Best Work Boot Under $200 – Carolina vs Thorogood – (CUT IN HALF)

18December 2021

the Carolina moctoe boot has been touted 
as the best work boot under 200 by lots of   people including some youtubers like essential 
craftsmen but people say the exact same thing   about Thorogood so today we're going to cut apart 
the Carolina moctoe boot to compare these two to   see which boot reigns supreme as the best 200 
work boot do you see this there's literally five   wispy little hairs holding this hairline together 
and apparently in your 30s your hair just slowly   starts creeping back without you realizing it and 
that's why we reached out to keeps to sponsor this   video did you know two out of three guys will 
experience some form of male pattern baldness by   the time they're 35 well the best way to prevent 
hair loss is to do something about it while you   still got some of these wispy hairs left and the 
great things about keeps is a licensed doctor   will review your information online recommend 
the right hair loss treatment for you then your   treatment is shipped directly to your door every 
three months and you can mess your keeps doctor   at any time 24 7 with any questions or concerns 
and you can track your progress along the way   with the keeps progress tracking tool and keeps is 
really affordable because I use generic versions   of FDA approved medication for hair loss keeps 
treatment typically takes between four and six   months to start seeing results so it's important 
to act fast because the sooner you start using   keeps the more hair you're gonna be able to save 
so find out why keeps has more five star reviews   than any competitors out there and why hundreds 
of thousands of men trust keeps with their hair   loss prevention so if you're ready to take some 
action and prevent your hair loss go to keeps.com   roseanvil or click the link in my description 
to receive 50 off your first order that's   dot com slash roseanvil thanks to keeps for 
sponsoring this video and good luck with this   whole thing people really love the Carolinas and 
the Thorogood because they're really comfortable   there's almost no break-in period they're really 
reliable and they're they always last at least one   work season and they have that heritage style 
with the clean leather uppers that you can wear   the casual outfit even if you don't want to use 
these as a work but they're just a good looking   moc toe boot but you might notice that these boots 
are remarkably similar and so similar that last   year we didn't even consider doing the Carolinas 
because they look so much like the throw because   I thought they were the same company just under 
a different name so in preparation for this video   we did a little digging around and we found that 
the Carolina brand is owned by the parent company   the cove shoe company and thorough goods owned by 
the wine Brenner shoe company but a lot of times   two different companies will hire the same factory 
to make a different version of the same boot   but after a little bit of research we found that 
the Carolinas are made in Martinsburg Pennsylvania   and Thorogood's are made in either Merrill or 
Marshfield Wisconsin so they're two different   factories make making two different boots for two 
different companies but they're almost identical   and one really interesting thing about 
both of these boots is they say they're   made in the united states but with domestic and 
globally sourced components which basically means   parts of both of these boots were imported from 
somewhere outside of the united states and built   in the united states but they keep those cards 
really close to their chest they don't tell you   what parts come from where and how much of it 
was built overseas and so it's kind of a big   mystery that they don't like disclosing so let's 
go over the information we can gather about these   boots before we cut them in half to really 
try to determine which parts come from where   before we cut them in half so let's 
start with the price so the Carolinas   retail from 195 for the shorter boot all the 
way up to 205 for this taller boot that i have   thorough goods used to be in that price point 
but you recently they've upped the price on   a lot of the websites because they don't sell 
these directly from their site you have to buy   it from a dealer and those prices have gone up 
to about 240 to 250 you can still find them for   around 205 but they're definitely increasing now 
next to the leather so this leather is they both   call the exact same name it's a tobacco stampede 
leather it's a chrome tan leather it's a supple   soft malleable leather that's why there's hardly 
any break-in period with these and it's the exact   same leather so tie on that one next to the lining 
so both of these boots only have a lining in the   vamp which is the basically the mock toe area 
and the Carolinas have a felted material lining   and the thorough goods have that cotton drill 
lining that wears out pretty quickly and   sometimes as we've seen comes a little bit split 
straight from the factory so the Carolinas I like   that lining better next to the counter cover 
which is something I'm always harping on brands   about the Carolinas have a synthetic polyester uh 
counter cover and the thorough goods have a nice   leather counter cover and that leather always 
lasts a lot longer than a synthetic material so   point Thorogood's next to the insoles which 
are both removable but the Carolinas is a   it's not a cheap foam but it's not quite as nice 
as the thorough goods that have these little gel   spots in here but they are both replaceable so 
you can put in your own lining if you want but   the throw goods is better and then underneath 
of the insult both of these boots have a layer   of poron they're just two different colors 
but they're both poron and then to the welt   and the welt on both of these boots are the one 
thing that I wish they would just upgrade to   leather because they're both a synthetic welt that 
is known for splitting and cracking if you saw   the last video of the thousand mile version of the 
thorough goods that someone wore for a thousand   miles they're split all over the place making 
it really hard to resole but it's the exact same   well they look identical with the fake stitching 
but there is one really important difference   between these two boots and how the welt is sewn 
on because traditionally with the moctoe boot like   the thorough goods the welt is sewn to this little 
rubber midsole this little white line right there   and then the outsole is glued on but the problem 
is if you're really beating these boots up   sometimes they have the tendency to peel away and 
this front part of the boot starts to delaminate   so what Carolina has done is they've sewn it 
regular regularly to the midsole for the back part   of the boot but at the front you can see it's sewn 
all the way through the outsole so that even if it   does start peeling away that stitching is holding 
everything together so point Carolinas and then to   the outsole of these boots and these outsoles are 
identical because they're both made by the Meramec   outsole company that's based in the united 
states that produce these in the united states   and they're a polyurethane based outsole that's 
different from the the classic Vibram wedge which   is a rubber based outsole and people like this 
polyurethane outsole because it's a longer wearing   outsole it doesn't flake off as much and it's 
it maybe it isn't quite as soft but it does last   significantly longer and that's why Thorogood's 
calls them the max wear wedge so I love both   these so point for both so clearly there are a few 
differences between these boots but the majority   of the boots are almost identical with the same 
components and everything but as you've probably   seen from this channel the outside only matters so 
much and sometimes the most important aspects of   the boot are on the inside so we got to cut them 
in half well at least the Carolinas I've already   cut three pairs of throw goods in half from 
last October it's a disaster but let's get to it so all right got it cut in half and 
that cut went a little ski-wampy   for a minute there but let's see what's inside i thought for sure that these would be identical 
on the inside but there are a few differences that   really matter the only thing that's the same that 
we haven't identified is the fiberboard it's it's   a fiberboard lasting board all the way through 
and maybe the poron is a little bit thicker in the   Carolinas but the shank is a completely different 
material which surprised me because the Carolinas   have a steel shank and the thorough goods have a 
fiberglass shank the the the difference is is not   much when it comes to wear-ability but the 
fiberglass shanks are nice because you don't   set off metal detectors and then the biggest 
difference is the Carolinas don't have a cork   filling it's just a thin layer of foam and the 
thorough goods have that nice layer of cork that   compresses to the shape of your foot and absorbs 
sweat and is is just known as a better material   so I personally would prefer the fiberglass 
shank and the cork filling of the thorough goods   so overall these boots are really nearly identical 
and it seems like both brands are using the same   suppliers for a lot of the components and 
I really think either one of these boots   could be considered the best boot in that 200 
price range and a lot of that is because of   how simple the construction is you don't have 
a cheap lining in here that's going to wear out   that's unnecessary everything that's important in 
a boot is in this but everything else is stripped   out and so you just get higher quality 
materials and higher quality production   in at a lower price because it's not filled with 
just fluff and junk and gimmicks it's a simple   reliable boot so which one of these boots in my 
opinion is the best boot overall based on all the   information we just went through i think thorough 
goods are the are the better boot but their price   has gone up so depending on what your budget is 
if you only have 200 to spend you might want to   go with the Carolinas but if you got that extra 
50 dollars there are some better components in the   thorough goods but I think the difference is very 
very slim when it comes the actual functionality   and the use and the durability of the boots so 
in my opinion that settles the debate between   the thorough goods and Carolinas because there's 
always this speculation going on between these two   boots so let me know what you guys think think 
and your personal experience with these boots   and don't forget next week is the Harley build 
I think it's the coolest Harley that's ever been   built on YouTube it's it turned out so good you 
guys are gonna love it and we're gonna do some   giveaways and stuff in those videos so stay tuned 
for that on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday   it's a four part series and it turned out so good 
so thank you guys so much and enjoy the rest of   moctober we got some more cool videos coming up 
I love moctober so much so thank you guys see ya

As found on YouTube