 G'day, how you going? Welcome to Boot Lossophy. My name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, the Wajik people of the Nungan Nation. Now today, I'm going to review this pair of Chukka Boots, the Colton Boot by Hutbury Boot brand Roads. Before we start, I just want to point out the new background. I've changed the rolling review video at the back because it got so much flack over it. And as my friend Dale from Dale's Leatherworks or Aero Surfer LV said, I don't have a framed photo of Wyatt Gilmore at the back. So I've got that. Okay, the boot. This is a Chukka Boot, identified by the shorter shaft length just up to the ankle bone and the two eyelet lace fastening. This is not a desert boot, which is a type of Chukka Boot, but generally of a stitched-down construction with thick, soft, crepe rubber soles. All desert boots are Chukkas, but not all Chukkas are desert boots. Chukka Boots have a complicated and sometimes disputed history, especially as to how they originated. The generally accepted story is that they originated in India amongst the officers of the colonial British troops stationed there. The name Chukka will give you a clue of your origin if you know the game of polo. A polo game is split into six playing periods of seven minutes each and these playing periods are called Chukkas. It's said that the Chukka Boot was invented as a comfortable boot to be worn in between Chukkas and before pulling on the tall riding boots for the match itself. The original Chukka Boots were made of full-grain smooth leather with thin leather soles. The great-grandchildren of that type of Chukka can be seen on the catalogues of great English bootmakers like Cheney and Crockett and Jones. Over the years, the leather soles have also been replaced with daylight and the smooth calfskin uppers have now and then been substituted with suede and newbuck. Sometime in the late 19th century, some pairs made their way, I guess, through British colonial travellers to South Africa and the early white settlers of South Africa who through their Dutch heritage, pioneered stitch-down construction there, known by the Dutch-Africans name of Velchon, used the Velchon method of construction to make their fellies. These perfected the art of making Chukkas from basically three pieces of leather, the vamp and the two rear quarters. The fellies were made from soft leathers and swayed predominantly so that the whole shoe was light and easy to make. Then comes the Second World War and South African regiments were stationed in Egypt, their officers wearing their fellies as they were better for desert warfare than the thick, heavy ammo boots that they'd been issued with. The British officers copied them in the English bazaars adding soft crepe soles for stealth in the sand and someone called Nathan Clark so liked the look that he took the design back to his family's shoemaking company, Clark's, and in the late post-war 1940s the desert boot was born. The Colton Chukka boot, while looking like a desert boot because of the swayed finish, is more on the traditional chukka side of the type. It's made up of the three main pieces of leather plus the single piece backstay, low-cut three and a half inch shaft measured from the top of the heel stack, two antique brass eyelets, it is good year-welted and sits on a Vibram rubber 430 mini lug sole. In appearance it's stylish but also very relaxed and laid back. So styling this Colton boot is pretty simple you won't be wearing this except for very casual situations so the styling would involve jeans and t-shirts or light relaxed shirts in the summer and if you do wear this in the cooler months basically just throw on a jumper or a casual jacket like a Harrington or a wax trucker jacket you can stretch this to go to work in a relaxed atmosphere office perhaps not a legal or an accounting firm and then you can then pair it with nice chinos and a sports coat or blazer basically just stay casual. Now before we go on and look at the construction let's just take a look at the brand Rhodes. As I said earlier Rhodes is the house brand of men's clothing and gear website Huckbury. You should know that Huckbury provided this pair of boots for me to review. I wasn't paid anything and there's no agreement to endorse the product so I'll be doing this review with my normal warts and praises coverage. Rhodes shoes and boots are made in Leon Mexico. I have already reviewed their Owen boot a couple of years ago when I first started this channel. In fact it was one of the first heritage style American boots I bought because I thought their entry-level price range was something that I could afford. From what I can see they also sourced their leathers from Leon out of LeFarq tannery for example which supplies upper leather to people like Thursday and others and also from neighboring Alphamax tannery. Both of these are certified tanneries meaning that they undergo audits of their processes and are certified for being environmentally responsible and for paying their workers appropriate wages and so on. I understand they're made in a family-run factory where the artisans are experienced in making and crafting shoes. The Rhodes range is not currently huge. The Huckbury website and I'll leave a link below show that they have a loafer style, a boat shoe, three chucker styles including this Colton model, a roper boot, two different Chelsea boots, two service boots and a low main style hunting boot. When I first stumbled on the Rhodes Huckbury website they had a few more service boots like the Dean and my Owen boot, Indy style mock toe, as well as several other styles. Now whether they simply decided to rationalize or whether Covid had something to do with material supply and construction times, the range has narrowed. However, amongst all their styles they make each in several uppers leathers and most will have at least two different styles of outsoles. Now to construction. I think I said earlier that unlike the traditional chucker stitch sound construction, these are Goodyear welter. Stitch sound construction is where the uppers are flared out and stitched directly to the sole whether that involves a midsole or not in the process. A Goodyear welt construction is where a strip of leather called a welt is introduced and sewn to the inside and uppers around the inside edge and then sewn through the outside edge of the welt to the midsole and the outsole. You can watch my Goodyear welt video up there. So you can see that the outsole itself is a Vibram outsole, their 430 model which replicates their famous commando sole pattern. But it is very low profile and called the mini lug version. The grip on these is pretty good and the rubber is pretty durable, it's quite hard. In about 2017 or 2018 even Redwing replaced their Neo cork soles in their iron ranger boots to these for better grip. While they're being totally functional they're also quite low profile so looking discreet and stylish as much as lugged soles can do. The heel stack looks like it's leather and it's glued and nailed to the outsole and then a Vibram toplift quite a thick one is attached. The outsole is glued and stitched to a leather midsole and obviously stitched through to the leather welt. The natural leather color of the heel stack midsole and welt gives the boot a nice contrasting base to whatever uppers are used. Inside the boot there's a leather comfort insole glued on top of whatever the actual insole is, I'm assuming it's leather. I can feel foam padding under the leather comfort insole but that does hide whatever filler is used inside the welt. It might be cork or foam I can't really tell. The uppers in the vamp that forms up to the tongue and the shaft itself are all lined with a soft leather. The uppers themselves are obviously suede and a nice velvety feeling suede too, nothing to complain about there. The brass eyelets are not really backed at all, they seem to be metal folded back to secure the eyelet and barely showing at the back so I'd worry a little bit as to whether they pop up in time. At the moment though they look and feel pretty secure. The stitching overall is pretty good, I forgot to mention this is a storm welt with a little ridge on the welt pushed up against the uppers and the stitching on the welt is even and straight. The stitching on the uppers double stitched at the quarters but single stitched everywhere else is again neat straight and tidy. Overall it's really very nicely finished. As to leather care this is I feel quite a tough suede, it's a little over two millimeters thick plus the one millimeter thick lining. I don't really think you need to sweat it over leather care but look after it like you would look after any suede. The color on suede though can fade so I'd keep them out of direct sunlight. Allow them to air dry if they get wet and if you want them to retain their looks use a shoe tree especially as they are so soft. Brush them regularly with a suede brush that's one with stiffer bristles sometimes even copper-wide bristles and when you brush brush them first gently against the nap to remove dirt and dust and then brush them with the nap to smooth it back. If they get dirty with surface dirt that you can't brush off use a suede cleaner kit that basically consists of a a stiff brush and a piece of rubber like an old school pencil eraser. Gently rub the dirt and then brush off the dirt and the rubber tailings. Then use the suede brush and freshen up that nap. If they get stained don't saddle soap. Saddle soap has waxes that can dampen the nap and spoil the velvet look. Use a proper suede shampoo and spot clean the stain making sure it dries well and then use the suede brush again to re-raise the nap. On the other hand if you decide not to keep the pristine fresh look these came in well just wear them and let them get beaten up. The suede will darken and patina and flatten in areas of heavy use and I suspect will look better for it as a well worn boot for casual use. However I'd still tell you to brush them regularly to at least keep off the gritty sand and the fine dust which can damage the leather. As for sizing the boot follows my usual sizing formula in American boots. I take a half size down from my true size. My true size as measured on a brannock device is a US 8 and a half in D width. Converting to UK sizing that's a seven and a half. I size these in a US 8D. In that size these fit well in length and across the ball of the foot. The heel is a little loose and I'll get to that in a minute. Roads offers these in US sizes 8 to 13 which is pretty good but they don't have different widths which is not so good. In this size 8 they fit well not snug but not roomy either which means that if you have wider feet or at least something in WE width I don't think these will fit you and you may have to size up. I suggest you contact Huckbury's customer service which I've found to be very responsive and helpful. Now that's the fit and the comfort. What about the comfort? Underfoot they feel pretty good. The foam backing of the insole and I'm guessing foam filler is pretty shock absorbing when you're walking around. Around the foot the suede is soft and the sizing is accommodating so it's pretty comfy as well. Let me preface what I'm about to say next with a disclaimer that I have not broken these in yet. I've only worn them a total of five times and if you add the times altogether probably a duration of maybe two full days so I haven't broken these in at all which sounds strange for a chucker because my experience and probably yours chuckers are light boots and don't eat much if any break in. Well here's where these are a bit weird. They have a split personality. They look like and the uppers feel like very relaxed soft comfortable shoes. However the sole construction is one tough cookie. They remind me of my red-winged work chuckers which I thought was so stiff in the leather as well as in the wedge sole that I eventually sold them. I just didn't feel it. These have that same feeling to me. The Vibram firm rubber sole is six millimeters thick. The slab of leather midsole is four millimeters thick. The leather welt that goes across the edge is three to three and a half millimeters thick not counting the ridge of the storm welt. Put all of that together and that's 13 to 15 millimeters of sole under your feet that's over half an inch of firm layer where your foot's natural flex point sits. That means that out of the box it doesn't flex where your foot flexes. In turn that means a lot of heel slip especially with a very low shaft and only two eyelets of lace which doesn't really lock your foot in. So in comfort terms I find the heel slip annoying and disturbing. So I come back to that break in thing. I haven't broken these in and these do need a break in. Look I can't be sure right now but I'm assuming that once the sole construction is broken in and the thick sole flexes where my foot flexes the heel slip will reduce and my foot won't constantly feel like it's popping out in the back. Right now though I don't feel comfortable walking in this and being a chucker because you expect soft comfort mentally it's not a boot that I immediately pull out and pick up and put on. It's not different from breaking in a taller boot I know but the psychological expectation means it feels different but I have to say that's probably my only complaint. I certainly can't complain about value. On the Huckbury website it sells for 198 US dollars and I think that's a very fair price for what you get. It is well made well finished the sole is a monster and the upper suede is nice and soft to the touch. At that price it will rival Thursday scout chuckers and not having a pair of scouts but knowing Thursday boots from the five other pairs I have I suspect that they'd compare well in quality. Thursday used their proprietary studded day night like sole on their scouts and Thursday usually have a less thick sole construction so they might wear and flex better but if you break these in you know you you can't compare Thursday's studded and poron soles to vibram and thick leather for ongoing durability. In summary then how would you describe this pair of chuckers look 10 out of 10 stylish construction good materials for the price range and well finished the feel is excellent and soft sole construction is very sturdy but uncomfortable out of the box. I have to say as chuckers go I prefer my Astor flex bit flex chuckers if we you can watch my review of them up there. I don't wear chuckers as dressy boots in the English tradition they're too much like a shoe in that sense and that rather wear a dress shoe or a dressier high boot a chucker dress boot is kind of half and half so in my mind I equate chuckers with suede or newbuck and I see myself relaxing on a couch chucking down a beer or lying back on the sofa and watching TV which means that I prefer the softer clark's desert boot style of chucker boot these are a split personality cross of the two types of chucker boots that span the range well then I hope you like my review you know what to do next click on the like button down there and if you're new to the channel and you do like what you see please subscribe the subscribe buttons over there this will help me to grow my channel and as I upload more boot reviews deep dives into brands and styles of boots youtube will notify you so that you don't miss a beat until then take care and I'll see you soon