 G'day, if you're new to the Butlossofi Channel, my name is Tech, welcome. In this video, I'm reviewing this pair of Red Wing Gentleman Travelers, the Red Wing 9011 Black Cherry Featherstone Beckman. This is the Red Wing 9011 Beckman, once called the Gentleman Traveler because it was sold as the comfortable traveling salesman's boots, sturdy and comfortable, yet capable of being shined up and look good with a suit. Featherstone is actually the name of a line of boots by Red Wing, and the Gentleman Traveler referred to one of the models in that collection, primarily those in the 9011 to 9016 range. The numbers delineate types of leather used, and the 9011 is in this Black Cherry Featherstone from SB Foot Tanning, a tannery owned by Red Wing. Red Wing is a huge company with a big range of models, not just in their heritage range of made in USA boots, but also across other brands that they own, and their own range of modern work boots. As such, it's really difficult to get information about a particular boot, except for what you can pick up from the internet put out by enthusiasts and some reviewers. From what I can see, Red Wing either discontinued the Beckman in around 2018, or just stopped selling it in the United States while continuing to offer it in the huge Asian markets. I've seen discussions of them from websites in Japan and Singapore, so either these were discussing the last few remnants of stock, or more probably from the topics discussed, they were still offered in Asia. At any rate, it seems that Red Wing may have resurrected or will resurrect the Beckman, starting from late 2021 or sometime this year in 2022. At any rate, if you visit the Red Wing website in Singapore, you'll see them on sale there out of retail stores in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. They now caught the Beckman round to differentiate it from the other boots in the Beckman collection. This model that I bought on eBay is one of the originals before they discontinued or stopped or whatever. I came here to boots, and you haven't heard of Red Wing. It's one of America's oldest heritage boot companies and was founded in 1905 in Red Wing, Minnesota in the US by Charles Beckman. It's probably most famous around the world for its Iron Ranger bulbous cap toe boot. I've done a review of the Iron Ranger in the iconic Amber Harness, see up here, which is one of my favorite boots. They're also well known for their mock toe wage sole boots. In fact, they were the first to bring out mock toes in the early 1950s. Today, Red Wing are a monster of a vertically integrated company with their own tannery in-house designer team, their own factories in the US and outsourced factories all over Asia and their own stores in the US. They sell all around the world through associated representative retailers. The estimated turnover is nearly 600 million US dollars per annum, no small change. The 9011 Beckman is a plain toe work boot, pattern boot, classic six inch high shaft, derby style open lacing system and a bulbous round toe that gives plenty of room in the toe box. While it gives off a rugged vibe due to its lugged half sole, the uppers in this case are in a smooth polished leather and if you take shoe styles from that time into account would have been a perfect boot for a travelling salesman to wear with a suit in the 1950s and the 1960s. All eyelets and no speed hooks add to the slightly more formal feel and even today these could be paired with a suit, one with looser fitting trousers and not super trendy narrow pants. They bridge a big span between rugged casual to relaxed casual to smart casual and I think even to business casual. That means you can wear them with jeans, especially if they're a bit worn in like these with a t-shirt and a leather jacket or with flannels and trucker jacket. You can up them a little bit in style by wearing them with some earth tone pants you know like moleskins, canvas pants or brown and dark jeans. You can also make them more dressy to wear with a nice shirt that you wear to church say or to an outdoor wedding and you can really dress them up into business casual with a formal button up shirt and blazer paired with chinos or wool pants and even a tie. In my professional office I would but I rarely wear them with say a charcoal suit but you can. They're comfy and sturdy enough for you to wear them out to dinner, go tracking in them, wear them in the office or clean your yard even. I don't live where it snows but I can see someone clearing snow from the sidewalks wearing these. I keep mentioning sturdy that's what they feel like when they're on your feet partly due to the smooth but tough feeling leather and partly due to this thick and lugged sole that's of course good year welter. For those of you who already know, sit this one out, but for those of you who don't know the Goodyear welting method of making shoes and boots was invented by Charles Goodyear Jr., son of Charles Goodyear who made his fortune from vulcanized rubber tires. It was a fast way of constructing a handmade boot with the use of a sewing machine. Basically a strip of leather is formed around the edge of the boot, the uppers are sewn to the inside edge of this strip or leather welt and then the outside edge of the welt is sewn through the sole. In this way the stitch never went through the entire layers of the boot, all the way through the uppers to the sole. The welt became the piece that joined the two parts, the upper and the sole and that's why it's considered to be more water resistant than just sewing the whole lot together, which would put thread holes right through from the bottom to inside the shoe. Goodyear welting also means that you can re-sole the shoe rather than throw it away once the sole has worn down. You undo the stitches here, put on a new sole and re-stitch it back on, never interfering with the uppers at all. In this case it's a 270 degree Goodyear welt. The Goodyear welt at stitching goes from here to here around 3 quarters or 270 degrees around. Some boots are 360 degrees or all the way around. The reason why 270 degrees is used, especially in this slightly more dressy boot, is that it allows the heel to be attached with a sleeker line straight down the ankle into the heel without the welt forming like a sharp ledge and spoiling that sleek look. The midsole is leather on top of which they glue and stitch through this rubber half sole. This is called Redwing's Rochier sole, which is a thinner, softer, commander patterned lug half sole. The heel is a solid piece of rubber, the originals with the Redwing logo printed underneath, but these have been replaced by me. Above the leather midsole is a cork filling that fills the cavity inside the footbed caused by the thick welt going around the edge of the boot. Above that is a thick leather insole and on top of that is a leather heel pad for a bit of heel comfort and for extra protection from nails or whatever that may poke through from the heel attachment. The boot is lined with leather in the toe box and vamp curving just under the arches. Then the rest of the waist and shaft is unlined. The tongue is unlined, but it is gusseted up to the fifth eyelet. The gusseting stops the thin tongue from slipping around as well as increasing water resistance. As you can see there are seven eyelets, no speed hooks. This all eyelet configuration makes it look a bit more dressy. The eyelets are not backed, but they do go through a double piece of leather. The flat wax cotton laces they come with I think are perfect for their aesthetic. The top of the shaft is finished, rolled with a piece of black leather inside and showing it the edges piping. Plain toe and vamp, two generous quarters, a single piece back strip, just four pieces of leather so that the boot looks elegant, simple and quite business like. The toe and heel is structured quite firmly. I think they are stiffened with leather or leather board to give the structure and retain the shape in wear. The rounded bulbous toe is here to stay. Stitching is subtle, SB fits a gentlemanly boot. This stitch at the quarter is triple stitched using what looks like Redwing's Puritan stitching machine which stitches all three threads at the same time. The middle stitch is white, but these boots have had some coloured wax on them and that's kind of coloured the thread. Now I said at the beginning this is in black cherry featherstone leather from SB Foot Tanning. I can't find any information how featherstone is tanned. Various Redwing websites say that it uses premium top quality hides and that it's a smooth finished leather with a polished surface. No kidding Sherlock, from what I can see it is a full grain leather, I can see wrinkles and hair holes and natural mark from the cow's life even though it is smooth finished. I think it's been finished with a coat of something, it feels quite waxy, even bearing in mind this particular pair may have had wax polish on it a few times from the previous owner. It is definitely more scratch resistant than Chromax Cell or other wax infused leathers. It's a little over two mils thick yet very supple and has some resistance. It doesn't pull or stretch and there's not much pull up. The colour is definitely reminiscent of black cherries. It's a rich, waxy purple black burgundy. It's actually quite close to colour eight for those of you who are familiar with it, but I think this has more variations in redness. It plays in light more where in dark light it's more purple and in brighter light it's more cherry red. It's actually quite beautiful and there are pictures of older models ageing where the colour remains but seem to deepen without getting patchy. According to Redwing to give this leather a light clean all you need is warm water and a soft bristle brush to remove stuck on dirt before wiping away any excess dirt. For deeper cleaning they recommend their own leather cleaner but I think something gentle like leather honey would do particularly if you want to save some money. I'll put a link to that leather honey below. As for conditioning they recommend their own boot cream again I think any non-silicon conditioning cream would do. This is quite forgiving I'd be happy with Venetian shoe cream and then if you want to polish it more than the Venetian would do finish it with a lightly waxy cream polish like a Torago product. I'd be happy with neutrals but if you wanted a burgundy colour would be fine. It's a tough and waxy leather I don't know that I'd be conditioning it all that often. With regular wear in a reasonable rotation I'd maybe condition it a couple of times a year maybe even less with infrequent wear. This is where I usually talk about sizing and breaking. It would be unfair of me to talk about breaking these in since they are second hand and effectively they were broken in when I got them. But I will just say that the leather is supple and strong so there may be some stiffness when new but I don't think anything like some of the more work boot style red wings that I have. So in terms of sizing these are a similar last iron ranges in blacksmiths. I don't know if they're actually the same and I take an 8D in those as well as I do in these. This 8D is an American sizing numbers of course. In Australia that's equivalent to a 7G. UK and Aussie size numbers are one number down from the American. On a brand new device that aluminium thing that you stand on in the shoe store I measure 8.5 in American sizing in a D or average width slightly wider. In most American heritage style boots which all seem to run large I take a half size down from true as often recommended. In 8D these fit me really well. The heel like almost all my red wings is not as snug as I'd like but it doesn't slip and I don't wobble in it. It's just that sport by my parkers in Grant Stone and Alden Lasts I like snugness in the heel and width in the ball of the foot and the toe. The toe box is generous. Again I don't slop around in them but they're roomy. Obviously it has high sides to the toe box. Again that red winged bulbous toe and if you don't mind that bubble look it definitely is comfortable. The shock absorption is okay, not fantastic and the arch support is also okay, not fantastic. The grip of these Rochia half soles is pretty good. When I bought them they were pretty worn. I didn't listen to my own usual advice which is to ensure that the soles and heels were in good nick. I knew that I had to replace the top lift when I got them because I saw that on the photographs. They did look worn down but I was willing to live with the worn half soles because they didn't look too bad and I liked the idea of the original half soles. I didn't follow my advice because I knew these boots in the original makeup were hard to get so for less than Aussie $200 I took the risk. These are good boots, bear that in mind but the risk nearly didn't pay off. When I got them I confirmed the heels needed replacing but that was only $20 or so at my cobblers. Not the original red wing heels but these are fine. He confirmed the half soles were fine and should last quite a while longer but the insole had the imprint of the previous owner in it. You see what happens with the leather and cork sole construction is that as you stand in your shoes you imprint the shape of your feet into them. In fact that's one of the advantages of that type of sole construction. In time they feel even more comfortable as they take on the shape of your feet. Well that could have been disastrous if his feet were significantly different from mine because the heels and valleys could be totally wrong compared to mine and I feel totally uncomfortable stepping on his valleys with my heels. As it turns out his feet were remarkably similar to mine and these actually are very comfortable and in a sense pre-broken in for me in the insole as well. So at Aussie $200 when they may not be available anymore and from what I can see used to sell for about $350 US even with worn heels and a lucky escape I think that was a pretty good bargain. So there you go guys my review of the red wing 9011 Beckman in Black Cherry Featherstone. 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