 G'day, how you going? Welcome back to Bootlossophy. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tech and I want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, the Wajib people of the Nungan Nation. Today I'm taking a look at my Fortis Indonesia collaboration boot that I designed and named the Strider. Let me start by stating first up front that I designed these boots and for the first three months on sale our agreement was that I'd get a small kickback for my design from the sale of each pair of boots. That arrangement has now ended but still I designed these boots so you'd expect that I have nice thing to say about it and I do but I strive to give a fair review so you'll get a true look at these boots. So starting with introducing Fortis and how I hooked up with them. I first saw them on Instagram before they were recognised and liked a service boot that they made. You can see my review of that boot up here. When I first met the owner through Instagram, Sunny, he didn't have a lot of styles, a couple of service boot patterns and a lace to toe boot and I think he was just finishing an engineer boot. At the time I was wanting a really comfortable outdoors walking boot similar to some pictures that I'd seen of old-time American upland bird hunting boots. So I approached Sunny with a design I drew and he put together a pair for me before it became available as one of the boot models. Fortis started in 2020 but obviously the pandemic hit almost immediately and they got into some blockages in the development of their business due to lockdowns and supply chains. Even by late 22 they were really only just starting again. They're based in Bandung, Indonesia, a neighbouring town of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and known as a centre for leather craft and the making of shoes and boots. By now if you're interested in mainly American heritage style boots you'll have seen the plethora of Bandung based Indonesian handmade brands. They have a generations tradition of making sturdy footwear derived from their Dutch colonial days when the Dutch imported their skills and used their cheap labour especially in felt scorn type construction methods, a kind of stitch down construction. When I was first in contact with Sunny he had three people and he looked after all the marketing and design. They basically worked in the back of an Asian bicycle shop style workshop, working with their hands on the floor with their kids and family all around them. Since then, and I hope I've contributed somewhat, he's expanded his staff and moved to a new workshop. Unfortunately not many of these Indonesian boot brands have websites. They don't have access to the web designers at affordable prices and even though I have tried to talk Sunny into investing in a website he just hasn't found the time. So in general you have to DM them on Instagram or on WhatsApp and if you're neither it is a problem. I'll leave links to both below in the description area. They're also not the most responsive in the industry. I guess they have small staffs and are all busy but I really wish they'd see that customer contact is the first part of customer service and put some effort into replying to messages on time or at least within 24 hours. They don't necessarily and so we have to live with it and hopefully that doesn't bother you. As I said I drew a design and asked for certain characteristics that made this design be useful as a bush walking boot like American vintage upland bird shooting boots capable of being comfortable on sand and wetlands and on firm rocks and other surfaces. Sunny came to the party with a suggestion of one of his roomy toe lasts, the Dakar last and the design was set. And you can see it's a tall boot eight inches from the top of the heel to the shaft. There is a laser cut collaboration logo that shows it's a Fortis Brutalosophy collaboration boot. If you really don't like logos you can ask for this not to be put on. I won't be offended. At the back of the shaft is a soft pull loop and it's softly made enough not to catch on the hem of your jeans. It's an open derby lacing system, wide roomy last with nice round toe and quite a bit of volume in the instep. Set in a cream Vibram wage sole it looks and feels like you're walking on clouds. I call it the strider and Fortis also offers the strider two which is more contrast stitching and a chain stitch around a storm welt. I prefer this planar version as I desired it to go bush so I didn't need to or want to pimp up the frills. By the way for those of you who watch or like the Lord of the Rings you know that Aragon who became the king was known as Strider in his days as a Ranger of the North. He walked a lot so I thought that would be suiting this boot. I chose a local burgundy pull-up leather which I'll talk about later but I decided to turn it inside out and to rough out uppers. The rough side of the dark burgundy comes out as a Merlot color. The pictures look more pink than it is and especially after some months use even without conditioning it it's become a darker shade of that original Merlot. And with the uplands boot design that means you really can only wear this in a rugged casual sort of vibe. I think the color and the design leans it toward more of the blue and gray range of clothing as opposed to the tans or brown earth colors. So great with jeans and a t-shirt to relax in or maybe jeans and a work shirt and maybe a bomber jacket for that really casual vibe. The color and look also works with blacks and greys again with say a denim or chambray shirt. I think it's a perfect boot for say going on hikes in wetlands or even the dry bush in the forested national parks around me and certainly great for casual occasions at the pub at parties or even hard-tracking at the supermarket. Now let's take a look at how they're made. As I said they are handmade. I mean handmade apart from the stitching of the panels together using a sewing machine it is hand-lasted, hand-bottomed and hand-finished. When they finished the edges they didn't use a sanding belt they carved the edge with a knife. In both my original service boot order and in the design of this boot I opted to use as much local material as possible so everything in this boot is locally sourced except for the vibram outsole which is at least bought from a local supplier to try and keep as much money in Sani's community as possible. The uppers are locally tanned pull-up leather. The leather in the midsole and the welp is local veg tan even the hardware and laces are local. Let's take a look at this boot from the bottom and work our way up. So this is the Vibram 2021 wedge outsole. You can get this in black but I thought the cream was a better balance. If you're not aware Vibram is an Italian company started by Vitale Bramani hence Vibram from his name. Starting in the 1930s he started after a group of his friends died while mountain climbing for a lack of good pair of sturdy mountaineering boots. Vibram's most famous design is the Montaigne commando sole with deep commando lugs but their Christie wage sole as used on Red Wing's classic mock toes is probably just as equally famous. The 2021 wage sole is a different version of the Christie wage sole. It's made of a softer compound so I feel is really way more comfortable and the ribbing at the bottom is pretty grippy. Maybe may not be as long-lasting as a Christie because it's so soft we'll see. Yep not easy to clean there are ways using a magic eraser or a dish soap and the edge of a spoon are just a couple of examples. The wage outsole is glued onto the midsole. This is generally totally secure done right by the boot maker and on this boot despite quite a lot of twisting and turning during wear there have been no disasters. The midsole is a five millimeter slab of Indonesian veg tan and it's sewn to the uppers in a felt scorn form of stitch down construction. The front of the uppers of the strider are flanged out during the lasting process where the uppers are stretched over the last or mould of the boot shape. The flared out uppers are sewn to a five millimeter thick veg tan welt that goes around the edge of the outside of the boot and threw that onto the midsole. Looking at the edge it's hard to see where the midsole ends and the welt starts so good as that joint. The cavity caused by the thickness of the welt going all the way around the boot is filled with a sheet cork and there's a steel shank also put into the stiffening of the footbed between the heel and the ball of the foot. I was actually surprised the wedge sole needs a shank but apparently without one the feel of your feet underneath is very different and can be unstable when you walk. The back of the boot is sewn to the welt on the inside and then nailed to the insole. Inside the boot the insole is a thinner piece of veg tan leather as well and it's sewn to the welt and to the bottom. Between the leather insole in your foot is a thin non-removable leather sock liner with a thin foam backing for comfort. The uppers as I've said are Indonesian tanned pull-up. It's a chrome tan leather with some pull-up effect but don't get talked into comparing how chrome excel is a pull-up as well and this is the same or SB foots oil tan leathers show pull-up. These do not pull up or show the moving oils in the leather when you apply pressure to various parts of it. So weighing up using local leather and the not so great look on the grain side and wanting an outdoor boot I chose to turn it around into a rough out. As you can see the rough nap is good looking short and even. The stitching work is good in some areas maybe a little wonky but the stitch down lines look okay to me. They're sturdy nothing has come loose and no threads have popped. As it's rough out and with the grain side inwards I chose not to line the boot and others in some suede lining in the vat the boot is unlined and you can see the grain side on the inside all the way through. The tongue I chose a contrasting local tan rough out is semi-gusseted to stop slipping and to give some extra dirt and moisture protection. The hardware is five brass eyelet three speed hooks and an additional five man's or loggers eyelet at the top. That's a lot of hardware but don't forget it's an eight inch boot. The hardware is not the best quality they're pretty thin brass and while I haven't bent them they feel like I could. This is the part where quality control or material is not the best. The backs of some of the eyelets look like they weren't pressed down properly and I had to whack on a two-flat myself. The toes are lightly structured with a thermoplastic stiffener and the internal heel counter is leather board. If you want you can ask for stiffer veg tan heel counters. All in all apart from the hardware it's put together carefully and with some skill. As for leather care I haven't done anything with it at all and both the tan tongue and the burgundy reverse rough out have darkened and the patina has developed around the creases and folds of wear. I don't foresee a great deal of care is required it is a rough out after all. If the leather feels dry I might condition the inside. I recommend of course keeping it clean brush it with a good quality bristle brush suede brush or a stiff brush to brush off dirt. It did get muddy once on a walk I took and I wiped it with a damp rag and then quickly washed it under a running tap. The rough out took it. In future as I wear it more and more I will be tempted to oil the boots maybe with mink oil or something for better waterproofing like overnofs. I know that will darken and maybe make browner this Merlot color but you know at that time so be it. Now let's deal with a difficult area at dialing the right size. When you order from Fortis Sunny will ask you for your foot length and width of the ball of your foot measurements. I found that incredibly stressful so I sent him a photo of tracings of both my feet with a tape measure laid alongside and across the ball. Other Indonesian bootmakers like Santillum have asked me to measure my ankle and instep so because of this I remain stressed. From what I understand Sunny has a number of lasts in varying sizes and he adds to the lengths and widths of the nearest fitting last in the right proportions when he gets your measurements. I was sized as an European 42. Now that usually equals a US size 9 or a UK size 8. Let me tell you my true size as measured on a brand device as a US 8 and a half or a UK 7 and a half. I usually wear American heritage boots at a size US 8 and most UK boots are true to size at 7 and a half. If you want to see me rant about the stress of sizing go check this out. Anyway when he said I was 42 I couldn't believe it but after a few exchanges I trust it in his design. Well it's a little roomy in the instep and the heel but the toes are just the way I like them and the length is okay. I have put in an orthotic removable insole and that solved the issue of the heel and the instep and I can't believe how incredibly comfortable this is. The boot is light because the leather is only 2mm thick not lined really light in the feel of it and despite the veg tan midsole and welp the light wedge sole keeps the weight down. Honestly the 2020-owned wedge sole is walking on clouds and the not too snug design and size makes this feel really really good. I can't help you decide what size you would be. I think you have to do your best in getting him your measurements listen to his advice and maybe adjust it if you have to with a removable insole. For me the next time I'd agree to a 42 but I would ask him to modify his last to make the heel a little more snug and to remove some volume in the instep. Now to value the standard strider boot costs US $290 plus postage. You can request changes if you want possibly paying extra for some changes like maybe a second leather midsole and so on. You can even change up the leather but hey it wouldn't be the strider anymore right? Just to be clear before I go into the value I no longer receive any payment for any of these that you might order but I did design these so I take my assessment of value with that in mind. On the one hand you get a pretty well-made handcrafted comfortable boot for 290 US bucks. I think it's a looker. On the other hand there's problems with the hardware. There is some stress about sizing and fortress are hard to communicate with because of language and they're not prompt replies. Quite stressful. Look overall they compare well with Australian and US handmade boots. The difference in price between these and say American handmade boots is wages rates, materials and maybe a little less QC overall. So to me with those caveats in mind I think they're reasonably well valued. There you have it. I hope you enjoyed the review. You know what to do. The like button is down there. The sub button is over there. It takes a second to click so go ahead. In summary then I love these boots that I designed in the makeup that I designed. That's a hint not to change it. I recognize the shortcomings but hell it's pretty attractive in my eyes solidly made and honestly so comfy. Okay take it easy out there. Take care and until next time see you soon.