfortable. Yes there is a bit of break in required to get it to flex where your foot bends but otherwise there's not a hell of a lot of break in required. Certainly not on the uppers. Let's get them on foot and we'll have another talk. The laces are actually quite long and quite waxy from guided goods. Actually leaves a little waxy sort of residue in your fingers but they're brand new. So the fit. Christian Daniel recommends going true to size. So I'm a US 8.5D in my brand size. Usually with American boots I'm wearing US 8D. In the Fernando which I'd got earlier I went true to size and the 8.5D fitted really well. Strangely enough in these they're a little bit bigger in feel than the Fernandos although I also went true to size and took 8.5D. It's the same last so I can't say it's due to the last. I think it might be due to the lasting on the leather because the Fernando I think is in Lafax Elbratos leather which is very similar to Chromic Cell and so a bit stretchy. So when it's pulled over the last I think it might stretch a little bit more and then when the last is removed it relaxes a little bit. Whereas with Wicked and Craig's VegTan leather I think it has a firmer temper which means when you last it it's not going to stretch a lot. So when you remove the last it sort of relaxes back into a slightly larger shape to it. So it there might be a difference of maybe one or two millimeters but it's enough to make me feel like in these I need to wear some thicker socks. I'm wearing dress socks at the moment and I have worn them with thick boot socks and they feel much better. As you can see it's very flexible. I'm not getting any resistance or much of a heel slip. I've already worn these I think about two days it might be two and a half days. So there is there has been some slight break in already but I have no heel slip. I just did not find any heel slip from the beginning when I put them on out of the box. They're very comfortable. They're very roomy. The feel under my foot is some pretty darn good shock absorption. So the cork filling the leather that's used and the etan sole from Vibram I think are really good in that respect. Heel strike is very comfortable so I have no complaints there at all and the arch support is actually really quite good. Comfort I would give easily 10 out of 10. Perhaps not as comfortable as really well-built orthotic shoes like the Old and Indy but 10 out of 10 in my feel. Okay let's sum up. So now to value. They sold for US $475. Now that compares that sort of price range with Oak Street bootmakers and Truman boots and they are a bit more than Parkhurst and about $100 more than Grant Stone which as we know has economies of scale in China. That's a difficult range to market I think because it's quite a busy price bracket in terms of the brands that are there. Truman I think honestly are built more sturdily than this. They just feel a lot heavier I think there's thicker and stronger leather components in the sole and they're heavier than this is and it just feels a lot more sturdier and also bear in mind they're made in the USA Truman boots and hence have USA labour costs. The quality I think is comparable to Oak Street bootmakers and Parkhurst as well. They're in that sort of lower range between the 300s and the 500s although this is in that above 400 range. So look in value terms it's artisanal made yeah okay it's handmade artisanal it's not in the factory what I mean by that it's not in a line factory where there's loads of people and you know the boots go through the line they're actually made by artisans on a bench. It's a small batch manufacturer so it's difficult to get economies of scale but I think overall you'd have to say that probably at $475 it's a bit on the high end of the acceptable scale. I think it's acceptable I think if you like this type of boot and particularly if you want to support a small brand manufacturer this is this is acceptable but you have to say that if you look at Parkhurst let's leave out Grandstone if you look at Parkhurst Truman Oak Street bootmakers I'd say this is this is in the same price as Oak Street bootmakers and probably the same quality build but Parkhurst I think is the same quality build but lower Truman is probably more sturdy and in that price range so value acceptable so there you go that's my quick first impressions of the Christian Daniel Larry boot I actually like it a lot a lot because of the comfort of the wear and I will keep wearing this at $475 I am prepared to invest in a new small brand and if you like your boots I think you should as well particularly as this fits quite well as I said it's a it's a true to size at 8.5 D for me the the last is quite comfortable in this case a little bit roomier than my Fernando boot and I guess one of the issues that you're going to find is that it is a group MTO and then you kind of have to wait for a while in order to to get your boot from when you order so it's not available off the shelf but if you're interested in it get on to the website and sign up and when the next group MTO comes along you can grab one of these at the moment they've offered these no Fernandos but I'm guessing that as Christian raises capital through his profits he'll start to offer both in their MTOs so in summary I like them I like them I think they are worth it although at the at the higher end of that price range for acceptability very comfortable and I'm gonna wear these with with a lot of fun so that's it I hope you like the review if you know you know what to do click on like and if you're watching this and you haven't subscribed yet please do why not so stay in touch click on subscribe so that you know when the next video is up and look after yourselves and I'll see you soon