 Hi, so I've literally just come indoors from my business trip and I see in front of me a package from Indonesia Welcome, my name is Tech Welcome to bootlossify and I'm back in Wajik country. I acknowledge the traditional custodians I've just been up in Darwin in Larakir country and guess what's arrived that I'm about to open and Here we are this package from Fortis boots Bandung Indonesia beautifully wrapped as usual from all Indonesian boot companies in my experience. I've only had two And this is wrapped in bubble wrap and then the box inside It's also cellophane wrapped so in fact, it's actually extremely waterproof and Here are the boots The logo Fortis. This is their service boot pattern Which I'm about to open Packed so securely Very nice tissue paper That's a lovely package. Oh, I see Gosh, isn't that absolutely beautiful? The Fortis Vacuum packed bag With a pair of laces in it flat wax cotton laces boot bags Ride your boots every day. It's very nice And here they are wrapped in individually wrapped in plastic These are in crazy horse And as I said, this is their service boot pattern in using their sdaka Last which is a round toe wide wide toe box last Vibram 100 montaña a commando lug sole solid What can I see here? So you get the vibram out so Two layers of leather midsole And then I believe that's a welt So it's a stitch down construction on a welt It's a 270 degree stitch down construction Uh with a 360 degree extra stitch down One of those double stitch downs goes through the midsole The other one goes all the way through the montaña sole And the stitching on this is really lovely. I mean If you look at the stitching, they climb up and down those lugs There's nothing sort of crossing midair that can't be cut. So Very neat all done by hand Which I'll put a video up as part of this video showing them making it The stitch per inches Very fine and very even considering this is hand stitched This is local indonesian Crazy horse leather, which is not horse. It's actually bovine But it's called crazy horse because it's used in um Horse tackle saddles and so on and it is it will give you a kind of pull-up effect as you can see Uh Crazy patina and crazy sort of striations happening. I asked for a local pull-up brown tongue That gave me that It's lined Fully lined with local lining leather I asked for everything local because I thought you know Let's help the people in indonesia By making sure that their supply chains all stay within indonesia So that's one boot Take this other one out These are truly Beautiful wrap That's the other boot They come with round cotton laces. You saw the Flat waxed ones earlier That leather is just Just gives you great pull-up uh Crazy horse leather. It's it's actually quite a uh Resilient leather resilient to scratches and scuffs and things It's basically an oiled new buck. So as the new buck is tough, this is tough one two three four five Islets and three speed hooks Up the six inch shaft So we'll get them on foot and then uh do a brief Uh first impressions video on on this. So keep watching Okay, so in this section of the video, I'm going to try these fortress service boots on Um, I've just come out of a three hour flight from darwin. So I'm slightly deaf with the air pressure So forgive me if I'm shouting Um, so let's just try these for size. I had to take off Something in here I had to take off, uh, obviously my white's empty boots that I was wearing up in darwin Ever so comfortable those Now we've got those out of the way. Let's put these on So the fit is pretty good It's quite a roomy round toad last So I'm quite happy with how it feels on the toes The uh Crazy horse leather is quite thick. I'll measure it in a minute Um, and already feels quite sturdy On my feet Put the other one on. Oh, yes Very nice fit The speed hooks are nice and big. So uh, quite easy to Go through this lacing process Yeah, I like my boots a little bit rounded at the toe box um Snug but roomy at the ball of the toe uh ball of the foot and uh Snug at the heel now. I think these are actually um Uh, uh, a 41 european 41 last so they're not a combination last the um Currently the heel feels a bit roomy, but that's all right. I'm as you can see how I was wearing, uh, thin socks So how do they feel? They feel very nice the leather is How can I describe it tough but supple now? You'll see that the left toe box Is a bit darker than the right toe box That's because crazy horse is a um oily newbuck And it's just that this little patch of leather on the vamp has obviously received a bit more oil and conditioning Um, recently as the boots was made So that will eventually wear off or a little bit big big four and everything will even up uh The comfort is very good In my initial wear at least um, I think the vroom v100 Lugs are very deep, but also this double Leather midsole Leather on the inside Uh, the arch support is okay. I don't think it's fabulous, especially after wearing my MPs for a A week But it's it's fine. It's possible and there is a little bit of Is it foam on the insole? I feel a little bit of sponginess but uh We'll take them off and have a look and then I'll come back With my initial impressions I literally have uh only just arrived home from Darwin. So I hadn't even taken my hat off All my jacket. Um So I was so excited to get these. Um, so here they are straight away Uh, so my first impressions are that these are really well made boots The stitching all around uh triple stitching in the in in where it counts where all the uh, uh Uh reinforcement is required Is extremely fine very perfectly spaced single stitching around the collar uh reinforcing the hardware the Leather the crazy indonesian crazy horse leather Look, I think it's as good as any crazy horse leather. I've ever uh boots that I've ever tried on the lining leather is soft grainy supple I don't know what kind of of leather it is. I'm assuming it's some kind of goat or kid leather the indonesian pull-up brown tongue is feeling extremely supple it has a nice Not as nice as chrome excel pull-up effect, but it does do some pull-up to it And it's a semi semi gusseted tongue. So the tongue is gusseted up to Uh, in from right up to the fifth island quite a highway up Uh, and the stitching inside looks excellent As I said the outsole is a v100 vibram commando lug sole. So it's quite a deep lug kind of arrangement You can see that there is a slight uh What would you say a little mound there because they've put in support into the shank area the heel is an all leather block one two three layers of leather on top of the uh, montagne rubber and then the uh, montagne heel top lift on top of that and then under that leather there's a double leather midsole and then the welt the crazy horse leather is turned outwards in a stitch down on top of the welt and is stitched once through the upper leather the welt and the midsole and then the second stitch goes right through all the way to that stitch there the way the welt or the way the midsole is is put together is like almost seamless it is Not a particularly flexible boot. So it does need breaking in because of the uh double leather midsole as well as the vibram commando lug sole the brass hardware Is perfectly fine perfectly fine solid. They're backed So there's some attention to detail Uh, I should note that the stitching on the welt scorn or stitch down 270 degree stitching Is done by hand and I'll insert some video of it being done here Uh, and in fact most of it is done by hand by three artisans And the boss so four people working in this in this workshop Literally sitting on the floor stitching these things together And when you see that video you kind of have to admire how close And how really detailed the stitches per inch are on this boot It has a single piece backstay Running with the external heel reinforcement and and the backstay going up And the toe is lightly structured. So there is a little bit of um Thermal thermal material in there to give it a little bit of shape But it's very light. So I expect it and I I I wanted to slightly collapse with wear I come back to the leather it is really nice really nice Crazy horse leather and you can see how um It just changes color as you as you move it around The inside There is a a footbed. It's glued in but I can feel a slight um Sponginess in it. I don't know if you can see it It's leather But I think there might be some foam back into that leather Before it it sits onto this midsole construction so One thing is In talking to the owner of fortis boots Who's really nice guy. They only started in 2020 so it's a very new bandung manufacturer Four people as I said working in it. Um, it it's actually quite difficult sometimes to communicate with them because they're all working hard or They have family issues and had to take time off um, the weight is currently about 10 to 12 weeks But mainly because of a weighting list that these people are working through and when they actually make the boot It's done within a week or so So there you have it my initial impressions and earlier on you'll have seen the actual unboxing and the trying on Uh, I'm looking forward to getting somewhere in these so, uh, don't forget to click on like and the subscribe buttons and um I hope to see you soon. Take care guys