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
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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