Red Wing Iron Rangers. Five hard years and still kicking it.
Posted Sep 20, 2017, 5:57 AM UTC
11549
They look brand new. I bet you never wear them!
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/s
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Are you an actual coal miner?
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I think they look awesome broken in like that
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Thanks!
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Can someone link to a video of how best to take care of boots like this?
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Red Wing youtube has some good videos
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Red Wing youtube has some good videos
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Original soles still on there?
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Yeap, original soles.
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DAE Kicking it?!?! Updarntoughs to the left.
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I wish my 7 year old pair looked this good but I'm a pussy and I never wear them.
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At what point do they start to get comfortable? Had mine for almost a year. Stopped wearing them because it hurts...
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Took me at least 6 months to break mine in. Couldn’t believe it myself having owned boots before...
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Red Wings are amazing. My dad bought a pair in 1988 a year before I was born. He gave them to me when I was 14 and I still have them and have worn them to several jobs that required steel toed boots. Only had to replace the in-soles and shoestrings.
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[deleted]
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It feels like forever
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I don't get it - why did you decide to neglect your $300 shoes?
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Because they're mine.
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Ohhhhh. Do you hate them?
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No, I've quite enjoyed wearing them everyday for the last five years, they've done well by me. In fact I'm wearing them right now.
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Daily for 5 years original soles? Fuck off.
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Clean em up, add sno-seal and those bad boys will look new again
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Nothing will un-crack that leather. Funny part is, at the very least, OP could’ve taken them to a Red Wing store and they would oil them for him. For free. Every week, if he wanted.
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Boots are meant to be dirty! Stop cleaning the dam things
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Toilets are meant to be shat in! Stop cleaning the dam things
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[deleted]
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How well do they support your feet? Do they have room for orthotic inserts? How's the toe box compare to their king box design? How do they handle non-porous wet surfaces (tile, marble, etc)? How about porous wet surfaces (asphalt, cement, etc)?
I've heard so many good things about the Heritage line, but the styling looks kind of snug or otherwise uncomfortable.
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They support my feet very well and I find them very comfortable. I'm not sure about room for inserts, I've never tried to put any in there. As for surfaces you may have an issue with traction on slick surfaces because the soles are slick as well.
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Jesus Christ .. NSFW this post r/shoegore. If you took better care of them they would be BIFL but looking at how fucked up these things there are is no way they will make it another 5 years. Creases are expected but you have straight up cracks like canyons splitting the leather.
I know I didn't take care of them like I probably should have but this post is mainly just poking fun at the other guys pair of boots that looked fresh out of the box. These boots didn't hang on any cedar trees during their off seasons, they don't have an off season. I've worn these boots literally every single day for the last five years, and not only on smooth tile and asphalt. Yet again I'm just poking a bit of fun at the other guy and you're all right, I could have taken better care of them but I think they've held up well for what they've been through.
For the love of Christ, oil them. Lol.
There are a number of adages about the quality of a person being related to how well they care for their shoes.
Why the fuck are you going to spend $300 on a pair of boots if you can't even be bothered to wipe them down and oil them even just once a month?
$300 for boots I can wear literally everyday in any weather condition or situation for five years straight. If it's raining, snowing, flooding, I've got my boots on and I'm ready to go. If I need to clean a stall or dig a ditch after getting out of class or off work I'm good to go. If I wanna go downtown I wipe them down and I'm good to go. And also because it was my $300 to spend. Fuck you for calling me a shitty person because my boots are worn.
That was my first thought, jfc that leather is so dry. It's not a crime to clean and maintain your shoes.
Exactly. People in this sub have Red Wings that are 50+ years old. With regular care and avoiding serious damage there is no reason why they should not last a legitimate lifetime.
To play devil's advocate, how much time/$ is spent maintaining the shoes to get them to last twice as long? Might that time/$ be better spent on a new pair X number of years in?
I concede that taking care of potential BIFL shoes is likely the smart move, but it's worth a thought.
Leather conditioner keep the material healthy and looking beautiful, and you only really need to condition them once every 3-4 months or so. It takes all of 10 minutes to take the laces off, wipe the shoes with a dry cloth to remove dirt, put a tiny dab of Lexol on a cloth and just do one thin coat. A quart of leather conditioner would probably go bad before you went through it all and they're only like $12.
Now if you wanted to resole the boots, you're looking at anywhere between $40 - $100 depending on where you get it done and what you get done. The cork soles on the Iron Rangers are decent, but not flawless. They should last the average person 2-5 years I would guess. I've had mine for 3 years and as soon as the jeans come out, the boots come out, but I don't wear them in the summer.
But you have to consider that resoling the boots is part of why people purchase Red Wings in the first place. Once you break that stiff leather in Iron Rangers feel like you are wearing a silken dress sock and there's a bit incentive to keep wearing these boots that you have broken in to fit your feet specifically.
So you're looking at spending $300 on a pair of boots every 5 years and having them look and feel like shit - OR - Taking 10 minutes and like 15 cents every few months to just wipe them down with some conditioner, and just replacing the soles every few years as needed.
Definitely more frugal to just take care of them.
I work at a Red Wing store and the oldest pair we have seen is a 82 year old pair of postman oxfords. Shit lasts if you take care of them.
yeah these look like shit
BIF10Y