 G'day. How are you going? Welcome to my channel Boot Lossophy and my name is Tech. I live and work in a budget country in Western Australia and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of Nungabuja. Today I'm looking at Thursday Boot Companies made in America Vanguard Boot. So this is Thursday Boot Companies made in America proposition. The sister to the almost lookalike Thursday Captain Boot which is made in Mexico. I bought these a year and a half ago and I have worn them regularly but not particularly frequently as beta boots when I needed a pair to go through bad weather, rains, mud or working in my yard. Like the captain this is a service boot pattern with a slight variation in shaft height. Where the captain is a six inch boot the Vanguard is slightly shorter in the shaft at about five and a half inches. You wouldn't guess that a half to three-quarters of an inch would look that different but it does. And while the captain also has a slight slope to the collar the Vanguard is cut pretty straight which increases the visual difference in height. This is more of a World War II boondocker or US Navy boot in feel and look. Not quite sure why perhaps it's the straighter collar. I like the captain it also has a cap toe. The design of the Vanguard is clean and simple emphasized by the all-islet makeup. Thursday don't make the Vanguard in smooth grain uppers and this in their rugged and resilient line which looks casual and rugged and more of a work or outdoors boot. So while you can get away with one of your smooth leather captains in very dressy business casual or even a suit you really can't do that with this rugged and resilient burnt copper uppers. This is definitely a rugged or a very relaxed casual boot. The dressiest I've got away with is pairing them with some dark brown or black five pocket pants and a vest and button downs. Even that I think was on the edge if not for that tweedy texture of the vest. More regularly I'd wear them with heavier dark winter outfits jeans or heavier twill pants and layered wax jackets and so on. Now let's take a look at the Thursday boot company. Thursday were founded in 2014 by Connor Wilson and Nolan Walsh. Wilson and Walsh were two MBA students at the time who were personally looking for a boot for themselves that met the dress come service boot aesthetic. They couldn't find a pair at the right quality and at the right price and having discovered that they realized they found a niche that they could fill. They realized they could make their own boots to the designs they liked at a cost and quality they would themselves buy. So Thursday was born initially via Kickstarter campaign. Using global market efficiencies in buying power and material sourcing they're able to make good-looking reasonable quality boots at reasonable prices where most of the boot lines sell for just under 200 US dollars. Thursday currently has a line of boots and shoes made mainly in Mexico but with a small line made in the USA. There are actually now over 20 models including newly introduced Western boots and that's not including sneakers and high tops and shoes and a line in women's boots. This baby has grown. And while you do get what you pay for their prices have not gone up from the very start despite the pandemic and inflation. Many people complain that Thursday quality is not as good as some other makes but they often make those comparisons to boots that sell for the mid 300 to 500 dollar range. For under US 200 dollars you get really good quality compared to most anything else in that 200 to 300 dollar price range. Okay now let's dive into the construction and I'll start at the bottom and work my way up to the top of the boot. Let me start by saying that if it's important to you the Vanguard is not only made in the USA but I believe most of the components also come from the USA. Most of the leathers that the Vanguard come in come from the Horween leather company but I think this burnt copper comes from the apartment tenor in Mexico. The Vanguard sits on a Thursday proprietary studded sole very similar to the British and very old day night company studded sole. I've learned that patterns don't really last that long and since day night invented their rubber studded sole around 1905 their pattern on the design is obviously long gone because lots of sole manufacturers and boot companies make similar studded soles. Unlike the captain version of this sole I find these a little more rubbery and compound and a little firmer under my feet. They're attached to the uppers using Goodyear welt construction. This is where a strip of leather called the welt goes all the way around the circumference of the boot and is stitched to the turned in uppers on the inside. The outside edge of the welt is then sewn through the mid sole and the outsole and in this way the two different stitches never have stitch holes that go all the way from the outside of the boot to inside the boot. Obviously this makes the boot very water resistant. If you want a detailed explanation of Goodyear welting check out the video up here. Goodyear welted boots are also re-solable and recraftable. A cobbler can stitch through the stitches holding the outsole on, peel the glued outsole off and replace it without damaging the welt or the insole or even touch the uppers. The heels are stacked leather or leatherboard. I'm not sure which. I've been told both but I can't tell. The heels are topped with a matching day-night like rubber studded top lift and inside the boot between the outsole and the welt is a rubber midsole and then the cavity caused by the two mil thick welt going around the edge is a cork midsole filler. Inside the cork is a steel shank for stability and arch support and on top of that is a leather covered poron insole. Here's where the controversy kicks in. Traditionalists would criticise this makeup because they say the insole and midsole should be all leather with the cork filler. This traditional leather cork-leather combination is supposed to be the most comfortable over time. It's hard under foot at the start but then the leather and cork heat up with wear and mould to the shape of your foot thus making it more comfortable with more wear. The poron on the other hand they say will collapse over time and not feel so supportive in the long run. I'm in the middle. I hear what they're saying but like the Keynesian economists I say that in the long run we're all dead. While I'm alive and wearing the boots in the now I appreciate their comfort out of the box. I've got a crazy number of boots 70 today so my daily rotation is a crazy roll of the dice. I think perhaps if I had one boot that I wore every day yeah might change my mind. Anyway moving on up in the inside the whole boot except for the tongue is lined with a Halloween glove leather. I have to say it really feels smooth and luxurious and covers up all the seams that we might rub and cause pain. As I said the tongue is not lined nor is it gusseted. This means that it does have the tendency at least on my right foot to slip to one side. It's an annoying trait that I fixed by using a chisel to cut two lace straps in the tongues. The edges of the lace fixings and collar are unfinished. The unrolled raw leather which is fine. Outside now the leather is Thursday's proprietary rugged and resilient line. I have conditioned this pair and I'll talk about that later. So the appearance is slightly different to when they first arrived which I thought was very similar to crazy horse leather which is an oiled new buck. Basically corrected top grain leather where the surface has been buffed and then oil and waxed. This burnt copper color is more of a dusty ochre not quite as red coppery as red wings copper rough and tough. I'm pretty sure this rugged and resilient leather is from Thursday's partner tannery in Mexico. It's about two mils thick and the lining leather is about one so the combination of three to four mils is about average for this type of boot. The toe cap is built over I think a celastic or thermoplastic toe puff to keep its shape. It is not a second piece of leather on top of the vamp piece but is a toe cap sewn on to the end of the vamp piece. I think the heel is also reinforced by a celastic and it's covered by a single piece backstay. The stitching is problematic but this is a factory second so bear that in mind. I can't see any other fault so I have to assume the reason it was allocated a factory second was because of the stitching. It's hard to see unless you look closely but in one or two places the stitching missed the edges of the panels or sometimes the stitches have come loose and there are empty stitch holes. But looking quickly before I went on camera I can't even find them now I just know they're there. Apart from that I think the quality is pretty good. They're finished off with eight antique brass eyelets no speed hooks and they come with leather laces although I think they look better as a service boot with these flat wax cotton laces that I put in. Now how do you take care of Thursday's rugged and resilient line of leathers? Fair warning when I first got these boots I didn't particularly like the burnt copper rugged and resilient look. I thought was too similar to my chipper or crazy horse service boots when I was expecting more of a red-wing copper rough and tough vibe. So being factory seconds I thought I'd experiment. I used some Kiwi light tan wax polish and lightly waxed over the uppers and then I conditioned them with a leather balm from RM Williams. I actually prefer this slightly darker tan waxy look. However if you're not crazy like me the idea is not to use waxes or waxy conditioners on this leather. Go check out Trenton and Heath's channel where they have a couple of videos on how to look after Thursday's rugged and resilient line. Basically while Thursday recommend you don't do anything with this leather at all other than to keep it clean and brush it regularly Trenton and Heath recommends suede care products specifically Sophia's suede spray conditioner. Apart from my little experiment I think I like the Thursday recommendation. The leather actually feels packed with oils anyway so if you want a nice patina going I think I just clean them with a wet rag when they get dirty and then brush them a lot to move the oils and waxes around. They are tough little buggers so I think to just brush idea is pretty right. Now let's take a look at sizing fit and comfort. I'm too to size as measured by a US Brannock device at US 8D for Aussie and Brit viewers that's equal to 7 in average width. Like most American bootmakers Thursday recommend you go a half size down from Brannock so like most of my other American boots I got these in a size 8. Thursday do offer some of their boots in standard and wide widths but they don't seem to do that for Vanguard so Mr. Average like me that's fine but if you have wide feet you may have to go up a half size. If in doubt I'd drop their customer service and email. I find Thursday's lasts quite slim and sleek and I have to say in the boots where they don't offer wide sizes you may be one of those where the Thursday lasts just don't suit your feet. In my own experience I found breaking in my captains was a two week process mainly to loosen the stitch cap at the toe cap. They were in Thursday's brown chrome which is quite a stretchy chrome excel like leather. These rugged and resilience are less stretchy and I do find the narrowness of the last especially the toes a bit of a challenge. I'm not a hundred percent comfortable in these. Nothing wrong with the actual comfort under foot I found that to be excellent out of the box my problems with the fit. Even breaking in the reasonably substantial sole isn't the problem. It really was the narrowness. So are these boots worth the US $265 they're listed at? First though this particular pair are factory seconds and I got them for US $199. However they are listed at full prices $265. I guess you have to compare them with other US made boots in that class of mid-200s. Red Wing Iron ranges around $350 these days. They are I think superior in quality against the Vanguard but that's reflected in that price. To get to the mid-200s you'd be looking at brands like Helm or Beckett Simon and other Wolverine Boulevard range. The comparisons are starting to thin out in today's inflationary world. In my honest opinion I'm not sponsored. I think Thursday's fight well in that category or at least as good as if not better than some of those at that mid-200 range. I started by saying with Thursday you get what you pay for. People complain about the man-made materials but honestly that's like saying your Toyo to compares badly against your neighbor's Mercedes. Come on mate there's a price difference that tells you why. So there you are on the plus side you get the value that's in a mid-200 US dollar boot. The uppers are rugged and they look good. The comfort if you don't mind a sleek almond-shaped toe box pretty good. It's good year-welted so gold standard construction methodology. At the beginning of your boot journey I think this is a good buy. On the con side if you're American maybe you can get a more authentically all American source product. If you're not American it'll do you. I'm not a fan of the sleek toe box but that's after 70 pairs of boots because I can now say when I first got these I was quite thrilled at the fit. It's just that I know better now. Well there you have it. What do you think of my review? If you like it help me out by clicking on the like button below and if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe. I've got loads more boot related videos to come and from time to time I'll explore the makers themselves so stay tuned. Until then take care and I'll see you soon.