 G'day, welcome to Boot Lossophy, my channel reviewing boots and boot related things. And if we haven't met before, my name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land that I live and work on in Perth, Western Australia, the Wajik people of Nungabuja. As you know, I like and have a lot of pairs of Chelsea boots and today, I'm taking a look at this one, the Blake Chelsea Boot in Mojave, Suede, from Huckbury's House Boot brand, Rhodes. This is a Chelsea boot, the name of the type of boot that doesn't have laces and that slip on by virtue of these elastic panels at the sides called goreng panels. The Chelsea boot may look modern and its name being coined by hip people following the Beatles and others in London's swinging 60s seem to indicate that it was invented in the 1960s in the Chelsea suburb of London. In fact, they were invented way back in 1837 by Queen Victoria's shoemaker, Mr J. Sparks Hall, who made a boot to meet the Queen's demand for a comfortable, easy to pull on walking boot that she could also ride in. His first iteration was more similar to a job per boot with buckles and it wasn't until Charles Goodyear invented the method of vulcanizing rubber just a few years later that Sparks Hall inserted the goreng panels and made it a true pull on boot. At the time Sparks Hall called it his patent elastic ankle boot and by 1900 it was a fashion item but horse riders then took it up and it increased popularity. As an aside the term Chelsea boot was actually coined earlier than in Queen Victoria's reign but it referred to a completely different looking boot and that term was forgotten until it came back as the popular name for this type of boot in the 1960s. Up until then they were simply called elastic sided boots or pull on riding boots but when the Beatles had their pairs made by a theatrical customer with pointy toes and Cuban heels they kicked up again in popularity. See what I did there? And the Chelsea boot was reborn. This version is called the Blake boot and has the characteristics no lace silhouette with wide goreng panels, two cloth pull tabs on a rubber wedge sole. Some Chelsea boots are hole cut like the RM Williams meaning that they're made of one piece of leather with just a seam running up the back. The others are made of a couple of panels and there are seams under the goreng. In this case this is made up of four pieces of leather. The vamp, the instep piece and two small rear quarters at the back. I quite like this look with the seams around the boot. It leans toward work boot Chelsea's but this is obviously not a work boot being made of a soft suede. The design in profile is pretty low volume and with a low toe box and from the top it looks roomy with an almond toe. In this light tan suede called Mojave it looks a relaxed casual boot for kicking around at home or out on social occasions or just generally doing your shopping and relaxing. Actually the colorway is called Mojave slash peach. I'm not sure why as it looks more Mojave desert to me than peach but there is a hint of peach flush in some lights. So that's a pointer to how you would style this boot. It is casual so casual occasions only, maybe stretching to a relaxed business casual if your office allows that. The color means it goes with all kinds of neutrals from blacks and blues to whites and earth tones. I think it looks great with a pair of faded black jeans, a relaxed button down and a waxed trucker jacket, this one also from Huckbury. You can wear it with denim jeans and a simple t-shirt and maybe layer with a leather bomber jacket for a simple relaxed look. In cool weather an Australian Rover's waxed cotton coat over dark brown moleskin trousers and a tan jumper would look good. Continuing the earth tones it would really go well with tan chinos and a light colored jumper over a button up with a contrasting dark blazer. Now let's take a look at the Rhodes brand and the owner Huckbury. Note that this pair was provided to me for review by Huckbury. Now that's not going to stop me telling you things I don't like about this boot but just note that they were supplied to me. Ok so Rhodes is Huckbury's house brand or footwear. I'll leave a link to the Huckbury website below where you can check out this boot as well as the other boots and shoes that Rhodes make. Now over the years Rhodes have made quite a few pairs of boot models. Early in my channel's beginnings I reviewed a pair of Rhodes Owen boots which I bought when my boot collection was below double digits. You can check out the review up here. The channel StrideWise has also reviewed their Dean boots. I'll put a link to that video down below. Now over the Covid years whether through dropping demand or production and maybe supply chain difficulties their range has dropped by a few models and while I see them come back on and off again they now have a reduced consistent range which includes this Blake boot. The others that are more consistently available are rancher or roper boots, a couple of chucker designs, a couple of service boots, a few shoes and another Chelsea design. Most of them sell for under 250 US dollars which looks good value. They are made in Leon, Mexico not in the US if that's important to you but Leon is recognized at least in North America as the leather and boot making capital of Mexico. The tanneries there are like Lafac supply to a number of good American brands and of course you recognize that Thursday boots use them and they are made in Leon. The brand owner Hutbury is an American men's outdoorsy clothing and gear retail website. The founders started the website in 2010 deciding to combine menswear in that outdoorsy format with all kinds of EDC gear, good service and create the feeling of a journal to gather and buy men's stuff. They sell clothing, footwear, watches, bags, EDC stuff, accessories like sunnies, scarves, gloves, even home goods all geared towards that manly outdoorsy aesthetic. Apart from their own house brands they also carry lots of other brands like Bellroy, Dana, Astorflex, Filson, Patagonia, New Balance, even Viberg. There is a pretty consistent sales page with ever changing items on sale worth a look of that style attracts you. Now let's turn to the construction of the Blake Chelsea boot. As usual I'll start at the bottom. This boot is 360 degree Goodyear welter. You can check out my Goodyear welting video up there. Basically it means that a strip called a welt usually leather goes all the way around the edge of the boot. On the inside the welt is sewn to the insole and the uppers and on the outside it's sewn through the welt and onto the midsole. In this case it's a leather welt and it's a storm welt meaning that it has a raised lip on the welt that gets pushed against the side of the uppers creating a water barrier. Goodyear welting itself is meant to be water resistant because the two stitches that hold the sole to the uppers are first on the inside and the other on the outside so no holes go through from outside to in. The storm welt adds to the water resistance. Not though resistant not waterproof. In time if you stood in water it will eventually get through and the suede is not waterproof. The contrasting stitching on the welt is pretty but it's not perfectly put together. You can see that where the stitching starts and ends there's a blob of thread quite evident. On the other hand the ends of the welt where it starts and ends are well scarved to fit and you can just feel the joint. The outsole is a rubber compound wedge sole made to look like raw rubber crepe. I haven't worn this a lot in bad weather but on wet concrete paving the grip has been pretty good. On smooth tiles however like wet bathroom tiles it's not great. The advantage over a raw rubber crepe sole is that this doesn't pick up as much dirt and hair and all kinds of crap but the disadvantage is that it's a little firmer so the shock absorption isn't as good. Not bad just not that soft raw rubber bounciness. Another disadvantage maybe that because it's firmer it may wear faster than raw rubber than what happens to grip I don't know. I'll have to wait and see. I'm not sure if there's a shank which is supposed to support your arches between your heel and the ball of your feet but being a wedge sole I'm not sure it needs one. If it doesn't have one and in my wearing of it so far I haven't felt my feet getting tired like on cheap shoes. The outsole is glued to the midsole which is sewn to the welt. Now it's quite hard to tell but I think this midsole is leatherboard because of the fibres that I can see in there. Fibre boards made from scraps of leather all cut up and chipped and then mixed with glue and pressed into a sheet. It's okay as a material certainly cheaper than solid leather but it may break up faster than real solid leather. So as in most leatherboard midsole when you re-sole the outside the midsole and therefore the welt may have to be replaced. Taking what up inside the boot it has a leather comfort insole that's lightly padded. From the feel apart from the padding on the underside of the comfort insole I'm thinking that it feels like it has a foam filler. In a good new welted boot the welt itself is about 5mm thick and it goes around the boot so it obviously creates like a well or cavity inside the circumference. The gold standard is to fill this with cork or leather but nowadays a lot of modern and even established boot makers will fill that cavity with foam or poron so that it feels more like a sneaker. The advantage of foam is that it's cheaper so you can buy a boot under a certain price and it feels immediately comfortable like a sneaker. The disadvantage is that it may break down in time and actually become less comfortable in time whereas cork or leather will shape itself to the shape of your feet as your weight presses down on it making it more comfortable all the time. If you had a pair of $700 vibergs I'd want the feeling to last a long time because the boot may last you a generation. With lower priced boots you may not worry about eventual comfort because by then you may decide not to re-sole the boot but just to move on. In the words of the economist John Maynard Keynes in the long run we're all dead. The inside of the boot is fully leather lined. Now it's interesting you can't see this but the lining is in pieces matching the pieces of the leather making up the uppers. Often it's one piece that gets sewn onto the assembled uppers but in this case it looks like as they cut each piece they also cut the lining and back each piece with lining before they sew it all together. Now nothing wrong with that except it may cause you some friction because of the seams inside the boot. I don't feel them but you may if you have sensitive or high volume insteps and ankles. The uppers are suede from Mexican tannery Alphamex. They're based in Leon and it has goal-rated certification which means it is audited against strict environmental standards. This is the Bentley suede which they tan with slightly tighter fiber structures to produce a smooth velour like feel in the nap. It has a really pleasant feel to it and with a nap not as long as say Stead's more treated suede it's probably a little better at getting scuffs and dirt on it. This is not a work boot don't get me wrong but beer spillage and stubbing your toe will add to the patina. The stitching of the panels is fine. There's no crazy loose stitching and they're pretty even. It's double stitched in most places except on the single piece backstay. Underneath the toe box is very lightly structured and by feel I'm guessing it's thermoplastic as is the light internal heel counter. The goring panels are stitched securely and the elastic used feels good and stretchy. The nylon textile pull tabs look like they're securely stitched on and I like the size of them. You can easily put your fingers through them. Being suede and this particularly short nap suede I've leaned toward not being too fastidious about keeping it totally clean. Personally with this type of suede that looks and maybe even feels like rough out I'd like to see it mark with use and gain patina that way. All I do I think is just brush it with a soft brush to brush off any sand or dust and then use a stiffer suede brush to knock the net back up the right way. However if you do want to keep it looking as untouched and new as possible do all the above but also clean it with the usual suede kit of suede rubber and brush to spot clean it and if you have to there are spray on and even brush on suede shampoos out there. But honestly I would not go crazy. Now to sizing. As with most American boots I recommend going down a half size from your true size as measured on a brand new device. If by some coincidence your brand size is the same size as your sneaker size then go a half down from your sneaker size but seriously I wouldn't rely on something as unreliable and go get yourself measured at a shoe store. Using myself as an example I measure a US 8.5 in D width. I usually buy boots in an 8. I take an 8 in Thursday boots, Redwing Iron Rangers and their Mock Toes, Grant Stone boots in the Leo and the Floyd last and the same in Truman boots, Ellen Edmonds, Wolverine and Olden. This pair is the same. It's an 8. Their sizes go from 8 to 13 with half sizes in between which is pretty good. However they don't have different widths so I guess if you have wider feet you may have to size up by half a size in other words you're going through the size. Best to check with Huckbury. This size 8 is the right size for me. They are a little snug just at the front of the ball of the right foot and I did have to wear it a few times before it became comfortable enough not to bother me. The volume is fine for me which is important in a Chelsea boot since you can't cinch up the laces. If I have a complaint in fit it's that the heel to throat is a little loose. The throat itself I find to be quite open. In a really good fitting Chelsea boot and I point out the RM Williams boots, the throat is quite tight around your ankle with the gore in keeping it shut so that your ankle feels secure inside the boot. In these I do feel a tendency to heel slip because the throat doesn't grip me tightly. Now I haven't broken these in by a long chalk. Having only worn them for about 5 or 6 days and usually I find I need a couple of weeks wear to totally break in the sole and welt and the flex points. You can see how stiff they are. I raise that because the heel slip may be caused by the stiffness of the sole and welt so that as I walk it doesn't flex enough yet and my heel lifts inside the boot. We'll see. Another thing about the open throat. Now I know this is a first world problem but if I'm wearing slim pants the hems of both legs will always catch on both the front and rear tabs. This sort of thing happens with many Chelsea boots on and off but in this case it happens all too often in slim pants. Comfort wise apart from the initial snugness and the heel slip, really nice. Underfoot it's well cushioned and shock absorption when I walk is really good. The leather is supple and soft and doesn't cause any hot spots other than that initial knuckle on my right foot. In fact the way it stretched quite quickly there leads me to think that this will break into an even better comfort factor. As to value, this is listed at $198 US dollars on the Hubberry website. In and of itself that's pretty good value. Apart from some artificial material it's good leather and rubber. The stitching and quality control look good. In this class they compare with Thursday's three models of Chelsea's which all sell for just about the same price. I don't have a pair of Thursday's Chelsea's but I do have five other pairs of their boots and the quality of this looks the same as those. I would not compare these with the higher end Chelsea's like Red Wing. Forget about Carmina and Aaron Williams. Totally different class. Don't compare a Korean hatchback as good as they are with an European sedan. In terms of durability in the long term I can't see anything that tells me these will fall apart but let's see after I've worn them for a year or so and I'll bring them back to you. Yeah I'd buy these as a pair of casual relaxed everyday Chelsea boots. In summary then I'd class these as a lower end but not cheap everyday easy pull on boot. If you lead a casual lifestyle with no pretensions these will be suitable for your boots that you keep by the door for when you go out to meet friends or go to the shops. They're well made and with good enough materials for the price and they look stylish. So there are some small issues with finish and fit but hey again therefore relax easy days and you're not looking for top of the range. Well I hope you liked my review. Go check them out for yourself and don't forget to click on the like below and if you haven't already please click on subscribe. It will really help me to grow my channel which means I get to earn some ad revenue which means I can afford to spend some time out of my day job to keep making these videos and to buy boots to review and bring them to you. Go for it click. Until the next time take care and I'll see you soon.