Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Kreosote Boots

BlueAltitudes

One of the Regulars
Messages
100
Location
California
LMAO, I'm sorry guys, I've been so tired lately that the math hasn't been mathing in my head. I meant 4-5 years and for some reason 24 months to the year made sense in my head! Hahaha, at least it made for some great replies and commenting here. Like above, "We'll be fighting the T1000 inside of 5" :)

Anyways, yeah, they are admittedly REALLY nice! However, the wait time is crazy. I love playing guitar, but I would never wait more than 2+ years for a custom build. That's ridiculous. At the point, you should expand operations, but I digress.
 

vividIT

New in Town
Messages
11
Meanwhile he does have time to do a collab with Field Leathers. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great project and I'm sure the jackets will look amazing. But even though they will only produce ten jackets, the time and effort that goes into the project could also be spend on making shoes for his customers who have been waiting for several years and counting.

View attachment 652794 View attachment 652795
I agree with your argument. The delays have become ridiculous. I ordered multiple pairs of boots in 2020 and 2021, fully understanding the timelines given at the time—13 months and 24 months respectively. Now, many of us are being told we won’t see our orders until 2025 or even 2026. That’s gone from a one-year wait to over four years. It genuinely feels like he doesn't care if things delayed because he got paid.

Whenever I check in for an update, I get what seems like a generic, pre-written email explaining how custom builds take time. Of course, we understand that custom work is time-consuming—it's why we were willing to wait. But we also paid for specific timelines, which are no longer being honored.

What’s particularly frustrating is seeing collaborations being announced while so many of us are still waiting on our orders. It leaves us wondering: why isn’t the focus on clearing the backlog instead?

We all understand that life happens, and delays can be unavoidable sometimes. But if the backlog has grown this severe, there need to be solutions—whether that’s working extra hours to catch up or offering customers the option of a refund.

I recently requested a refund on one because the wait time has far exceeded what I agreed to, but I’ve faced pushback there as well. This isn’t what I agreed to.

If it weren’t for Carl, I’d be questioning whether this is all a scam. Kind of regretting my decision.
 

Tom71

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,921
Location
Europe
I agree with your argument. The delays have become ridiculous. I ordered multiple pairs of boots in 2020 and 2021, fully understanding the timelines given at the time—13 months and 24 months respectively. Now, many of us are being told we won’t see our orders until 2025 or even 2026. That’s gone from a one-year wait to over four years. It genuinely feels like he doesn't care if things delayed because he got paid.

Whenever I check in for an update, I get what seems like a generic, pre-written email explaining how custom builds take time. Of course, we understand that custom work is time-consuming—it's why we were willing to wait. But we also paid for specific timelines, which are no longer being honored.

What’s particularly frustrating is seeing collaborations being announced while so many of us are still waiting on our orders. It leaves us wondering: why isn’t the focus on clearing the backlog instead?

We all understand that life happens, and delays can be unavoidable sometimes. But if the backlog has grown this severe, there need to be solutions—whether that’s working extra hours to catch up or offering customers the option of a refund.

I recently requested a refund on one because the wait time has far exceeded what I agreed to, but I’ve faced pushback there as well. This isn’t what I agreed to.

If it weren’t for Carl, I’d be questioning whether this is all a scam. Kind of regretting my decision.

I feel you. Ridiculous, but sadly far from unheard of.

As long as there is communication, I am super easy with the daily struggles of small-businesses. A lot of things can happen, and some of it is not in your control.
However, going AWOL or making generic excuses without giving you a chance to understand what’s going on is plainly rude.
To blow an expected delivery not by a few weeks but by years - well, I’d say this is ample reason for a refund or else an expensive litigation experience if the wrong type of customer is affected.
 

DogFacePonySoldier

Familiar Face
Messages
78
that’s sucks. I feel like you have to either be an ‘influencer’ with a voice so a maker will be on their p’s and q’s. Catch them early in their careers before they get swamped and ego because not giving a refund on one is bizarre if there is an another order. At least white kloud put a pause on his orders, I would respect it more if he did that. That’s a darn shame.
I recently requested a refund on one because the wait time has far exceeded what I agreed to, but I’ve faced pushback there as well. This isn’t what I agreed to.
 

MrProper

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,479
Location
Europe
Did you pay the full price in advance or "only" a deposit?
Because at full price I think it's a cheeky thing to do and to me it has the appearance of a snowball system. I suspect the last ones will never get their order. That's probably why there will be no refund. I'm sorry for you.
 

vividIT

New in Town
Messages
11
Did you pay the full price in advance or "only" a deposit?
Because at full price I think it's a cheeky thing to do and to me it has the appearance of a snowball system. I suspect the last ones will never get their order. That's probably why there will be no refund. I'm sorry for you.
Full price on couple of them. Every year his ETA gets pushed out to another year. 2026 is just ridiculous when I was supposed to have all of them by last year (2023). I would've went with Role Club or something. Kreosote's wait was 13 months at the time and Role Club was 24 months I believe, so I thought I was in a good spot. Nope.
 

vividIT

New in Town
Messages
11
I would definitely demand a refund more forcefully if there is "pushback". Straight up call him and demand your money back.
He's hard to get a hold of via phone also. If he's still working on 2020 orders and not done until 2025, and taking 30 boot orders per year, only completing 2 boots per month, he has, in my estimate, 120 boots to make as of today. In my opinion, there's no way people are going to get their boots in the 48 month wait time listed on his site.
 

vividIT

New in Town
Messages
11
IMO maybe a lawyer can get things moving. Do you have any friends or family in that field who could do you a favor?
I have an email from him dated 10/2023 that 16 builds were ahead of mine. We can do the math. Should be June or July if he is doing 2 - 2.5 builds per year if he builds 30-35/yr (per his website). Just received a new update last week (November), after checking in with him that my new schedule is 3/2025. That's 16 builds for 17 months!!! These are for 2020 purchases. He's NOT even building 30/yr or even 35/yr per his website.
 

Tom71

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,921
Location
Europe
Guys, as much as this info is relevant to the community, it’s now being discussed in three different threads at the same time (This one, the other thread titled “Kreosote” and the Field Leathers thread).
Triplication doesn’t add new information but rather makes access to the facts harder.
 

Aloysius

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,188
Guys, as much as this info is relevant to the community, it’s now being discussed in three different threads at the same time (This one, the other thread titled “Kreosote” and the Field Leathers thread).
Triplication doesn’t add new information but rather makes access to the facts harder.

Yeah I think there have even been cases where people are replying on the Field thread but in continuation of a point from one of these two Kreosote threads.
 

aztecasteve

One of the Regulars
Messages
153
This reminds me of WH Ranch dungarees. Not sure if anyone is/was familiar with them. It was a one-man brand and he had a wait list of years. Kept taking orders and wait times kept getting longer, now come to find out he switched professions, so who knows if those people who paid upfront even got their jeans made.
 

Biff42

Practically Family
Messages
528
I agree with your argument. The delays have become ridiculous. I ordered multiple pairs of boots in 2020 and 2021, fully understanding the timelines given at the time—13 months and 24 months respectively. Now, many of us are being told we won’t see our orders until 2025 or even 2026. That’s gone from a one-year wait to over four years. It genuinely feels like he doesn't care if things delayed because he got paid.

Whenever I check in for an update, I get what seems like a generic, pre-written email explaining how custom builds take time. Of course, we understand that custom work is time-consuming—it's why we were willing to wait. But we also paid for specific timelines, which are no longer being honored.

What’s particularly frustrating is seeing collaborations being announced while so many of us are still waiting on our orders. It leaves us wondering: why isn’t the focus on clearing the backlog instead?

We all understand that life happens, and delays can be unavoidable sometimes. But if the backlog has grown this severe, there need to be solutions—whether that’s working extra hours to catch up or offering customers the option of a refund.

I recently requested a refund on one because the wait time has far exceeded what I agreed to, but I’ve faced pushback there as well. This isn’t what I agreed to.

If it weren’t for Carl, I’d be questioning whether this is all a scam. Kind of regretting my decision.
Any update on your order?

I'm interested in the brand and saw on his site that he does 35 pairs yearly. His latest boot is going for $2550. $2550 X35 is roughly $90K gross profit in a year. I'm assuming he uses premium materials for the boots, runs a website, does other marketing, has tools/machines that need to be repaired/replaced, etc.

Maybe someone here with a good business acumen can break down how he makes any money doing this because I'm not seeing it. It would be more profitable to work a regular 9-5 and do this in his spare time.

Maybe that's what he does?
 

bigmanbigtruck

A-List Customer
Messages
395
Maybe someone here with a good business acumen can break down how he makes any money doing this because I'm not seeing it. It would be more profitable to work a regular 9-5 and do this in his spare time.
I don’t see it either.

I'm not a business man myself... but the 90K is more like revenue rather than gross profit (nothing has been expensed out yet). I don't know enough about manufacturing heritage boots to know the costs involved - but unless it's a brand that operates at scale like Red Wings, I doubt niche operators like Kreosote are able to get enough of a margin where they can go full-time.

I don't get the impression that he's making serious $$$$ and intends to scam his customers/followers. There’s much easier ways to do that like coming up with a catch phrase (*cough* Hawk Tuah *cough*) and launching your own crypto

Strikes me more as someone who is passionate about making boots, has gotten in over his head and unable to run an efficient business, is struggling to keep the lights on and is desperately accepting more and more orders and collabs for down the line to fund his current operating expenses. That's probably why he can't even refund anybody... the money's gone.

That's just my opinion - and that's without factoring any personal struggles he may have which we all go through sometimes.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
109,894
Messages
3,089,811
Members
54,621
Latest member
sasha112
Top