Howdy, guys and gals! I'm Kyle Broderick; welcome to the Social Regressive and
Wardrobe Wednesday, which is going to be a rare look at clothing. Anybody that
knows me knows that clothing and I have a bit of antipathy going on. I'd be a
nudist if it wasn't for other nudists... and the fact that there's winter. What
we're gonna take a look at today are boots. These two boots take care of
everything that I need throughout the year. We're going to have a cold weather
pair over here with a little bit of insulation and then over here we have
warm weather boots. I live in Oklahoma, where temperatures are not stable - they
can actually drop 50 degrees in one hour. We call that a blue norther coming down
from Canada, just kind of sweeps over the plain, and yeah, it can drop everything
pretty drastically and very quickly. But for the most part we do have a
very large spread of temperature differences. We have up into the
hundred degrees plus Fahrenheit during summer - and that can hover up there for a
good long while - and then on the cold side we're definitely a little colder
than Texas at least, so you know we can get down definitely below freezing for
certain periods. We all lose our minds when it gets down to about zero or
negative those very rare occasions, but these two boots are going to take care
of everything that I need in that range. So we're going to take a close look at
both of these. Let's start with the summer boot. This is the Tru Spec
side-zip boot; I'll annotate the actual name model and I'll put a link down in
the description below to where you can actually buy these. These have proven to
be excellent over the year that I've been testing them. You can see that they
do have a bit of wear on them. I have taken them out in all kinds of
conditions and I've been very shocked at their performance. I'm used to Tru Spec
working very well, but these actually performed a bit better than advertised.
Right here you can see that they have a very chunky grip to them. You can
see that there are big notches through here for walking on mud, sand, all kinds
of things. You're going to be able to get plenty of traction. One of the things
that I've been very unhappy about with certain boots
that I've gotten is I'll have a maybe a hiking boot that fits really really well
and has great traction so it seems in the dry and then when the going gets wet
for some reason whatever material that these are made out of will slip on wet
rocks and then some of these will perform very well in those conditions
and I just have to kind of find out after the fact which boots are which and
these are definitely ones that grip very well whatever this material is it seems
to grip excellently on all surfaces I've taken these out hunting I've taken them
out hiking and yeah so far I have yet to find a surface that it does not like I
prefer a boot that fits mostly like a sneaker I want it to be able to snow
down around my foot pretty tightly so that I don't get a lot of movement and
pick up a lot of blisters that way and I like it to have just a certain amount of
rigidity in here and a certain amount of flexibility who knows how you can
quantify that but yeah this is definitely hitting that that sweet spot
that I like this has an Eevee a midsole running through here for comfort so you
get some a little bit of squish when you're stepping down it's not like
you're walking directly on rocks or whatever there is a shank running
through here as well I'm not sure what that shank is made of but it provides
just that little extra bit of support so when you're especially dealing with
heavy weight or whatever this boot is not going to be really floppy like a lot
of the sneakers that you have it's going to provide a bit more support and
rigidity throughout the whole structure but then it also has enough flexibility
that again it's not like you're walking around with a big thick piece of rubber
strapped to your foot this is very comfortable and yeah that evie a midsole
does provide that little bit of squish the fast laced system that you see right
here seems to do a pretty good job of holding whatever tension you want on
various parts of your foot a lot of time I like to put a little bit of extra
tension at various points in order to get that best fit for example I like to
usually put a little bit extra right here
that it kind of pulls my foot down and pulls my heel down into the bottom here
so I don't get a lot of play and maybe I'll loosen things up a little bit here
maybe loosen things up a little bit here and these laces do seem to stay put
pretty well and once you do get this lock down the way that you want it then
all you have to do is just use the side zip in the future and this zipper seems
to be very well built I've been testing these boots for about a year now I've
never had this YKK zipper come off the rails or anything even when I'm tugging
on this pretty good it seems to stay put very well I've been extremely pleased
with that and then to protect the zipper when it's in its uppermost position you
do have this little velcro tab you can pull across here it's going to help
support the zipper maybe keep it from bursting under extreme loads or whatever
and it's also going to kind of protect this and keep it from knocking around so
it doesn't make any noise a very very well thought out so that just pops off
with velcro on the inside we have a pretty interesting kind of mesh material
here on the inside it seems to breathe very well it's going to wick away the
moisture that's what we're all looking for and it's going to dry very quickly
if you do get these wet down at the bottom you can see the inner sole right
there and that is it dip provides that just a little bit of extra comfort down
there and these do pop out quite easily if you need to dry them or swap them
over to something else now the boot overall I would say
compared to some of the other ones that I've had in the past some of my hikers
or these Redheads over here these are a little bit vacuous on the inside
especially around the toes right here you can see that I have these pulled in
pretty tightly right now these are just about maxed out not quite but there is
quite a bit of wiggle room if I'm using a thinner sock like this one and that's
going to be good I guess for keeping things dry but this is one where there's
a little bit too much play it I want to be able to backpack or
whatever so I might choose a bit of a thicker sock like these I believe these
are Redheads right here these are wool I think these are a merino wool blend and
these have worked out really well with these it just kind of fills up that
interior a little bit and keeps my toes from moving around too much if you have
kind of a larger foot little puffier foot
I think these boots are gonna do really well for you if you have maybe a slimmer
foot you might want to go for a little bit thicker sock one facet of these
boots that surprised me is their waterproofness this boot is not even
listed as being waterproof at all yet it seems to do a very good job of
deflecting water like say if you have a lot of dew on the grass sometimes boots
even like this one will be very susceptible to that kind of direct
splashing water on the fabric and it'll still make it through these they seem to
do a very good job of deflecting water even like through kind of low puddles I
was expecting water to just rush into these and rush out like you want from a
good summer boot or at least I do in general if it's warm here in Oklahoma I
don't want to be wandering around in a waterproof boot it's going to feel
terrible it's like a little spa inside the shoe it's like a hot tub in there it
just gets hot and moist and it just feels terrible I want one that water can
go in go out but these despite that you know it actually it does get water out
of there really well but it also seems to prevent water from coming in again I
that's not something that they're advertising on this boot but it seems to
work out anyway even here in the zipper area where you get just this little kind
of flap right here this little gusset I'm not exactly sure what you would call
this but yeah it seems like water doesn't really want to get into this
boot all that much and I've been very pleasantly surprised with it as you
might expect from a duty boot these come in tan and black and I opted for the tan
for a couple different reasons first off this is going to be a very nice
camouflage whether I'm in the or out in the sand or out in the woods
these are going to blend in really well and I won't have to worry about black
boots sticking out from under camouflage everything else and then also we're
going to get a lot of light reflected off of these instead of absorbed out
here in Oklahoma we have a lot of direct blistering sunlight and the feet can get
very uncomfortable so yeah Tan was definitely the best choice I've been
very pleased with how these perform when it gets really warm out in summer now
let's move over to the winter boot these are the Redhead Voyager 2 so these are
boots that you're going to be able to find at your local Bass Pro Shop and of
course you can order online I'll put links down below
I believe the Voyager 2 is still being made we'll let the check on that if not
they're going to have a model that's very very similar to this and speaking
of similar models you're going to find a bunch of Bass Pro that look a lot like
the boot that I'm showing you right here they're going to have kind of a full toe
cap they're going to have some kind of waterproof material and these are really
designed for hunting however there are some differences between some of the
different models I originally bought a more expensive pair that had a true
Gore-Tex liner in here and they had kind of a terrible problem with the the
inside right here the material that you see right down in here is a nice kind of
slick material so that the sock is going to slide against this if there's any
play any kind of movement and it's not going to transfer that heat into your
foot and make blisters the gore-tex model on the other hand and I can't
remember the name of it it had a material right here that would grab the
sock almost like velcro and then your sock would basically tear the skin off
your foot it was awful I had them for about a year
I returned them thankfully Bass Pro is pretty good about returns and they they
gave me my money back pretty nice and I got these instead and I have been very
happy with them ever since I've had these for about four or five years now I
think this is actually going on my fifth year and these have performed really
well in all kinds of situations of these are going to be great for your
cold weather these are designed for hunting so they have 600 grams of
Thinsulate inside here that's going to be quite nice when you're sitting out in
the cold this is not the thickest Thinsulate that
you can get for many of their models they have a 1200 gram I believe that's
going to be better if you have to sit still for long periods of time in a tree
stand and these are going to be more of a compromise these will feel better when
you're taking a long hike out to your deer or dragging that deer back and then
maybe not quite so insulated when it comes time to just sit and let the cold
kind of creep in but these are ones that I've actually taken out on some pretty
long hikes even in warmer weather and they have performed very well the
waterproofing material like I said it's not gore-tex this is their kind of house
brand bone-dry and whatever material they found it seems to do a very good
job yes maybe it's not as breathable as gore-tex this is going to hold in some
of that moisture that your own foot develops as you're hiking around so it
can get a little bit kind of steamy on the inside and you have to watch for
blisters that way but the boot itself it does breathe and it wants to just by its
very fit it wants to prevent any kind of foot damage it's just built overall for
extreme comfort they did a great job with this it fits my own foot very well
so let's take a look at some of the other bits here we do have the grip here
at the bottom this seems to be a very durable and very grippy rubber you can
see that we have large channels here that are going to perform really well in
mud I've taken these through mud through deep water cold water warm all kinds of
things I've had these on sand and in every situation this has performed just
flawlessly it's just wonderful back here at the back there used to be more
material it was almost like these these kind of feelers on the back that when
you had stepped down you would get this little bit of extra squish
so that if you're walking through the woods you don't get a big thunk when you
step down on a rock or a log or anything like that this would really kind of roll
the heel very nicely and just press down neatly into the grass to keep your step
both smooth and quiet it's comfortable on the foot comfortable on the ears and
it's not gonna spook your game quite so much you can see that we still have all
kinds of mud in here from some past excursions back here on the back this is
wearing off you can see that it's kind of peeling out but like I say after four
and going on five years now you really can't expect better performance in this
these are doing really really well for comfort you have an Eevee a midsole
running right through here these this does provide quite a lot of comfort and
again this strikes a good balance between the flexibility that you want
just for overall comfort when walking long distances and providing that extra
bit of rigidity there there must be some kind of shank running through here
that's a bit more rigid than the tru-spec and this is one that I've taken
out on some very long hikes backpacking trips and I've been very very pleased
with it with all this proven performance in mind I heartily recommend either of
these boots separately or if you want that whole year system yeah these will
work out really well in concert and maybe as we get to the end of the
lifecycle for these I can provide a little bit more information out there if
you are interested in the Redhead boots the Voyager to go check out the Bass Pro
catalogue go to the website I believe that these are still being sold Bass Pro
is a little bit slower to cycle out older models and bring in the new ones I
know that a lot of the time with like the sneakers you know maybe Nike and
Adidas or whatever you finally find a shoe that you like it has a good fit and
then by the time they've worn out they've gone ahead and just thrown out
everything and you can't find anywhere like that shoe anymore but I think the
Voyager 2 is still for sale if not they're going to have one with a very
similar construction and it's probably going to have a very similar feel make
sure that you subscribe like hit the notification bell we're gonna
new videos coming out in Wardrobe Wednesday to discuss pants we're gonna
talk about shirts we're gonna talk about hats some that I've found to be very
durable very comfortable very functional especially out in the field and some of
them that I just wear around everywhere just because they're kind of awesome
thanks to patrons of the destructive arts for continuing to keep the lights
on around here and keep our project rifles coming Thank You patrons of the
destructive arts especially Thank You Sportsman's Guide at the 338 Lapua Magnum
level and Peter at the 300 Win Mag level I'm gonna see all you guys around thanks
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