15December 2021
total war patterned by the Nazis for
all Europe comes at last to Germany how good were the boots worn by U.S troops in
world war ii we're gonna find out by taking this actual boot made for world war ii cutting it in
half and see how it's built how it's constructed because to me I assumed that for world war
ii it probably you know it's 80 years ago they were in a there was a leather shortage
metal shortages labor shortages I assumed it was a pretty terrible boot that the troops out there
were wearing so I'm really interested this is one of the more exciting videos I've ever done because
I'm really interested to see what's inside of this boot so it's the last call for the clumps t-shirt
it's a limited edition we're only going to print them once and they the sale or the pre-order ends
tonight so if you want one of those comps t-shirts links in the description oh and more
importantly I think I gotta go grab the boots my first boots are dropping on July 10th we're
only doing 500 pairs be sure to get on the email list in the description because I'm going to send
a series of emails with all the boot information how to get size and everything you need to know
to jump on the order as soon as it goes live so that you don't miss your opportunity if you
want a pair of these because I'm really excited and uh wait till you see the apparatus we're
going to use to cut these in half it's going to be fun so now back to the world war two but boots
butts now let's go over the boot information so the brand is the brown shoe company and they
were not the only company making and manufacturing this exact boot in the united states there were
several different companies contracted out by the government to make this boot for the troops
the style is the m1943 and that name is more for the entire uniform worn and revamped by the
us government for the later stages of the wars and it's interesting that this boot actually
stayed in production and was the standard issue boot up until 1952 during the Korean war when they
revamped it the color of this boot was originally kind of a tan color it was really similar to the
mule skinner leather by red wing but it came with a little dub and wax and they recommended you put
it up put on the boots to make it more waterproof more wear resistant and condition them so they
ended up looking a lot darker you can see how dark it is in some of these spots they weigh two pounds
five ounces and I got these boots for 178 dollars I have no idea how much they would have retailed
for that time but looking at ads from that era most boots like this cost anywhere from four
dollars to eight dollars so that's probably around how much they cost back then and these were made
in St.
Louis Missouri USA and these particular boots if you look on the cuff here on the inside
they were made in 1944 on April 12th which is really cool this stamp still exists with all the
information and the sizing stamped into it it's a really cool piece of history now let's go over the
information we can gather about this boot before we cut it in half starting with the leather so
this is a rough out full grain leather if you look on the inside you can see the grain on the smooth
grain on the inside and they did the rough out for the the reason most people do it's more abrasion
resistant but an interesting thing we dug up in the research is they a part of the reason they did
the rough out was because rough out absorbs oils and it absorbs the dub and wax that they sent with
these boots so it was easier to waterproof these boots than if it were grain side out the smooth
side of the the leather out and this leather is a veg re-tan which basically means it was originally
tanned as a chrome tan but then finished tanning in a vegetable tanning compounds and this allows
you to have the best of both worlds and for a fast production they needed the speed and the
durability of a chrome tanning production but they probably wanted some of the properties and the
natural elements of the veg tanning process to to finish it up so that nobody had allergic reactions
to it and when you got really hot and sweaty for days on end they don't have any weird reactions
to the chromium salt to use and then the cuff you know you see this in military boots phone i never
really knew what they're for but the standard issue boot setup before this was a was a normal
boot but you had these these canvas leggings or almost gators that covered the area from where the
boot met your pants to prevent water and debris from getting inside of your boots and so with this
revamped version they basically integrated a gator into the boot then to the construction so this
is a Goodyear welted boot you can tell that by the way the upper is tucked underneath and you've
got this row of stitching that's on a separate piece of leather called the welt that connects the
upper to the midsole and outsole the boot this is only a 270 degree well which means that well
stitch starts at the hill wraps around the toe the toe and finishes at the heel and the heel is
all nailed together where the leather is wrapped the nails hold it together but what I thought was
interesting is you've got nails going up the arch of the boot and also around the toe of the boot
in a very similar way to how nicks actually this shameless plug my own boot mix does their screws
in the toe and around the side of the boot and you can see the only place this has really failed
after 80 years is right where there's no nails holding that outsole onto the midsole then
underneath the sock liner and the rest of the insole is just a really thick layer of veg
tan and which is kind of what we see in these higher quality boots with the nicks and the red
wings is a full veg tan insole then if we look at the midsole this midsole layer is probably
the thickest leather midsole I've ever seen on a boot you know it's even thicker than the Nicks
boots it's it's so thick where's my caliper it's over a quarter inch thick slab of leather these
leather midsoles are really nice because it gives you an extra layer to compress and give you that
footprint inside of your boot and it also offers some more stability and more wear resistance you
know you're not going to feel the ground as much with that thick slab of veg stand in there
finally to the outsole so this is a bf Goodrich outsole which which is kind of
an interesting thing with the history of outsoles and rubber you know 80 years ago a lot
of the people that made the outsoles were the same companies making tires like bf Goodrich because
they were the only facilities that had enough capacity to pump out tons of outsoles and had
access to the rubber compounds and had the technology to make outsoles so it's interesting
on these vintage boots especially the war era ones that these big tire companies were making outsoles
I don't know what I expected to see on a world war 2 boot but I thought for sure there'd be some
lugs on this thing because I just can't imagine storming anything in a dressier
style it almost is it's like the same style of outsole as like a v-bar a Vibram
that most people consider like more casual slash dress outsole and imagine storming
Germany with this outsole on like I just can't imagine it gives you too much grip so I really
expected to see a heavier lug for a standard issue military boot but that's just it just goes
to show you how different things were back then when it comes to boot technology and what people
expected from boots because I'm sure this was even an upgrade from a leather outsole which
most people were wearing back then the thing I actually love the look of this boot it's a
surprisingly beautiful boot for an 80 year old war boot I think it's pretty beautiful so that
being said let's cut this beautiful thing in half this might be the stinkiest boot I've
ever cut in half this whole room smells horrible but let's see what's inside of it this boot is so different than what i
thought it was going to be this boot is better than 99 of the boots out there it's really
well built it's it's it probably cost four dollars 80 years ago but today if you if someone made
this boot in America with all these materials you'd be somewhere in that 400 to 500 price range
you know it's it's great and i don't think that's not all because of inflation a lot of it's because
it was back then there was a tannery in every big city there's cobblers on every street corner and a
lot of the boots that people wore during that time were high quality made in America by Americans and
so back then you you didn't have the specialized people like Nicks making high quality boots lots
of people were making high quality boots and back then there was so much so much leather being
produced and so many so many people making boots that it drove the price of the boots down so
you got a lot higher quality boot for a lot better price and granted this is a heritage boot
being compared to more heritage style modern boots and we're not comparing them to the standard
issue boots now and this world war ii boot has everything good about the iron rangers plus a
couple other even better attributes that you see in like Nicks boots or these higher quality boots
the biggest one is that leather midsole these iron rangers and most uh 300 price range boots don't
have a leather midsole layer see this only has the insole layer with the cork filling that the
the world war ii boot has as well but there's no huge slab of veg tan and then the other thing
that's different is the heel counter is a solid piece of veg tan leather you know a lot of these
300 boots like the red wings only have a leather board which is leather fibers reconstituted and
laid flat to make kind of like a cardboard or like uh papier Mache version of leather almost so the
quality of this world war ii boot in my opinion is better than red wings and rivals these
handmade boot companies but these were made in world for world war ii which is crazy this has
been one of my most favorite videos ever because we're starting to dive into the history of boots
and where how we got to red wings and Nicks by these world war ii boots if you like this
video be sure to like and subscribe because I really want to do more of these boots
but the only way I can justify morally cutting open a piece of history is if I make an
informational video that's going to educate and intrigue hopefully tens of thousands
if not hundreds of thousands of people so all your support makes these videos possible
thank you so much and thank you to the men and women who have served and are currently serving
in the military and thank you guys for watching and thanks for everything you do it means a lot
to me see ya oh and don't forget get on the list for these boots if you want them I they're
going to go fast so thank you guys see ya