31December 2021
for the last installment of this moctober series
we're going to cut in half what might be the highest quality moctoe in the entire world nick's
handmade boots new moctoe boot that just released today and this video is sponsored by nicks and
in full disclosure they've sponsored four or five videos I did the boot collaboration with them so
if you've never seen the channel before I do have a working history with Nicks but the beautiful
thing about cutting boots in half is you see exactly what's on the inside and I hope that
I give you enough information that even if you think I'm being biased that you have everything
you need to make a decision for yourself and huge thanks to Nicks for getting this done because
I begged them to get this boot to me by the end of moctober I know a lot of you guys spammed
them non-stop trying to get this in for moctober so huge thanks to you guys and Nicks for
sponsoring this video now let's go over the boot information so the brand is Nicks the style
is the six inch wedge sole moctoe traveler but they're also doing them in the over landers and
they're super popular builder pro the color is a 1964 leather they weigh two pounds two ounces they
retail for 520 dollars and they're made in Spokane Washington USA now let's go over the information
that we can gather about these before we cut them in half starting with upper so this is nick's new
1964 leather I like this leather a lot and it's it's kind of reminds me of red wings oral leather
but a lot thicker and not quite as loud and bright orange it's more of a subtle orange and
you can see this overland repair that I've been wearing it's gotten a lot lighter just from
the flexing and the moving and the wearing of the leather it's brightened up quite a bit and
the leather is a 7 to 8 ounce leather which is let's see 3.2 3.3 millimeters thick you don't
usually see this thick a leather in work boots let alone a mock toe and the reason for that is
it's so hard to stitch a mock toe on here and we'll kind of go over that later and this leather
is really tough to break in because it's so thick and it's a fairly stiff leather I took these deer
hunting over the weekend and the first day it just felt like I was walking around in cast and I
could only wear them around the camp a little bit but by six or seven days in they they feel pretty
good now is the polar opposites of thorough goods they're all goods you can wear them for the first
day and by the end of the day you're pretty well broken in these nicks recommends doing 200
hours before they're really broken in and they're not exaggerating when they say it takes a
lot of wear and use to get these things broken in but once they're broken in that thicker leather
holds its shape a lot better and contours your foot a lot more because if you've had a pair of
thorough goods i love throw goods but they don't have that same fit and feel it kind of just feels
like you're wearing a leather sock which is super comfy but it's just a completely different ball
game with this thicker leather next to the lining so this has a lining only in the vamp it's a
leather lining and the one nice thing about this is it's not sewn together with this mock toe
because one of the downfalls of a moctoe boot is that all these holes punched into the vamp allows
water to seep through but having that that lining not be sewn together those holes don't go all
the way through into the inside of the boot so it allows for a little bit more water resistance
with these boots then to the construction so this is a stitch down construction of the vamp and then
nail down at the back heel area just like all the rest of the Nicks boots but the one interesting
thing about this construction being a mock toe is the mock toe itself because there's really
three types of mock toe constructions there's the the true moccasin construction the two piece
construction and single piece construction a true moccasin construction is built just like the
pair of moccasins you probably had as a kid where where the side walls wrap all the way underneath
and as it's a single piece sewn to that top part right here it's a really simple construction
and it's really low profile but it's really hard to find boots made like that because they
basically have to be made by hand the two piece construction is probably the most popular type
of mock toe where you've got your side wall that doesn't wrap under all the way and is sewn to a
separate piece on top just like these red wings this allows for just a little bit taller toe box
for a little bit more wiggle room but it is prone to splitting because if that stitch wears out
that's the only thing really holding it together and then the single piece construction doesn't
have two pieces and it doesn't wrap underneath it's a single piece vamp like you see in most
boots but that stitch line gathers and puckers the leather to give it that mock toe look and and
feel this type is the most durable because even if you do wear out all the stitching it's a single
piece of leather and it's not going to fall apart like the two-piece construction but you don't get
that height that you see in the red wings and some of these other two-piece constructions that allow
for a lot taller toe box and you usually only see this one-piece mock toe construction with
thinner leather because it's really hard for a machine to sew this mock toe stitch in
a thick leather like this seven to eight ounce but Nicks has bought one of the only machines
capable of creating a moctoe stitch in this super thick leather so that's one of the reasons
why you don't see this thick of leather in a mock toe especially a one-piece moctoe and then next
to the outsole so this is the Vibram 2021 wedge rather than the Christy outsole by Vibram that
we usually see on moctoe boots and I asked Nicks why they went with this wedge rather than the
Christy and they said it's a lighter outsole and it's a little more wear resistant in a work
setting because really with any wedge sole it's never going to last quite as long as like a heavy
lugged outsole or a hard rubber outsole but I do just like the look of this out so it kind of flows
with the boot a little bit more it doesn't look quite as chunky as the Christy and then to the
midsole so this boot basically has two midsoles so you got this rubber layer right above the
outsole and then the really thick leather midsole above that and there's pros and cons to the rubber
midsoles and the leather midsoles rubber rubber midsoles don't compress to your foot but they do
bond better to the outsoles the leather midsoles give you that nice footprint and compression and
movement and durability but they don't bond quite as well to the outsoles so what Nicks has done is
basically added both to this boot so you have the bonding of the outsole to the rubber midsole
but all the durability and longevity of a big fat slab of leather in the midsole as well and
then finally to the fit fill and look I think these are probably the best looking moctoe
out there I also really love the classic red wing look with the little bit of the the clown
looking toe but for an overall mock toe this mock toe is one of the the best looking mock toes
I've seen I love the look of it especially you know with these where you can see where I started
to wear them in it looks so good and as for how they feel like they're kind of a unique feeling
boot because usually this boot has a higher heel but on the wedge it drops the heel a little bit
so that when you first start wearing these boots and start breaking them in it's a little bit of
a rocking feeling when you walk because that toe is lifted just a little bit because the heel has
dropped but once they get broken in it kind of flattens out and everything feels normal but
it is something worth mentioning because it is kind of a unique feeling boot at first so now that
we've covered everything on the outside it's time to really get to the important bits the inside
the guts of this boot so let's cut it in half so all right we got to cut in
half let's see what's inside okay so we got it cut in half and I'm
more confused now than before we got it cut in half because we can see that there's a
single layer midsole that really thick leather midsole we talked about and I even sanded
it to double check that it's a single piece but on the inside it starts thick and then tapers
down and then tapers back up again so I thought for a second that maybe it's two pieces of the
midsole but then looking at the outsole it's not two pieces so I think what they do is they taper
that down to make room for that really thick leather shank right there that's what this layer
is right here and the reason that they do this is when you have a nail down construction at the
heel it creates a void really similar to what we what you see in a goodyear welted boot and
it has to be filled with something so Nicks fills that void with that leather shank right
there that super thick shank and because it's the wedge sole boot they don't have quite as
much heel to give the extra room to have all those layers in there so what they do is they sand
down this leather midsole just in the middle so that the leather shank sinks down in there without
creating a big bump in the middle and while still maintaining that really thick leather midsole
so it's a really interesting way of maintaining all the structural pieces that Nicks is known for
while still being able to make a wedge sole boot that's really interesting I did not I had no idea
that that's what was going to be on the inside of this so now that I fully understand how this boot
is actually built I really think this boot fixes all the problems that we've seen in every single
one of the mock toes because every mock toe we've seen has at least one or two problems that we
wish it would fix or the one boot has this one thing that's good this other boot has this other
thing that's good this boot fixes all the problems that we've seen in other mock toes it has the
full grain leather counter it has the leather lasting board that shapes to your foot it has
the really thick leather midsole and the rubber midsole it has less cork and more leather which
is always a plus and it has this really thick leather upper which can be a pro and a con oh and
and the single piece vamp which is more durable which is also i guess a pro and a con the only
other cons I can think of is these are a beast to break in they are not an easy break-in and they
are twice the price of every other mock tool we've ever cut apart and it's a boot that you can buy
and wear casually and never work in or it's a boot that you can buy and only work in and really
reap the benefits of those high quality materials there are a few one-man shops that are making
maybe a a better finished boot because Nicks is a work boot company and the stitches aren't always
perfectly lined up but from the perspective of durability and materials and construction from a
company that's making more than one boot at a time in my opinion this is the best moctoe boot that
money can buy and if you disagree prove me wrong tell me why they aren't the best or if there's
another boot company out there that's making a better moctoe boot let me know but I think I'm
pretty confident in saying this is the best moctoe boot you can buy so if you want a pair of these
check them out via the link in my description and to be even more transparent nick nicks
pays me for this video but I don't get any other bonuses or rewards or incentives or extra
money if you guys decide to buy a pair my job's done they've paid me for the video so there's
nothing extra in it for me if you guys decide to buy a pair of these so let me know what you
guys think if you think I'm wrong prove me wrong I love I love finding it when companies make the
best things humanly possible with no corners cut but I love when people prove me wrong sometimes
I'm wrong so so thank you guys for watching this moctober been so much fun we have the
finale where we'll kind of go through everything maybe next week but that's the
end of moctober it's my favorite series and I'm sad it's over but it was a lot
of work this year so thank you guys see ya