 G'day, how are you going? Welcome to Bootlossophy, my name is Tech. I'd like to acknowledge the Wajuk people of Nungabuja, whose country I live and work on. Today, I'm going to review this pair of Truman boots in Charles F. Stead's Black Rambler Leather. This is Truman boots standard cap toe design on the 79 last. To my mind, it looks designed more to look like an American heritage style work boot, rather than a military like service boot. Now to be honest, there's no real definition of what splits the two styles of boots. There are some very clear service boot designs such as the Whites MP, the Weiburg service boot, Thursday's Captain and most of Parkhurst's offerings. On the other hand, there are also some clear heritage work boot designs like the Pacific Northwest work boots and the iconic the iconic Redwing Iron Ranger, which was after all derived from Miner's boots. However, some of the more modern brands do tend to blend service boots with dress boots and work boots and for nothing else other than chonk and heartiness, I'm calling this a work boot rather than a service boot. The aesthetics is definitely rugged casual, especially in this leather and in most of Truman's leather offerings. Definitely not for shining up on the parade ground. Its shaft is a little over five inches from the top of the heel to the collar. The last is a wide fitting comfortable last. It has a stubby cap toe, open derby lacing and a solid block heel. The black rambler leather is matte and looks solid and sturdy in this colorway. Amongst all of my Truman boots and I have five, including the Java wax flash that I've already reviewed. You can check it out here. These look most like duck feet in the last that opens out at the ball of the feet. I think that's mostly because of the contrast of the natural color welt and the white stitching against the solid black uppers. It frames and emphasizes the curve of the toe box, which all tends to mean that you can more or less only wear these boots in a rugged casual outfit. Think jeans and t-shirts or rugged flannels and outdoorsy jackets or else think more like work wear in jeans of various colors including tan and khaki pants or earth colored work shirts. The kind of scenarios you'd wear these boots would be say out hiking, working outdoors or in your garage or workshop. Very casual afternoons at the pub and you know eating hamburgers rather than eating French silver service dinners. I have worn them to the office under a very casual business casual outfit but I'm not sure that looks entirely works. This matte rambler leather kind of softens it too much and with the black on the natural welt. Yeah look I think definitely more on the denim side of things. Okay before I go on to walk through the construction of these boots let's take a look at Truman Boots the company. Truman is named after the owner's border collie that's a dog you see in their brand logo. Truman isn't an old-time boot company even if their products look like they came from a hundred-year-old tradition. In fact it was founded in 2014 by Vince Romano and it was first based in Pennsylvania which for non-Americans is in the eastern United States. Realizing that Pennsylvania perhaps didn't have the skilled labor for hand-making boots in the volume that it was growing into they moved to Boulder in Colorado which is sort of in the Midwest of the U.S. and when they then outgrew the economic support of Colorado they moved to Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. That's actually a very peripatetic journey in six or seven years. Now Truman is a small batch made to order company that's focused on making a well-made American product and in doing so by happenstance they are reviving an industry that could have disappeared in the U.S. Now I guess if I were American and knowing heritage boot-making skills were disappearing for that reason alone I'd go some way towards supporting them. Now looking at the design of their boots they're clearly influenced by American heritage work wear. Romano has said that when he started Truman boots he set out to make boots that would be unique and last for many years. The boots they now produce are definitely rugged and tough and the use of very unique and different leathers make whatever they offer on their lasts really unique. And so on to the construction of these boots. As usual I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way upwards. Starting at the bottom of this pair are outsoles from Day Knight from the United Kingdom. Day Knight is a product of the Harborough rubber company based in Leeds in the United Kingdom and they're famous for their ubiquitous studded low-profile outsole that I used or copied by almost every boot maker you can name whether they're big or small. They've been around since 1894 so they're not new kids on the block and the name Day Knight comes from their reputation of running their mills or factories day and night. They're made from non abrasive natural rubber with very little or no carbon so it's non-marking and has more give and is less prone to tearing than carbon-rich hard rubber compounds. The little studs provide good grip over most services although I have found that wet smooth pavers and driveways and such can be a little challenging. They do provide a low profile which means for dressier boots not these you can get away with them as a dressy sole. They're attached to the uppers using a 360 degree Goodyear welt construction. Check out the details of Goodyear welting in my video up here but basically there's a strip of leather called the welt which goes all the way around the circumference of the boot hence called 360 degrees and the welt is stitched to the uppers on the inside while stitched through the midsole and outsole on the outside. The two stated advantages of Goodyear welted boots are that they are water resistant because no stitch holes go all the way through from the inside to the outside of the outsole and number two is that they are easily resold by cutting the outside stitches peeling off the outsole and then gluing and re-stitching a new outsole on. In this case this is a storm welt. A storm welt is where the leather welt is carved so that it has a ridge in the center of the upper side. The raised ridge gets pushed up against the uppers so that when it's sewn on it forms an extra raised barrier against moisture. Now for interest's sake I hope you're interested in this a storm welt with this carved ridge is different from a split reverse welt where the welt is split halfway and the top half of the split is flanged up to make this raised bit here. The way you can tell is that the raised part is cut leather whereas in this storm welt it's smooth and finished. Here's another interesting tidbit I think the English call the split reverse welt a storm welt while they call this a barber welt because the carved welt is made by the barber welting company just to add confusion to boot anatomy. Now the welting it's a little uneven in these boots while it's cleanly put together on most of the way around the boot that ridge kind of gets squashed under the arches and at the back of the heel almost disappears. I can't see it's structural at all and I'm not sure it'll have any detrimental effect on water resistance to be honest but I thought it was an interesting quirk of a handmade boot. Things are not uniform. The heel is stacked leather with a day night rubber toplift. The midsole is leather and glued and stitched so well to the welt that it's actually very hard to see the seam between the welt and the midsole. Inside the boot the insole is leather but I'm not sure if this has a cork or foam filler that fills in the cavity inside that's caused by the welt going all the way around the circumference. You just think of a thick leather welt going around there's got to be a cavity inside. Truman's construction has moved from stitch down to good year welting and in doing so the fillers have moved around between foam and cork. I believe all current models use cork but I'm just not sure where in the Truman timeline of changing materials this particular pair falls into. There is a steel shank in the midsole that's a piece of flat steel that bridges the gap between the heel and the ball of the foot to support your arches from collapsing into that gap and causing tired feet by the end of the day. And then we're still inside on top of all of that is a non-removable leather sock liner glued inside. There is no foam under this sock liner so the foot settles immediately or contacts immediately into the leather and cork or foam and it can feel quite shall I say solid underfoot. The uppers are last on Truman's 79 last. A last is the foot shaped mold that the boot maker stretches the leather upper around so forming the actual shape of the boot. The 79 last is Truman's most popular last and is either bought from a or licensed from a vintage last made by a Wisconsin U.S. last-making company. It has good width around the ball of the foot but not particularly high volume across the vamp or the instep and it does have a comfortable round toe. The black rambler leather is from Charles Irvstead based in Leeds in England and probably the most famous tanner of suede leathers. Rambler is a shrunken wax suede. The suede is shrunken in heat by as much as a third. This gives the fibers a really tight structure which improves water resistance and of course durability. It's waxed in the tanning rather than like other wax suede you know like waxy commander that has wax applied on the surface after tanning. Obviously having lost 30% of a hide it's more expensive than untreated suede. One of the most interesting effects of the shrinking is that there's a lot of texture on the outside. Maybe not so noticeable in this black version but in others particularly lighter colors you can see the veins and muscular markings brought out in relief and emphasized by that shrinking process. The result is a slightly dry slightly waxy matte feeling leather and while pretty supple it's firmer than unaltered suede. The uppers construction involves a toe cap with triple stitching. It's not a true toe cap meaning the vamp stops at the stitch and the toe cap is sewn on rather than the toe cap being sewn on top of a full length vamp. This pair has an unstructured toe box and already you can see it's collapsing and losing its shape which I find attractive others may not. It's not uncomfortable because there's enough structure in the leather not to feel it pushing down into the top of my toes although I have other unstructured boots that I can feel that pressure. The two quarter pieces are generous and it has a single piece attractively waxy backstay that supports the shaft. There's an internal heel counter but it's very light. Here again I'm not sure if it's a leather heel counter or some type of leather board because Truman have used both at different times. There is a flexible give in it so maybe it's leather. The boot is leather lined in the vamp and unlined the shaft but the heel counter which I'll better you can't see it is covered inside by a suede patch. The brown contrast stitching is a very neat double and triple stitching along all the panels and there's not a loose stitch that I've seen so far. The tongue is semi-gusseted up to the last of the five brass eyelets and above the eyelets are two brass speed hooks. All the hardware is nicely backed with grommets or washers so you don't get that scarring on your tongue. The speed hooks though are small they don't stand up and out like say iron ranger speed hooks or even grandstone speed hooks which have that you know definite hook to them. They're small enough to almost look like the notched posts that you see in White's MPs for example. One complaint being small it really is quite difficult to hook the raw hide laces and sometimes when I'm in a hurry I keep missing the top speed hook as I try to wrap the leather laces around the the shaft. So how do you take care of this Rambler leather? Well first of all if you follow my videos you'll know to click on like and subscribe but more specifically you know that I'm a big believer in just regular brushing of your boots with a good quality horsehair brush. Even on these matte waxy suede leathers grit and sand is the enemy of leather so it's important to regularly get rid of buildup. You know I've never washed Rambler but all of my research shows that washing with saddle soap is not a problem. Unlike stock suede which is quite nappy you can't get that wet and sudsy and they need more like special suede shampoos that's what my research says but even so if you decide to saddle soap this make sure you test on say the tongue where you can't see it if everything goes pear shaped. As for conditioning people have said that they use Venetian shoe cream but I think that might be you know that might have too much wax in the product and it may make the matte leather a little too shiny. I've used bit 4 on this successfully and it's actually come out quite good. The initial look was a bit wet but after drying a few days and then getting solidly brushed a lot of the sheen that was on there gets knocked off and the the kind of rough nappiness starts to come through again. This Rambler shrunken suede is not a nappy suede anyway so you don't get that nappy effect. You can check out links to some of these products in the description box below. Let's turn to look at sizing, fit and comfort. So to start with I measure a US 8.5 in d-width on the US Brannock device so that's my true to size. For my Australian and other Commonwealth viewers US size numbers are one down from UK size numbers so that means my UK size true size is 7.5. However in American heritage boot styles most of them are built large so I usually take a size 8 in US boots, US 8. So that's a UK 7. I find most UK and European bootmakers actually stay true to size but well we're talking about an American boot here. So I got these in a US 8d. In that size in this 79 last the fit is pretty much perfect. I have a good thumbs width between the tip of my toes and the tip of the boot and there's practically no heel slip and my feet and heels are held quite snugly. The heel is slightly bigger than my own heels but the waist is snug so that's fine and the width at the ball of the feet is really good giving me room but not too much room. Despite the round toe though the ball of the feet do crowd in quite quickly onto the tip of the toe box and my little toes do feel a little more snug than I usually like. Not a problem just conscious that they're there. As for comfort I think the phrase I know I'm wearing a boot is the right description. No these are not as comfy as sneakers they're not uncomfortable but you know you have them on. The leather is supple so that's a plus. The fitting is good so that's definitely a plus. There's not a lot of shock absorption underfoot so that's not a plus. Whether cork of foam plus thin day night outsole on what is not a particularly thick leather midsole this gives you a very firm tread under your feet. Again it's not uncomfortable but this is not the most comfy of all my boots. Some people like their boots to feel like boots. You like these. Some other people like to forget they're actually in the pair of boots. You won't in these. Okay now to value. Are these worth the price? What is the price? These are over a year old and you can't get this exact model today because Truman have moved on as they want to do and change construction and materials but a similar boot in rambler leather lots of other colors of rambler they list at around 700 Australian dollars or on their website lists that US $460 odd. You know mid-400 US dollars is pretty good for a boot built with this type of quality. Truman have had a history of some iffy quality control at times but as I say I have five pairs and apart from some very small issues I haven't come across any QC issues. I certainly would be miffed if I paid over 400 US dollars and got a pair where the perhaps the heel wasn't nailed on properly or the eyelets fell out or the stitching was completely out but unless you get something structural like that if it were only some loose stitching you can burn off or some wayward handmade stitching lines I'm okay with that. Setting in Australia and spending some people's weekly wage I'm not going to buy Truman boots every day but if I'm looking for my sturdy pair that will last me a long time I would truly give these a look would I buy them again? Yep I would. So there you go what did you think of my review? If you liked it show some love and click on like. Overall I like the sturdiness of these Truman boots. As a brand I like that they settle on one good design and then they vary it on different lasts change it up with different outsole combinations and use some very unique and interesting and rugged letters. To me the QC is good in that work booty handmade sense you know to me they're a good fit if not softly shock absorbing but what do you want? You know you can have sneaker like boots or you can have tough boots there's a place in the world for both. I actually don't have a totally bad thing to say about this pair that's it then go on click on like and subscribe I deserve it and keep an eye out for more boot reviews coming your way until then take care of yourselves and I'll see you soon