Docs or thrift boots

[Mattypnx]

I'm doing some hitching and train hopping through the desert and beyond. I don't know if I should take my 14 eye black docs or these military type hiking boots I got at thrift store. My freind says my docs are unpractical but they're comfortable and everything I'm not sure I need advice. Do docs hold up with that much walking and shit? Are 14 eyes unpractical?

 

[Jimmy Beans]

Do docs hold up with that much walking and shit?

I've had my docs since 2004, yeah 14 years they're still going strong. In that time I was a switchman walking all day in the railyards on ballast rock. I was a brakeman on locals, walking on ballast rock and all kinds of fucked up debris back in the industrial leads. I walked trains as a conductor, climbed up and down ladders to tie and untie handbrakes. Mostly just sat on my ass in my docs as an engineer but then I started hopping freight and I wore my docs for thousands of miles that way as well. I can't say a single bad thing about my docs but what I do know is not all docs are made the same. If yours are the old school ones made in England, you're good to go. If you got those newer ones, I wouldn't count on em.

 

[Mattypnx]

I've had my docs since 2004

After 2003 they started to be made in Thailand so no I don't have the old school England 14 eyes unfortunately. But the new ones they do alright you know I have a pair that I've had for 7 years the souls are worn but that's all. I'm also kind of worried about the heat and getting too hot in the Arizona and California desert in black docs

 

[Mattypnx]

Comfort is Key.

That's what I think I'm just not too confident in just taking those military boots not really knowing if there that comfortable or not. I know I can walk miles and miles in docs. Just kind of worried about the heat and the lack of ventilation in the docs.

 

[Jimmy Beans]

lack of ventilation in the docs

Mine are a size too big and steel toe so I think there's a lot of extra breathing room in them. Never really had too much trouble with ventilation other than the time I slept with them on all night after a whole lot of walking.

 

[Rufiodies]

Take the docs. Those military boots look like they'll ruin your feet.

 

[Mattypnx]

Take the docs. Those military boots look like they'll ruin your feet.

I feel like I can't trust anything but docs plus how punk rock am I really if I don't take my docs on trains

 

[Rufiodies]

Comfort/utility over fashion, but If you want to be hardcore and punk rock and uncomfortable fuck yeah do it to it.

Either your feet will adapt or they wont.

I'm flat footed and I've sprained my ankles so many times, I can't afford to look cool.

 

[Mattypnx]

Yea I was joking those docs are the best and most comfortable boots I have

Comfort/utility over fashion, but If you want to be hardcore and punk rock and uncomfortable fuck yeah do it to it.

Either your feet will adapt or they wont.

I'm flat footed and I've sprained my ankles so many times, I can't afford to look cool.

 

[Mattypnx]

Im gonna go to the army surpluss see if they have anything for cheap but if I can't find anything better and like cheap as fuck guess I'll go with the docs

 

[Rufiodies]

I have those 30 dollar boots from Walmart and they're great for like 6 months. Composite toe and everything.

 

[Rufiodies]

LOL i realize I had it backwards, Those docs look like they'll ruin your feet. The military boots look much more comfortable.

I thought the military boots were docs, and the docs were like a set of paratrooper cocorans or something.

For some reason I read Docs and thought Timbs, I saw the brown in the thumbnail and figured they were some set of timbs work boots or something

 

[creature]

ok.. i dinna think i would be posting up again, for a while, but you're posting up about goddamned fucking linesman boots vs. desert boots, so i have absolutely no choice but to chime in & tell you what the reality is about what you are actually going to do with your lower legs, ankles & feet..

i have been wearing +14" boots for decades, *never* wear anything less than 8" for work or serious exploration, when i can afford them.
don't even get me started about where i drag my ass t, to get my shit done.
in any case;

#1.. note the 'military' boots are *bonded* to the sole, NOT fucking stitched.
discard them, unless they are, by sheer fucking grace, Bates.. & even *then*, fuck 'em, if you can get Bates, stitched.. but, i repeat ****FUCK*** any bonded soles if you are going to be doing shit, for months on end, that you are doing, when you treat your feet the way you would *like* to treat them, if they were indestructible & felt no pain..
bonded soles don't cut it.

#1A.. watch out for fake stitched soles..
little rubber stitch humps that at a *glance* look like corded thread, but are actually one of the worst fucking instances of false appearances that manufacturers use to shit upon us with.
if you see fake stitches, don't even buy them *used*, unless you're just going to be doing minor crap with them.

other folks may have other knowledge and/or experience, but once *any* fucking adhesive starts to delaminate, you are pretty well much just fucked.

-also.. laminated soles are seldom repaired to *anything* like their original condition, so no matter *how well* the upper is designed or built (& yes, there can be a huge difference), such as having large tooth composite zippers, multi-layer kevlar/gortex/woven interiors, composite toes, and/or composite shanks (not to mention that steel is perfectly good, if the weight isn't a factor)..
-all those great things in an upper mean shit, if the sole is shit..

-which is not *exactly* an inverse, where the sole is great, but the upper sucks or is meh..

so, #... 1C, i guess.. what makes a good sole??

not all vibram is equal.
vibram is a brand name, not a single material specification, and although *any* (synthetic) vibram sole on a heavy load boot will indicate a reasonable life expectancy, make sure you are aware of *whatever* material your sole is made of..
DO NOT EVER, EVER, EV ER EVER use gum rubber soles for long term application..
gum rubber is probably the VERY, VERY, VERRRRRYYYY ****BEST**** material you could ask for, at any given moment, on the tread of your sole.
the problem is, it wears out super quick..
out in the woods, doing my shit, i would be amazed if i got a fucking *week* out of 1/2" gum rubber soles..

in that week, however, i would be (was) absolutely astounded by how fucking spidermanish those fucking things were..

a great material..

nothing you want for anything other than comfort walking, though, or controlled texture surfaces.

if you need to escape cops on the rails for a week or so, and your ankles can go to hell, since i've never seen gum rubber in anything other than lowcuts,
fuck yeah, toss me those rubbers for a week or so..
i'll climb a goddamned vertical wall with them..

just so long as they don't wear out on me while i'm fucking climbing..

so.. #1C.. soles.. grog your fucking material...

#2, uppers..
the 5 main things about uppers, in descending hierarchy of design factor vs. final form (with cost being the final constraint) are:
-A: purpose
-B: geometry
C: features
-AD: construction
-AE: materials
the permutations are infinite, really, just like goddamned feet, but AD & AE are actually perhaps more important than any others, since the living foot can compensate more readily for application than it can for the failure of construction or materials.
your shoes, after all, are just cars for your feet, right?
maybe you have to drive a 19' truck where you could have gotten away with a 7' smart car, but what good is either if a wheel falls off or the windshield melts?

so.. dragging this thing to the point of hoping to keep you from making *too* many bad decisions, when you don't actually have the luxury to experiment, i will tell you about *my* fucking feet & my fucking uppers & what the fuck i have needed them to do vs. what i had actually hoped to get away with vs. what i actually needed to do..
-remember, i've *already dealt with soles, so, having had more sake', WTF was i talking about..??

right.. right..

.. you have a 6"/8" (?) mil boot vs. ~14" pseudo linesman boot, so i'll try & constrain (at first) my design considerationd as pertain to geometry & features, construction & materials are only demonstrable throug actual use..

design.. design is how well the boot will do what you want it to do, without substantial failure.

a good boot does two things, at least:
it protects & it facilitates.

Otherwise, if it does not, be as @Caveman118 , & live with nothing between what you are & what is given to you..
Feet on the ground, son, if your balls ever get that big..

& they may fucking kill you, too..

so.. you put leather down..

why?

to protect & facilitate..
why do we need protection & facilitation?

a shoe is a prosthetic.. boot or whatever you call it ..
false teeth, glove, augmentation, hearing aid, eyeglasses, whatever...

to help us do more than we can do before we feel pain or otherwise meet an insurmountable inability.

a shoe is, ideally, a machine..

a car for our fucking feet..

i had a pair of docs, a million years ago..
the soles were *great*, soft gummers that they were, but the fuckers were *bonded*, & died like all fucking hell, fast.. they might have been knock-offs, from what i read..
definitely not constructed like yours..

your puppies are sewn, & should last like all hell, from what i hear..

ANYWAYS...

i will digress, before to long, into the 'feature' relm of consideration, vs what you will be wearing

just remember, if you have gotten this far..

if you carry a second pair of footwear, less durable, but contemplated under the same design constraints, as how far as you actuallu need to keep them?
shit.. if you can carry some 6 oz swimming pr house slips, while thumbing?

hell yeah..

my fucking keyboard is dying..

 

[creature]

Remember.. you do NOT have to use all 14 eyelets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just string the fuckers to where they feel most comfortable..

start with the assumption to skip every other set of eyelets, then adjust to comfort..
mine are single eyelet up to the fibula, then *every other* above (tibula, etc.)

makes for hella fast delacing & less compression on the lower arteries..

anyways..

blah blah b;lah., bro..

c

 

[Rufiodies]

Whats your favorite lace pattern? I like the ladder lace for boots with tons of eyelets

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ladderlacing.htm

 

[Mattypnx]

I appreciate all the shoe science man. I think I absorbed most of that so these bullshit military thrift boots are shit I guess like I thought. So I think what you were getting at is the doc Martin 14 eyes are better to wear

Remember.. you do NOT have to use all 14 eyelets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just string the fuckers to where they feel most comfortable..

start with the assumption to skip every other set of eyelets, then adjust to comfort..
mine are single eyelet up to the fibula, then *every other* above (tibula, etc.)

makes for hella fast delacing & less compression on the lower arteries..

anyways..

blah blah b;lah., bro..

c

 

[Mattypnx]

I just straight lace the old school way so you end up with one end to wrap around. I used to straight lace the way so you end up with two ends but you can't pull them as tight like that. But that method looks cool!

Whats your favorite lace pattern? I like the ladder lace for boots with tons of eyelets

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ladderlacing.htm

 

[Rufiodies]

I like the ladder lace cause it's really fucking tight and doesn't come loose easy. Issue is taking on and off but for hopping I don't think that's really an issue.

 

[Mattypnx]

Yeah forsure straight lacing is the way to go

I like the ladder lace cause it's really fucking tight and doesn't come loose easy. Issue is taking on and off but for hopping I don't think that's really an issue.

 

[Art101]

Ive rode in both Docs and milspec boots.I will stick with milspec.They work best for me.My current boots are gortex and super comfortable and flexible.They are a good all round boot if im 4x4 in the jeep or hopping and pounding ballast.