 G'day. How are you going? If you're just joining me, welcome to Boot Lossophy, and my name is Tech. I'm in Perth, Western Australia or in Wajat Country in Nungabuja, and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of these lands. In this review, I'm looking at Parkhurst Brand and their older Alan Boots in Nighthawk Kudu. This is Parkhurst's Alan Boot in Nighthawk Kudu. Before I look at the design and aesthetics of the boot, I'd like to dive into Parkhurst Brand because they've not had a good time of the pandemic years. If you've gone into their website in the last year, you'll have seen a dwindling of available stock. It's only just now that Andrew Savisco, the owner of Parkhurst, has been able to secure a more stable supply and manufacturing base, and product is beginning to come back. Andrew changed careers from being a stock analyst and started Parkhurst in 2018 with a mission to build a quality boot with a difference that worked as both dress and work boots. From when he started, all his models expressed a rugged vibe, but had enough attention to detail to also be refined in their construction. Specifically, Andrew saw how American jobs and industry closing down could affect whole communities and sought to use as much of the American-based supply chain as possible. From the outset, Parkhurst was a small batch manufacturer with limited-run make-ups. They've always used some unique leathers for their uppers, not handled by the larger brands like Kudu, for example, Mohawk, Moose, Vege Retains, and Double Shot Leather from Seidel to rival others' Hawwing Chromaxel offerings, and that can match Viberg's choices in unique uppers. For the most part, then, restocks do not always take place. He partnered with the factory in upstate New York to make the boots and made sure that he bought from local suppliers. Even materials that had to be bought in from overseas like leather from UK tanneries, he tried to buy them from US suppliers so that he was able to help them continue in their business. Unfortunately, this concentration of the supply chain was severely hammed during the COVID pandemic. As business reduced during lockdowns and customers disappearing, their suppliers started to grow out of business. Importing material from outside the US became severely constricted as shipping either slowed down or met with intensely increased prices for less ships and planes that were available for freight. As the pandemic went on, tanneries and factories producing materials like outsells reduced production as they were hit by staff shortages and their own lockdowns. Yet Andrew and Parkhurst have a fiercely loyal following. Most of his fans are attracted to the mission and values espoused by Andrew, but even more so because of his very refined styles with very rugged leather. In my view, and I've said many a time on my Instagram account, who needs a five vote price boot when you have Parkhurst boots that are as attractive? It seems these supply chain issues acted as a prompt for Andrew to regroup and style Parkhurst 2.0. During 2022, he found a second factory in New York with better capacity as well as a factory in Spain, both having the legacy and experience to make his boots. It seems he was also able to secure the manufacture of his own outsells that fitted his own designed lasts better, as well as uppers from Spanish tanneries. In fact, now encompassing production was probably his largest upper leathers offerings today. New styles and a modified version of his own last, the 602 last, was also produced during this period to widen the range. As 2023 rolls on, I'm hoping that all goes well for Parkhurst and more and more stock come on with the production runs finally getting to an even flow. Okay, so now let's take a look at this older model, which was first produced in 2019 and then had another limited run in 2020. It's a plain toe, six inch service boot pattern, very simple and elegant. And if the design itself, not just a shape, can be sleek, then this is a sleek design. It's also a clean pattern with a simple back piece, two generous quarters and a two piece backstay that features quite a long heel counter cover and a white back piece. In the original 18 last, it's also physically sleek with an almond shaped toe. There's not too pointy and doesn't squeeze your toes. The uppers leather from Charles State in the UK is a dark, storm cloud colored blue with shades of gray and also a touch of dark green interlaced throughout. It sits on a flat and so quite versatile day night sole and the contrast of the natural wealth against the blue gray uppers makes the boot look rugged but refined. Which means that it's a casual boot and you would normally pair it with casual outfits ranging from rugged casual to even smart business casual. You can wear it in a rugged sense as if you're going for a hike with faded jeans and a work shirt or a t-shirt and any type of outdoorsy jacket. You can then clean up in the evening and wear it out for date night with a clean pair of light wash jeans and a neat oxford cloth button down shirt and a sports coat maybe. And then the next morning you could even wear it to work if you don't need to wear a suit. Just pair it with say khaki chinos or a dark slim pair of pants and a more dressy button-up shirt and blazer. It really is a versatile pair of boots to take you through a whole variety of outfits except for the very formal. But it also really isn't a work boot in my opinion although my friend from the Facebook Parkhouse Enthusiast group and Instagram wears the green spruce kudu version to do his garden I'm looking at you Jace, which I think is very brave. Let's now take a closer look at the construction. Like all Parkhouse boots, old and new that I know of, it's a 360 degree Goodyear welt boot. This means that the uppers are connected to the sole by the Goodyear welt form of construction. A strip of leather called the welt goes all the way around the boot and is stitched to the insole and uppers inside the boot. The midsole and outsole are then also stitched to the welt but this time on the outside. That's this white contrast stitch you see on top of the welt and underneath, you also see in an unchanneled stitch that reinforces the glues that attach the outsole to the midsole. This makes it a re-sole of a boot. When the sole wears out, a cobble can unpick that outside stitching, peel off the rubber outsole, glue on a new one and then just sew it back on again. It also makes a water-resistant boot. The two stitches means that there is no one stitch that makes a hole going all the way from the outside to the inside and so water is not allowed to wick inside. This natural coloured vegetarian leather welt is also split and raised to increase water resistivity. The welt is split horizontally half way and the top half is flanged out and pushed up against the uppers to act as a further moisture barrier. You can see the split reverse welt rather than the storm welt because the edge of that flanged up is unfinished. A storm welt has a raised flange carved into the leather welt so that the edge looks actually smooth and finished. The outsole is a full slip, that means it goes all the way along the length, a full slip rubber outsole made by Gainite. That's a rubber manufacturing company in England that's been making Gainite soles since 1905. It's designed with the ubiquitous stud space along the sole, studs surrounded by a shallow well to help prevent picking up mud and dirt and make it easier to either shake or stamp off said mud and dirt. The grip and conflict is reasonable, at least in the mainly urban settings that I wear this boot in. They have survived running in the rain along city pavements, squishing through wet grass, winding through crowds in a pub on the way to the bar and even slippery polished supermarket floors. Incidentally, it's pronounced day night and not die night. That's because the company that made it used to run the mills, factories, day and night. Get it? Moving upward inside the boot, this has a single veg tent leather midsole, which is about 2.5mm thick. Since a similarly thick welt goes around the edge of the boot, that causes a well or a cavity in the middle. A filler is used to fill that well and even up the level from the midsole to the top of the welt. Inside these boots, the filler is the traditional cork filler. Now, it may be partly my imagination, but the cork filling doesn't feel as thick as that that's applied in my other Parkhurst Allen boots. Inside that cork filling layer is also inserted a fiberglass shank. A shank is a hard piece of material shaped like an ice cream stick that's placed in between the heel and the ball of the foot under the arch. It's meant to provide arch support and longitudinal stability because it helps to stop your arches collapsing into the gap under the arch. In this case, the fiberglass shanks have been great for me for my work because at airports, I don't have to take the boots off. If we keep on moving up, as I said earlier, the uppers are Kudu leather from Charles Herstead tannery in Leeds in the north of England. And they've been based there since 1904, so another not so new company. They specialize in suede leather but also produce many game leathers like Moose and this Kudu. Kudu is in fact a southern African antler. The natural free range herds apparently can be bad for the land and for farmers eating crops or churning up the soil and so they are annually culled to keep their numbers down. No animals are killed just for the hide. The cull ends up supplying meat to local villages or the meat industry and the skins get said to be tanned. Kudu leather is characteristic for being a tough yet light. Its thinner leathers can be used to make boots just as tough as thick bovine leather. It's also supple and beautifully textured. As a wild free range animal, the Kudu is scarred, marked by the encounters with thorns in fights with their own and through near escape from lines and other things with teeth. This means that full grain Kudu leather is remarkable in texture and depth. As you can see, these are not random dirt marks or oily patches. These are scars and marks on the skin from life encounters. The uppers are unlined in the shaft but lined with a soft glove leather in the van. They lasted or moulded on parkhursts now retired 18 last. A last gives the boot the shape design and this one is sleek almond toe shape while still offering enough width at the ball of the foot. To be honest, I prefer the current more rounded combination 602 last which starts narrow at the heel and waist and opens up at the ball of the foot to a more rounded toe shape. However, you can't deny that this 18 last is a very attractive looking shape which is probably what makes this such a versatile boot ranging into smart casual when required. The toe box is lightly structured with a thermoplastic heat activated material called Celastic and there is a Celastic external heel counter covered by the heel counter cover. A wide backstay goes up the back of the shaft covering the stitching there. The top of the shaft is reinforced with a backing piece of Kudu collar but it's unfinished at the edge. It's not rolled. The tongue is unlined and ungusted piece of Kudu. For me, it has a tendency to slip to one side especially on my right foot. I have had to punch a couple of slits through the tongue to allow me to thread the laces through and that keeps the tongues in place. The hardware looks to me like some sort of dark and nickel all eyelets. Now, some may prefer speed hooks and while that's also my preference I don't mind an all eyelet boot especially where it adds to the more dressy look of the boot. The quarter pieces seem to me to be a bit more generous than on my later Allen models. Now, I don't have particularly thick ankles and the way these are cut they seem to meet really close at the top of the shaft. The size is fine. I usually wear these with kilters or false tongues that I got from Dale's Leatherworks so that they fill up that volume a little bit. I took them off to film this review. Overall, the quality of the construction is pretty good. The stitching on the welt is a little wayward on the inside of the left boot but apart from that, the triple stitch quarters and the double stitch backstays are neat and even. In two years, I haven't seen any unravelling thread or chipping or rubber. It is solid. So, how do you care for cootie? To me, this is quite a dry feeling leather and so I probably wouldn't panic myself into applying too much product too often. I think it's important to keep your boots clean just by regularly brushing the dirt and dust off with a good horsehair brush and maybe wiping it down with a microfiber cloth every now and then especially in the nooks and crannies of the welt. If you do get it mud splattered I think you should be able to clean it up with Saddlesson but honestly, you need to have been running through mud to meet any more than a good wipe down with water. When you really feel that it is dry my feeling is that the best conditioner is Big Four. I have seen other people use Venetian shoe cream on cootie or even oil based conditioners and in my opinion those both darken the leather and make it quite waxy in texture. Now I don't know about you but I think the slightly dry and mottled texture is what I like about cootie and to even it out with oils and waxes I think it's spoiler. In my experience Big Four does first darken the leather but don't panic that's only because it wets the surface and as it dries the leather does lighten up again and in my experience Big Four doesn't even out or flatten that cootie texture. To me this should look and feel like a full grain waxy newbuck. Once clean I consider a waterproofing spray every now and then just to protect the surface from moisture. Use something like Red Wings Leather Protector Pump Spray or Tarago's Nano Spray I think that would be fine. I have some links to the products deep down in the description below so check it out at the bottom. Let's turn to sizing. If you are in any doubt at all contact Andrew through his email address on his website. One of the reasons people who have bought Parker's boots are so loyal to the brand is because they are loyal to the man. Andrew is one of the most responsive, open and nicest people that you're going to meet in the boot world. He will see you right if you have any issues on sizing or pretty much anything else. As for me if you want to use me as a guy I am true to size as measured on a brand device at US sizes 8 in D width. I take all of my Parker's boots in a size 8 no matter what the last. In the old 18 last it is a touch narrow at the toes but I was love to try going true to size because the length is just right. In the current 602 last a Parker's 8 is a perfect fit for me. Even in the new offerings I don't think Andrew offers different widths except in some models. In the current 602 or 602 M modified last, the accommodation last going from a narrow B width in the heel to an E width at the ball of the foot so in most cases taking a half size down from brand should work for you. As a guide I also wear an 8 in D width for Grant Stone, Truman Red Wing, Ellen Edmonds Alden and Wolverine I wear an 8 in the half D and Oak Street boot makers Elston last trench boots I wear an 8 in Timberland and Thursday we also don't have boots. If you are really wide feet you may have to go out a half size but best to check with Andrew. I have seen in social media that some feet just don't fit into Parker's combination last. Unfortunately this is true for all boots and it may just not suit the shape of your feet but for most people in the middle part of that bell curve going a half down from true should work. As for value I'm not going to talk too much about the cost of these being US $388 when they first came out I think current pricing on Parker's boots depending on the models and the uppers layer range just under $400 to the low $400 US dollars this means that we are shipping cost about 700 Aussie dollars landed with postage and GST which is all that was in the shipping chart by the way. As much as I love Parker's boots inflation and the exchange rate is getting me to that edge of affordability here in Australia. I can buy a Pacific Northwest Whites totally overbuilt MP service boot in Melbourne for about $900. If you want to buy local Aaron Williams as overpriced as they are in my opinion I would just under $700. Unfortunately those are not great price comparisons for Parker's today in Australia. Will I continue to buy Parker's? Yes I will but only because I love this brand and what they stand for and how they look that rugged yet refined design. My RM Chelsea's are rugged but they look more refined than rugged. My Whites MP's they are rugged and they don't look that refined buying Parker's they look like viable service boots yet not as well made but are saving on a $1200 boot with the look. I will keep buying Parker's but in Australia they are really at the top range of maybe not correlating value with price. However if you're in the US and not having to worry about GST and the extortionate COVID price shipping rates for US $400 they compare well with the Grantstone boots at around that price. They compare well with Redwood Iron Rangers at $350 US they compare well with the Higgins Mill at $500 plus US. If I lived in the US I'd say they were good value. So in summary I do love these Allen boots in Nighthawk bluey grey storm cloud like Kudu leather. The sleek shape is excellent the Kudu is exceptional in character the quality of construction is pretty good. My cons are perhaps the shape of the quarters they are a little too large like a flap around my ankles the cork filling feels a bit thin and I have had to put a thin leather removable insole just to not feel everything uneven that's under the foot. As for Parker's brand I love this brand and the designs but living in Australia every future buy is going to really endanger my retirement fund. I guess I just have to work higher and longer. So there you have it. Don't forget to click on like and subscribe to help me out. The clicks tell YouTube to offer my videos to more people which helps me to grow my channel and to bring you more content. And if you like my content and subscribe then YouTube will tell you when I upload so that you can catch up with me on more boot reviews in-depth exploration of more boot makers and the emissions and also into materials and construction techniques. Until next time take care and I'll see you soon.