 Okay, this is not necessarily a fair comparison, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But I thought I'd look at how a lower price range Pacific Northwest boot might compare to a quality made in China boot from Grandstone. Let's take a look. G'day, welcome to Bootlossophy, and my name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and waters I live on, the Wodger people. Today, I thought I'd look at a comparison between the White's Fulton Mocteau work boot and the Grandstone Mocteau field boot. One is made in the famous Pacific Northwest Bootmaking Center, and the other, from an American direct-to-consumer company, is made in China. It's not a totally fair comparison, because I chose a mid-US $300 White's Goodyear welted boot, and not one of the handmade rolled-welt boots. One is made as a work boot, while the other is a casual boot made in the style of American heritage East Coast hunting boots. But at the same time, they are in the same ballpark, because the comparison is between two Goodyear welted boots at the mid-US $300 price range. And in that sense is a closer comparison of value and quality within the same type of construction and price, if not the whole brand. Now before I start, let me be clear that I'm not going to see this from any political or jingoistic viewpoint about the land of the free and the brave versus a communist regime, but only in terms of quality and value of the product. This is the Fulton Mocteau work boot from Whites. A company that started in 1853 went for three generations of the Whites family right up to the 1970s, before selling to other people, and now is firmly established as a Pacific Northwest quality bootmaker since the turn of the 20th century. They are famous for making tough logging and firefighting work boots, and my favourite service boots, the MP boot, take a look up there, with their hand-stitched famous rolled-welt construction. Their handmade boots sell for US $600 and upwards. Recently they've been releasing lower-priced Goodyear-welted boots like their Mocteau peri boot, which I think was one of the first, which fall in between lifestyle and work boots and boots like the Fulton over here, which is more in the work-boot category. The Fulton is a taller 8-inch Mocteau work boot on the Whites' 1972 Archeese Last and sits on a Vibram honey-lug sole. It sells for the mid-300s, make possible I think by the faster Goodyear-welt construction. This boot is Grant Stone's Field Boot. Now Grant Stone started in 2016, and through long-term links of the founder's family to a factory in China, make their boots in China while headquartered in Michigan in the US. Their Keystone model is the Diesel Boot built on their Leo Last, which is also used to make up several other models like the Edward and the Ottawa. Grant Stone was set up as a director-consumer company and hence able to cut out middleman costs and undeniably, despite the use of top-grade American and international materials in the uppers and the soles and the other components, undeniably also benefits from the lower cost of production in China. What has set them apart has been the obvious quality control systems and procedures embedded in the manufacturing. First, let's take a look at the similarities. They are both high-volume mock-toe boots. By that I mean that first, their construction mimics the moccasin construction of American First Nations footwear. But unlike makers like Rancourt and Russell Moccasin, they are lasted from the top down rather than from the bottom up. They do not have a bottom piece that wraps around the bottom of your feet. Both of these have the vamp mock-toe stitch made by sewing the side walls to the vamp piece with that typical mock-toe apron stitch. Now I believe in both cases there are two separate pieces of leather. Both are good year-well construction. That is, there is a thin strip of leather called the welt which is sewn on the inside to the insoles and uppers and then separately on the outside through the midsole. It's known as a water-resistant form of construction and of course eminently re-craftable because a cobble can replace the worn outsole by peeling off the outsole and gluing another one on without potentially damaging the midsole or in fact anything else. If you want to dive into the good year-well system of construction, check out this video up here. They are both made of thick but supple leathers. The falton boot is made of a full-grain water-resistant leather in this colour that's called brown distress. I believe it's a combination tan leather. It's first chrome tanned and then oil tanned. The surface is I think slightly velvety, slightly waxy, feels like a newbuck leather that's pumped full of oil and I'm not sure but I think like newbuck if it isn't newbuck the surface is slightly corrected. All over 2mm thick it is very supple and comfortable with hardly any break-in required. The Grant Stone Field Boot is on the roomier Floyd Last and the leather is Italian Veg Tanned Leather from Badalassi Carlo Tanri. It's also about 2mm thick and being Veg Tanned is firmer in the hand but after breaking in is also supple, it's also a little more protective. Both have a lightly padded roll at the collar. The falton's in a brown leather while the field boot has a suede collar. Both have semi-gusseted tongues which adds to the water-resistant capabilities. The kilt is on the falton, doesn't come as standard and it's from Dale's Leatherworks. Taking a look at the differences, apart from the obvious upper's leather, the falton uses a vibram outsole that's their softer compound honey lug sole. This provides great grip and comfort. The field boot on the other hand is built on Grant Stone's proprietary wedge sole with a wavy pattern for grip but I have found it slippery under smooth muddy conditions. Made of something like blown rubber, it's very comfortable also but it might wear a bit faster than the vibram honey lug soles. The apron stitch is different also. On the falton it's a straight forward regular mock-toe stitch. I did have a problem with the stitch on the right boot where at the corner the stitch popped after only a few days. On the field boot it's also a real mock-toe stitch in that it does stitch two pieces of leather together but in this case the top vamp piece is rolled over the top of the sidewall piece before it's stitched together. I presume that in theory this is a better protection against water. The hardware is eyelets and hooks on the falton while the field boot has eyelets and somewhat annoying noisy D-rings. Now to the less visible. The Grant Stone field boot has a leather flat welt while the falton boot has a leather storm welt. The welt stitching on the Grant Stone has quite a high stitch density while the White's falton welt stitching has a lower stitch density. Now look neither are bad construction they're just different and you know aesthetic choice in how the stitches look is really in the eye of the beholder. Inside the boots the Grant Stone field boot has a leather insole, leather midsole, leather heel counters and a steel shank. The White's falton boot has a leather insole, leather heel counters, a vibram rubber midsole and a composite shank. I think it uses the vibram rubber midsole so as to adhere better to the vibram honey lug sole. Now Grant Stone glues their wedge sole directly to the leather midsole which in theory may not be as holding fast as if the two materials flex at different rates it might shift. But as an aside the modern glues used by boot makers these days is good enough to glue you up to the wall and you won't move so there. Little differences and similarities aside their prices are in the same range US 340 for the falton and US 380 for the field boot. By the way I find that kind of weird I call the falton the falton and not necessarily the falton boot but I call the field boot the field boot and not field. Anyway for a similar price do you get a similar quality boot and hence a similar value? Another warning controversy coming up much as I love my white MP boots. When I compared the MP boots to the Vibex service boot I concluded that the white MPs while built sturdily and totally worth the price they are built like a work boot maker makes boots rough and sturdy and not at all delicate and fine. It's much the same here the stitching on the falton is good enough if quite low in density on the welt but it's built like a work boot. The field boot on the other hand it can take it in the rough I have tracked in it but it's made a little more finely with high stitch density details like the road vamp piece and they take the care of joining that flat welt so that you can hardly see where the joint is. So far that's horses for courses right depends on what you like but even forgetting that mock stitching that burst on my falton that could easily be a one off. I think what you get from Grant Stone in terms of clean construction precision and overall consistency it's better than the falton. You pay an extra $40 for the field boot but I think it could easily be worth another $50 on top of that with the exception of the corrugated pattern on the wedge sole not a big fan. Let me be clear if I compared one of white's hand-welted rolled welt stitched down models it would blow up the field boot but those are $600 or even over $600. So don't shoot the messenger. In this case I think Maiden China beat up PNW. As a business advisor in real life outside of YouTube I believe that if your company wants to stray outside its central vision which in this case is a well-made handmade product worth many hundreds of dollars in order to compete at a lower or different market you have to either create a new brand like Vibeau did with your traditional work boots even putting them onto a different website altogether or you make damn sure that you beat up the competition at the same price range. Now I don't know about you but when McDonald's first started selling healthy salads as a side order to Big Macs it was jarring healthy fast food did not compute they actually struggled for a while before they made sure to really make good salads and then the brand image was intentionally changed to being healthy hey but don't worry the white MP service boot is still my grail boot and you cannot go wrong with white's higher end models. Hey if you decide not to shoot the messenger I hope you click on the like and subscribe buttons down below. The messenger appreciates it. Until the next time take care and see you soon.