 I first came across this pair of boots when I was first getting interested in American heritage style boots, and service boots in particular. But I never bought them because it was hard to get this sand suede during the COVID years. Instead, I bought a pair of Thursday captains as my entry level boot. Why do I think of these now, having bought them this late in my boot obsession? G'day, my name is Tech and welcome back to bootlossify. I acknowledge the Wajik people, the traditional custodians of the lands that I work on. Today I'm taking a look at these Golden Fox boondocker boots in sand suede. When I was first getting interested in heritage style service boots, these came up in my Amazon searches at about a hundred plus US dollars, which early in my boot journey was a price point that interested me. I was most interested in this sand suede version, because to me they most looked like the US Marines Pacific War style of boot. Unfortunately, while they had my size in other makeups like a crazy horse and I think a tan uppers, I was never able to find this suede makeup in my size. So ultimately I got a pair of Thursday captains as my entry level service boot. And if you've been following my channel, you know that I've since graduated into American iconic brands like Wolverine, Redwing and Alan Edmonds, and then into the new breeds like Parkhurst, Grant Stone and Truman. And recently I've indulged myself with the higher end or more expensive brands like Knicks, Whites and Vibergs and Aldens. I've kept a watching brief on these boots though and late last year my size became available on their website for 135 US dollars and I bought them in December. So finally returning to this cheap boot so late in my hobby, has my taste changed? Do I now look down on them? Well let's see. I am certainly not looking down at the design. The style is an attractive basic service boot design, a little under six inches in shaft height, plain toe vamp, almond shaped toe, but not really seriously pointed. In fact in profile it has a bit of a bulbous toe. The sole and heel is a one piece structure where the low block heel is molded in with the outsole. The backstay is a simple strip up the back ending in a ridiculously tiny pull loop into which you can hardly insert your pinky. I think after this review I'm probably going to cut that off. Overall it's almost a World War II re-enactors boot in the San Suede as I said, very reminiscent of a US Marine boot storming Eogema. It's called a boondocker because that's what those boots were called using a Filipino word boondock meaning rural or out in the hills like you know you come from the boondocks you hillbilly. In this configuration it's a casual boot. Suede is generally a casual upper anyway and in this light color even more so. The rubber low profile outsole in a light natural rubber color also screams relaxed casual not even professional office business casual. So the type of outfits you pair this with would be in that relaxed casual range. The type of outfits you wear for a relaxed night out say at a cafe or maybe drinks at the pub or an afternoon at the park with your dog. These go well with light color chinos and a t-shirt or polos in the summer. They can also be an interesting light color on your feet like white sneakers if you pair it with dark gray pants and a darker denim shirt and then throw on a trucker jacket. Jeans obviously work well and I'm not a huge t-shirt guy but if I were to wear a t-shirt I'd probably pair it with a hoodie on top of the t-shirt. Now I said relaxed casual but if you wanted a bit of James Bond in the desert look these look quite well with light tan chinos, a white shirt, simple tie and a tan blazer. Some of the clothing I'm showing come from Huckbury so I'll put an affiliate link to them below. I wasn't aware of this but Golden Fox is a popular American work boot manufacturer. They make work boots like mock toes or steel toe work boots at a cheap price and they seem to be popular for American blue collar workers at that price range. They have been around since 1970 and their website says that they rely on their tradition of hands-on craftsmanship. Now I don't know how true that is but these are obviously made to a price point with a fairly simple design and man-made materials throughout the construction. If it is important to you these are made in China. Made in China products can be pretty bad but they can also be pretty good and despite the choice of materials to keep to that price point from what I can see the actual quality of construction is actually pretty good. All in all their website is sparse on origin stories and construction and even actually very light on where they source their letters. Now this can be a red flag but it can also be poor marketing and it can even be an intention not to mislead so they say less. It happens. Several years ago I did contact their customer service to ask about some aspects of their boots. Now customer service was really good but they couldn't help and they passed me on to sales. Despite asking twice I never really heard back from sales so I have no information from the brand at all other than what they publish on the website. So marketing not great. Now let's turn to the construction of these boots. Surprisingly for the price they are actually good year welter construction. Check out my good year welting 101 video up there. Now that means a thin material called the welt is sewn to the insole and the uppers on the inside and then the outside of the welt is stitched to the sole construction which in this case is sewn to the midsole before the outsole is then glued on top and in this case it's not stitched through right through to the bottom. Modern glues are fine to allow the outsole to be just glued on. Think of mock toe boots like Redwings classic mock toes or thorough good. They don't have stitches. They don't need to be stitched through. A couple of things make this made from materials to that price point. Nothing wrong with that if you're aware of it. First the welt that's usually leather but in this case it's made of plastic. Again in and of itself that's not a terrible thing. Thorough good mock toes well beloved favorite of many an American manual worker has a plastic welt as well and that one is made in America. The only thing is that good year welted boots are meant to be recraftable and I'm sure you can re-sole these but with a plastic welt it's likely not to last beyond one re-sole and on the second you will likely need to replace that welt. Second is the midsole which is okay thickness from what I can see of the edge and it seems to be made of leather board or another plastic because it's been sanded quite roughly. There's a thin rubber slip sole that's glued and stitched to the midsole. That rubber gives the outsole a better adhesive group to secure it. The outsole is rubber molded to look like crepe rubber. Crepe rubber is actually raw rubber but in this case it's a rubber compound but molded with a pattern that makes it look rough like crepe. Inside the boot the insole is leather board and sitting on top of that is a removable leather line foam comfort insole. More of that later. The uppers are made from a soft suede. It's actually quite a nice looking and nice feeling suede with a nap that's fine enough to feel soft and velvety and not like some other cheap suede tanneries which feel more like sort of grainy rough out. The suede is a quite commendable 1.8 millimeters thick and unlined in the shaft. The vamp is lined with a thin felt. The pattern piece is simple with just a vamp, two quarters and a thin backstay strip. The tongue is not gusseted but because it's soft and suede it doesn't seem to slip on my feet. Stitching is clean and even and straight with no mist or wayward stitches. Both the toe puff and the heel counter feel like plastic or leather board. They do stitch a thicker rougher piece of suede as a counter cover on the inside and to provide grip at the heel. As I said earlier the pull loop is absolutely useless but the collar and lace edging are edged with another piece of leather for reinforcement. For hardware there are seven very clean eyelets which are very nicely backed so that there are no rough edges at the back. The lack of speed hooks coupled with shortish laces is problematic. If you want to lace them up quickly you have to take the laces out a couple of eyelets to get the boot back on and it takes time to lace them through again when you're putting them on. Overall yes the materials are not the best but you know what do you want? These are under 150 US dollars, 130 something. Second grade materials they might be but they are put together very well in my opinion. Briefly about leather care. It's suede so the first thing I do is spray a suede protector over it something like Tarago's Nano Protector and you probably need to reapply it every three or four months. I wouldn't worry about conditioning suede it's not like a grain leather that can dry out and then crack in the creases. The suede being a split should remain reasonably soft and supple. Cleaning it will depend on where. It's not to be worn in wet conditions obviously despite any waterproofing spray. It is also a vintage looking service boot so the more rugged and roughed up it looks probably the better. Cleaning it comprises spot cleaning any particular bad dirt spots with a suede eraser and then just brushing it with a suede brush to re-raise the nap and get it lying or even again. As for sizing like all heritage style boots they run large and I take a half size down from your brand size. If you have a pair of iron ranges I take the same size and the same goes for a size comparison with say Thursday boots or Parkhurst or Grandstone. I'm a US 8.5 in average D width and these don't have a width size just a length so the size 8 fits me. If you have wide feet I consider taking true to size so it's a little bit bigger. Despite the slightly bulbous toe box I find a toe box a little narrow at least for me. The outside of my little toes feel like they press against the outside edge of the boot and it's not totally comfortable. This is partially alleviated by taking out the removable insul which is a three and a half millimeters thick insul at the toes. Eventually that cheap foam squishes down a bit and the suede does stretch a little at the toes and it's a little more comfortable now but I am still conscious of that toe box. The foam insul actually adds quite a lot of comfort. It's a two density piece with a softer foam in the back foot and there's a lumpy arch support piece so to me it gives a really good feel under the boot at least whilst it's new. Being cheaper soft foam all this might collapse in time and maybe you can then replace it with a shop bought firmer ortholite style insul. I'm currently having a love-hate relationship with this top insul. If I take it out my toes are more comfortable but if I do take it out the comfort under my foot and certainly under my arch is not as good. The rubber compound outsole is soft really quite grippy it doesn't pick up dirt like a real raw rubber crepe sole and it's very shock absorbing. Value though is where this boot shines. It seems all I've done is highlighted the cheap materials but look don't forget I've also been saying how well it's put together and I have emphasised how they are intentionally built to a price. I got these for US $139 and on Amazon sometimes you can get them for just over a hundred. That price got me interested four years ago today after my experience with all kinds of higher end boots that price still astounds me. For what you get it is very good value. I have to admit that being used to high end viberds and whites and very happy with mid-range grandstone and parkhurst and feeling great value with iron rangers. My first reaction when I unboxed these was oh my that is some cheap crap. But I'm telling you my second impression after getting to know them on my feet is surprising. These are not bad to the point of being good. They are definitely value for that money. So there it is my first impression crap second impression hey these are pretty good boots. Look if you already weigh into nicks and whites and viberg I don't even know why you're looking at this review. But if you have a couple of pairs of grandstone or Oak Street boot makers or Truman or Parkhurst boots and you're looking for a pair of casual going out everyday boots you're not going to do too badly by taking a look at these. If you like this review you know what to do. The like button is a thumbs up down there. So go and click it. Also if you're not already subscribed but you like my channel you know you're probably missing a lot of content because YouTube is only showing you one out of every three or four of my videos. 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