 G'day guys, how you going? My name is Tech and welcome to my channel called Bootlossophy I work and record on widget country Western Australia and I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. In today's video I'm looking at the Parkhurst Richmond boot made up in Seidel's double-shot leather It's a combination tanned and pump full of oils and waxes like chrome excel But is it a more rugged leather? So this is the Parkhurst Richmond boot It's a cap toe 6-inch service boot pattern and this makeup is in Seidel tanning corporation's double-shot leather in a finish that's called light natural Parkhurst being a small batch manufacturer has made the Richmond boot in a variety of makeups and continue to do so Each makeup varies in the leather of course, but Parkhurst also mixes it up by changing the design elements like the backstay for example Sometimes making it a single-piece backstay like in this model and sometimes make it in a double backstay format where there's a strip that runs up the shaft and a heel pocket backstay that covers the External heel counter. That's the heel stiffener underneath this here that gives the boot its shape at the heel other design changes From makeup to makeup may be a variation in the stitching at the toe cap This one in a closely stitched double row others in a triple stitch pattern a single and double row stitches and so on Other variations with the type of hardware brass antique brass or coloured and varying the number of eyelet and speed hook combinations Finally Parkhurst will also mix up the soles Dana in this case Sometimes they mix it up to Ridgeway or to its hide commander souls. It makes life interesting Just before we go on I wanted to look at this leather from Seidel. That's called double shot It's a relatively new development and only came up at the beginning of 2021 Rugged bootmaker Truman only started producing boots using double shot in February 2021. In fact, I think they were the first To make boots in that leather and then leather suppliers started offering double shot later that year Seidel seems to have been playing with some pull-up leather crust That's leather that's been dried after tanning but not yet died And they tried hot stuffing it with waxes and finishing it like a regular pull-up leather What they've produced is something similar to chrome excel being hot stuffed with waxes and oils It is definitely a pull-up leather caused by infusing Multiple hot wax processes into the leather and as you pull on it the fibers in the leather Relaxes so that the waxes and oils move around underneath the full grain leather. That means it's uncorrected Not removing any pores hair holes other skin surface variations It feels smooth in the finish and really quite buttery Chrome excel is slightly corrected. So mostly gives a smooth and finished look and feel Double shot is more ruggedly unfinished and the natural grain takes dye in Depths to produce natural variations of shade Where the piece comes from a looser part of the animal like near the belly Which has been stretched and more elastic in life. You get some really interesting wrinkled contrasts like on this quarter of the boot here This particular model is in light natural, which means it's not dyed came quite light brown Honey colored and it will darken as it has even now and show variation even more as it pertains Parkhurst is very adventurous in its leather selection Tending toward the rugged end of the spectrum more Truman than Grant Stone in that spectrum This leather suits parkhurst's vibe perfectly Moving on to talk about parkhurst They were started in 2018 by former stock analyst Andrew Savisco when he realized there was a poorly filled niche Looking for boots he found here to choose between expensive well-made boots or cheap fashion brands So he decided to make the great american boot in heritage service boot style supporting american labor and businesses and producing quality made boots at a mid-range price I said earlier parkhurst is a small batch manufacturer What that means is that they make small batches at a time Once that batch of leather bought is used They will move on to a new makeup and may or may not return to a particular makeup later While they do make them on specific model platforms the cap toe Richmond or the plain toe allen Specific leathers may or may not be available from time to time So for us as customers it does mean that if you like a particular makeup You need to buy it now because once it runs out you may not see it again Now while that may be a disadvantage if you're still shopping and deciding If you've already bought it means that you've got yourself what is probably a pretty unique boot Dealing with parkhurst is also a great pleasure I speak like it was a big company, but of course it's actually a one-man ban Andrew does it all from designing lasts to closely involving himself in the manufacturer at contracted factories To nailing on the heels himself to doing all the social media and website marketing So if you contact parkhurst and you will be answered personally by Andrew Customer service from him is excellent and he provides very personal contact and service himself Now let's look specifically at this makeup The Richmond is a six inch cap toe service boot meaning it's modeled after the boots worn by service men and women from the two world wars This is built on parkhurst's 602 last which has been sleep down from the real service boot designs To fit with a more modern aesthetic A last is the usually wooden foot shaped mold that the boot maker Pulls the upper leathers around to shape the boot. So what the last looks like is what the boot will eventually look like Andrew designed the 602 last himself and named it after the number of the landing ship tank his grandfather served on It's a combination last in that it starts at a narrow width at the heel And opens up to an e width at the ball of the foot The toe is rounded to be more anatomically inclined than some sharply almond toe shape lasts So what you get is a pleasing heritage style shape. That's also comfortable and very modern looking The heritage service boot pattern combines with the natural colored double shot and the patina and variation that will evolve To present a rugged looking casual Outdoorsy boot So clearly you'd pair it with casual gear and not dressy or business casual in any sense If you disagree you might want to take a look at my video on my five best business casual boots to see how I define business casual up there Leaving aside business casual I reckon this would work with any smart casual outfits down the casual scale to good old t-shirt and jeans On the smart casual side, I've worn it with chinos or five pocket pants Paired with button-up shirts with or without a relaxed casual sports coat or maybe a bomber or herrington jacket It even suits. I think a little preppy style Maybe not the full-blown Harvard Yale vibe, but white or pastel chinos and polo shirts would work with these On the most part I'd pair the matte tan honey color leather with earth tone colors like tans browns and greens However, I think the tan aspects at least until they darken with age Will be quite an attractive contrast with some of the dark neutral colors like black or dark gray Under an all-black outfit. I think they would pop Traveling down the rugged casual look they would be perfect for rugged casual styles Jeans check shirts work shirts or anything wax canvas If you allow them to get a beat up a bit Super casual in faded jeans and a t-shirt is fine Okay, now let's take a look at how they're constructed as usual. I'll start from the bottom and go up The outsole is a day night sole not a proprietary product, but the real thing Day night is an English manufacturer of rubber outsole and they came up with this product in 1910 So it's not a modern design even though it looks sleek and quite modern The advantage of the day night studded sole is that it's quite thin And so can look okay on a dressy boot or shoe Yet at the same time the studded design gives a reasonable grip in most places The studs are actually quite low and inset into wells so that it maintains that low profile And the wells help you to knock off dirt so that it doesn't stick and you can walk in and out of homes without leaving a trail of mud behind Day night is actually pretty good for most of my use case scenarios But just remember where I live. There's no snow or ice I wear my footwear mostly in urban situations indoors for sure But also when I'm outdoors it's walking over parkland or the concrete jungle Dry in summer or in the rain and winter I have taken day night sole boots for a walk in muddy and sandy forest reserves without problems But they really excel in mostly town-based circumstances Depending on the midsole and insular boots, they can feel a bit thin underfoot But the other side of the coin is that they give you a sureness of where you put your feet Sitting above that is a full length leather insole about three mils thick The rubber outsole is glued to this leather in uh midsole and then both are sewn to the welt A welt is used in this form of construction called Goodyear welter construction A welt is a thin strip of leather that goes around the edge of the boot The outside edge is sewn to the sole and the inside edge is separately sewn to the turned in uppers inside the boot In this way there is a stitch outside connecting the welt to the sole and a stitch inside connecting the welt to the uppers And neither shall pass between so that there are no stitch holes passing directly through the boot from inside to the outside Which in turn means that there's less chance of water wicking into the boots It also means that when you wear out the day night rubber sole, you don't throw away the boots You get them resold because it's easier to just undo the stitches Peel the outsole off replace it and sew the new one back on or without even touching and possibly damaging the uppers Heritage built is all about durability as well as slow fashion This welt is in fact a variation of a simple flat welt. This is a split reverse welt This is where the inside edge of the welt is split horizontally halfway to the outside edge The bottom half of that split is sewn to the uppers as usual The top half of that split is flanged upwards and pushed against the side of the boots Producing a raised lip for better water resistance Also, this welt is called a wheeled welt rather than a flat leather surface The surface as if has been passed through a wheel that presses these corrugations into it for decoration and a little extra Sturdiness now if you think about it putting a strip of leather about two mils thick around the edge of the boot Along with all the stuff it's sewn on to will cause a well or cavity inside the bordering welt In these boots that cavity is filled by cork and then on top of that to smooth it out is a leather insole This is this good year welting Leather plus cork plus leather construction is the gold standard While it doesn't have the immediate comfort of say foam or poron like in the thursday captain It said that the leather cork leather combination will compress to the shape of your feet in time to give you bespoke Tailor made comfort and certainly last longer on top of this natural comfort The arch support and stability is helped by the placement of a strong but flexible fiberglass shank into the cork bed Inside on the leather insole is a leather half length heel pad Or sock liner which gives you a little more comfort in the heel as well as protect your heels from the clinch nails that hold the the heels on The heels are real stacked leather on the day night layer and topped by a day night rubber heel top lift for shock absorption and grip Moving up we've talked about the double shot leather the panels vamp toe cap quarters and backstay sewn together with double and triple stitch stitching This is not a real toe cap in this model the toe cap is attached to the vamp piece and it's not an extra piece that's sewn on top of the vamp The boot is unlined in the back and up the shaft and lined in the vamp and up to two Two and a half mil leather It's really heavy enough to feel sturdy without any lining The toe and the heel is stiffened by celastic That's a thermoplastic that's shaped while warm and then stiffens to create shape in the toe and in the heel The hardware is antique brass goes very well with this tan color all eight unbacked eyelets no speed hooks I don't mind that although I do generally take the laces out of the first One or two eyelets in order to get the boots on and off and speed hooks usually helps save a second or two The tongue is semi gusseted up to the fourth eyelet So that helps with water resistance again, and it helps with keeping the tongue from slipping The edges of the collar and the lace facings are unfinished, but there is a leather ring at the collar to reinforce it Quality control is pretty good. All the stitches seem okay A couple of loose stitches that I just leave there or burn off no biggie The stitches look even and reasonably straight This is a handmade boot so I can overlook maybe some slightly misaligned stitching Again, no biggies amongst this lot The only odd thing might be this in a quarter, which I'm pretty sure comes from the inside belly of the cow You can see it's showing fat wrinkles Some would be strict and say that's bad leather selection during the clicking process But that's almost certainly why it's placed on the inside quarter at the least noticeable part of the boot And what do you want to do throw away every wrinkled but probably a passable piece of leather Apart from being costly. Frankly. I think it's a waste of a natural material And anyway, don't you think the variations caused by the fat wrinkles are actually quite attractive? so on to leather care Because it's so new I can't find a definitive guide to caring for double shot Truman boots do have a web page on caring for double shot Which says to use their leather protector or leather cream to condition double shot And you can do that. I'm sure but since almost every page in the leather care guide says to use the same things I'm not sure that's especially tailored for double shot So as my math teacher used to say, let's go back to first principles We know it's hot stuffed pull-up leather like chrome excel It feels waxy and oily right out of the box We also know it's a more rugged finish Because it's clearly uncorrected full grain less evenly smooth and less potential for a shine So based on that, I think I have two candidates for conditioning this leather The first is my go-to for all smooth leathers one that works well with chrome excel and that is of course venison shoe cream I think that would be a safe bet The other product i'm thinking of is some type of waxy balm or leather dressing One of my favorites because I know it works is feebing's ozzy leather conditioner It has a beeswax base and won't darken the leather and will give it a waterproofing coat as well You can always so use big four I guess that definitely won't darken this leather But i'm not sure it absorbs as well as either the venison or the ozzy So you may have to apply it more often than those two I'll leave links to where you can get these products in the description below I would not use mink oil or even neat foot oil I think those would be absorbed too deeply and really darken this leather Unless you want it darker or faster, of course, it's totally up to you The important thing because it is a rugged boot and you may wear it in more rugged conditions is to keep it clean Make sure you brush it regularly and often A vigorous brushing in and of its own will move the infused waxes around and you'll be surprised at how brushing alone Can give it a good luster Repair scuffs and scratches and actually build that patina As for sizing the parker 602 last is perfect for my feet At a half down from my true size What I call my true size is a us eight and a half in d width as measured on a us brannock device I just a note for ozzy's and uk viewers uk size numbers are one number down from us So an eight and a half is a seven and a half in the uk Anyway, in almost all of my heritage style good you weltered or stitched down boots I take an eight d coming down a half size from my brannock measurement Parkers has started offering wider widths But when I bought these they only had one width and you had to size up if you were wider So the 602 last is a combination last starting narrower in the heels and opening to an e width in the forefoot For me, this means that parker's boots grip my heels very securely Are snug in the waist so offer pretty good arch support At the ball of the foot where the last widens and in the toes I have room to feel that my toes are not scrimped together This means that straight out of the box These fit my feet and felt comfortable except for one issue Out of all my parker's boots, I have nine to date Only one was problematic in the breaking in thereof These were the richmans in gaucho mousse Which I think were made slightly narrower than my other parker's pairs because the leather is so soft and stretchy But even then they loosened up within a week These however also presented an issue The solastic heel counter in the left boot had been cut or placed a little higher in the pocket You can see for the first couple of weeks they cut into my Achilles tendon when I walked and flexed my ankle When I couldn't walk that away I got a hair dryer and heated the area to reactivate the solastic And then bent it back until it was flexed backwards a bit more They're good now While with the shank and narrow waist I said arch support is good I think it could be improved I have reasonably low arches not flat but low and I always appreciate a little extra support from the bottom And these feel a little missing underneath But I can't report tired feet after being in these all day So maybe it's in my imagination Taking a look at cost and value these cost us 352 in february 2022 Parkers boots rain from the mid 300s to the high 300s depending on leather and makeup New models have crept higher over the start of the pandemic to now And I guess that's to be expected with longer supply chains and global rising costs due to the price of oil Rising interest rates and other factors They sit in between the 300s of redwing heritage models and the 400s of makes like oak sick boot makers and Truman While we're not necessarily talking apples and apples I think they sit well between these two price ranges They are better made and with better materials than entry level 200 Thursday boots They are more individualistic and at least as well made as redwing heritage models Maybe even with a little more care in the making They are not as sturdy as Truman and to be fair I don't think you can compare them with any Pacific Northwest boot anyway Frankly, I think oak street boot makers are not worth the extra hundred dollars I put them as a comparable to park host in build Um, I guess the outlier we have to recognize is grandstone Grandstone are really well made and at the same price while more refined and not aiming for the rugged market I personally think that they're worth more than they're listed mid 300 dollar price range And they're the outlier probably because of cheaper manufacturing unit costs All in all, I think these are fairly priced at the mid to high 300s in today's market So there you go guys, there you have it I hope you enjoyed my review of these park host boots They're Richmond boots in Seidel's double shot leather in the like natural colorway or or lack of colorway If you enjoyed this video, you know what to do click on the like and subscribe buttons, please I'm planning some really cool stuff coming up Ellen Edmonds more Thursdays more RM Williams and a boot and brand comparison or two Don't miss them. Click on subscribe until then take care guys, and I'll see you soon