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Engineer Boots, Harness Boots...

bn1966

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3,108
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Basically just forget the whole "my heel shouldn't move" that you would want in laced shoes! If your heel wasn't able to move in slip on boots, you would not be able to slip them on.
On a new pair of boots, I want to be able to move my foot back and forth a little bit, maybe a bit less than 1/2" (if i push my foot forward as far as it goes i want around a finger between heel and heel cup), and i want to be able to lift my heel 1" inside the boot when holding the back of the sole to the ground with the arch of my other foot.

The real break in for a boot is IMO the sole. New boots have rigid flat soles, which will cause your heel to move all over the place.
As the boots break in the sole will round and soften and the boot will start to follow your foot and stay on your heel. Heel lift will mostly disappear with wear.


If you go too small, and try to have no heel movement from the start you are setting yourself up for blisters and pain.




Those are the RedWing Chukka boots, they come in many combination of leathers and soles. Just FYI from experience Red Wing shoes size 1/2 smaller than red wing boots.

Thanks Carlos, really useful...appreciate you taking the time to explain :)
 
Messages
16,798
Basically just forget the whole "my heel shouldn't move" that you would want in laced shoes! If your heel wasn't able to move in slip on boots, you would not be able to slip them on.
On a new pair of boots, I want to be able to move my foot back and forth a little bit, maybe a bit less than 1/2" (if i push my foot forward as far as it goes i want around a finger between heel and heel cup), and i want to be able to lift my heel 1" inside the boot when holding the back of the sole to the ground with the arch of my other foot.

The real break in for a boot is IMO the sole. New boots have rigid flat soles, which will cause your heel to move all over the place.
As the boots break in the sole will round and soften and the boot will start to follow your foot and stay on your heel. Heel lift will mostly disappear with wear.


If you go too small, and try to have no heel movement from the start you are setting yourself up for blisters and pain.

Huh, I may have been going the wrong way about it the whole time... 'cause that's exactly what everyone ever would tell me when I was buying 'em, how they shouldn't be "too big" and fit nice and tight so that they would "break in" properly. Which in all honesty I did suspect to be wrong but haven't really had a chance to put my theories to a test as I didn't felt like experimenting with something that costs so much. So I'd always listen to the "experts". I never even got a chance to break any of these things in as I would ruin them way before they started looking like those cool boots on the photos online. Like, they'd literally start falling apart, even the premium ones. And I always took great care of them.

I definitely do prefer a larger shoe of any kind but... I don't know. I'll gonna try with one more pair, I guess. I really love those boots but you know something's not right when at the end of the day, all you're thinking about is taking the damn things off.

Thanks for this, Carlos! I really appreciate the advice! :D
 

Americanaaa Mark

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