4January 2022
today I'm cutting in half the nicks builder
pro $500 boot to see what is inside and what makes the ultimate work boot so coming
up on Wednesday we've got the common projects video coming out where we'll
announce the winner of the shattered backboard Wallet and for this video
I'm gonna make as many Claude wallets our most popular wallet out of the side of
the Nicks boot that we cut in half to give away so if you want to win a wallet made
from a Nicks boot subscribe to the youtube just follow me on instagram @rose_anvil and like and comment on the post of the boot
breakdown where this is cut in half with everything labeled and that will enter you
to win in every boot that we cut apart there's always a few things that
could be improved the aren't because they're trying to get a boot to a
certain price point like if we grab these more recent boots with the Red
Wings the RM Williams and the Ariat boots so what would boot look like with no
cutting of any corners no concessions and only focused on the ultimate quality
that's what Nicks claims to be so in this video we're gonna try to answer three
main questions what is inside a $500 pair of boots how do I justify spending that
much money on a pair of boots and what makes a $500 pair of boots versus a $300
pair of boots and what's the difference and this video is sponsored by Nicks and
just like the other sponsored videos instead of me earning a little bit of
money any time you guys order a pair of boots I negotiate a discount and with
these boots it's 10% off which is huge for a handmade boot and just like the
other videos I make sure to include that I in the contract that I'm not obligated
to talk about anything and I'm gonna point out any and all negative aspects
of the boot and I like doing that because that way I'm not selling these boosts to you
guys I just cut them in half and talked you through it and you guys get to make up
your own decisions and so now let's talk about the boots so the brand of these
boots are Nicks the model is the builder pro and these are handmade in Spokane
Washington USA these are about as american-made and handmade as it gets
and the weight of these bad boys comes in at a thick three pounds four ounces and I
guess we'll find out why they're so so heavy when we cut them in half now let's
talk about the arguments for and against buying a $500 pair of boots I've seen
this argument in various jobs where I've had whether it's firefighting or working
construction or other jobs where you're on your feet 12 hours a day so there's
really two ways to go about buying boots for work there's the handmade boot way or
the mass produced cheaper boot way with cheaper boots you're gonna spend 150 to
250 dollars if you're working really hard and working 8 to 12 hours a day on
your feet and work and we're through boots you're gonna probably need a new
pair of boots every year you might think well I'll just resold them the problem is
the upper materials usually aren't made to last more than a year of hard work
and the cost of resole is around $150 so if we take an average of two hundred
dollars per pair of boots per year over a five year period that's that's 200
times 5 which is a 1,000 dollars so that's about how much you're going to be
spending on boots over a five-year period versus a handmade pair of boots
it's a larger initial investment of $500 unless you're using the discount that's
cheaper and I talked to Nicks and they said their boots should usually last one
and a half years to three years before they're in need of a resole so if we
just go on the extreme end of the spectrum and say you need to resole them
about every year so the first year you spend $500 second year you get them
resold for $150 let's say you skip the third year fourth year you go for a full
rebuild which is around $250 according to the Nicks and then the fifth year you
resole them one more time that brings your total up to $1,050 so a lot of people
will say that you can save money by buying a handmade pair of boots but it's
not always the case it kind of depends on your job and it depends on how you
wear your boots and how hard you work but to me that's not really the argument
that matters to me it's more about comfort because there's there's three
issues with going with a mass-produced cheaper boot the first issue is every
time you buy a pair of boots you've got to re-break it in and you're spending
two weeks every year in discomfort second issue is there a
general fit but there general fit boot that's not made for your foot so It's
never going to be as comfortable as a boot that's made for your foot the third
issue is they're gonna be comfortable at first after they're broken in but as
those boots start to wear out you're gonna lose all that comfort at the end
of the year you're gonna be in pain versus a handmade pair of boots these
are gonna be a beast to break in Nicks recommends a hundred hours to break
these in which is crazy I didn't think they're that bad when I put them on
today and walked around them I was actually surprised at how comfortable
they were like right off the bat but once you break them in every time you
resole them that that upper's gonna be just like you had it's gonna be just as
comfortable Nicks has a sizing process that makes sure that this boot fits you
like a glove you like trace your foot out on a piece of paper maybe I'll do a
video of going through that process if you guys are interested in that so if
you can afford the upfront cost most of my friends that are firefighters and
most of my friends at work heavy construction usually invest in a high
quality pair of boots because if you're like me I have no problem buying a
$1,200 bandsaw for a video but when it comes to Footwear I get really cheap and
I learned my lesson the hard way my first time firefighting I bought a cheap
pair of boots with cheap socks halfway through the season I blew
both of them out and I had to buy a brand new pair of cheap boots which
ended up cost me just as much as a nice pair of boots you're not just buying
boots you're buying a piece of equipment so if you're the type of person that's
working 8 to 12 hours a day and you're buying the equipment for your your job
and you're not spending the money on your health and well-being and buying
your boots as a piece of equipment it might be something worth
considering hopefully I didn't lose you in that and let me know what your guys'
experiences are with them and if you're still have some questions and want other
people's opinions the comment section is a great area to see what other
people's experience with these boots are and with handmade boots and the pros and
cons and what their experiences are so check out the comments section so I
asked the guys at Nick's what makes their boot different than the cheaper
boots and what makes their boot the ultimate work boot and they gave me four
reasons why their boot is superior so the first thing is that they use rough
out leather on the toe and the heel cap and instead of explaining this all over
again you can go watch the suede vs.
Nubuck vs. rough out leather and
I'll put a card here and just show you a visual demonstration of
why it's really wear resistant the next thing is the leather shank so I never
heard of this until I started researching these boots but the reason
they do that is with a traditional metal shank when you really wear in your boot
it's that shank isn't gonna wear it it's just gonna stay high so you're gonna
have high spots versus a leather shank it's gonna mold to your foot and the
only way they can do a leather shank is with a really thick and really hard
leather called oak tan leather and because any other leather would just
collapse and so you can kind of see that bump there where the shank is it's
really interesting so I'm interested I'm excited to see the cross-section of this
boot next is the arch support in these boots so if you're a fan of our support
these have the most arch support in any boot I've ever tried on it's really
interesting and the way they do it is they've got a wedge of leather that is
just devoted to the extra arch support and I'll show you in the cross-section how
much arch support that's in here you can also order them with less of a heel
and less of the arch support if you don't like the heel for work and you
don't like your arch support and the final thing is they don't have any Cork
in here and I found that really interesting and the reason they do this
is in a work boot with cork after a while this cork can loosen up and shift
around and cause lumps in your boot but the nice thing about cork is it breaks
into your foot and the way that the builder pro gets around that is by
having several layers of leather each layer of leather is going to compress a
little bit to give you just as much of a footprint in your boot as like a cork
boot and you're not going to get the same effect if you only have one layer
of leather it takes several layers of leather to really get that footprint in
here and if you were to cut off the top of a Nicks boot that's really worn in
you would see a really distinct footprint of whoever's foots been
wearing it almost like I don't know if you guys did this maybe it's just a
small-town thing but anytime there's wet cement you go put your hand in there or
your foot in there to leave your footprint in there that's how the sole this boot
would look if you could see the inside of it if it was worn so now it's time
to do the deed cut these bad boys in half and I think I talked about this
already but I actually bought this bandsaw in preparation for this video I
broke my baby bandsaw by trying to hook up a more powerful motor to do it
and I just it just exploded and so hopefully this bandsaw can cut through
this because if not we're in trouble so let's get to it I really massacred that backstay I
couldn't see what I was doing but let's see what's inside these boots are so crazy
so let's count the layers there's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 layers from the
soul to the bottom of your foot and like in arch area there's literally like an inch
and a half of just material and you compare that to these other boots that we've
cut a part and I'll make like a shot of going through all the different boots so
you can see the differences between all the boots we've cut apart so that kind of
brings us to the three questions we talked about earlier what's inside a $500
pair of boots so let's start with the bottom you've got the vibram sole you've
got the five layers of leather heel stack you've got the rubber slip sole
you've got the leather midsole above that you've got the leather shank we
talked about earlier above that you've got that little wedge that's the arch
support that we talked about at the beginning of the video then a leather
insole and the slip sole above or the sock liner above that so that's what's
in a 500 dollar pair of boots oh and you've got a leather counter as well and
then the seven to eight ounce leather above that it's really crazy how much
they put inside this boot for 500 bucks the next question is it justifiable to
buy a $500 pair of boots you know going back to what we talked about earlier you
can see how this boot can last several times longer than other work boots you
know the amount of materials in here and the quality of the materials that's why when you
wear the sole out the whole boot doesn't wear out and what makes these worth $500
the amount of craftsmanship in this boot and the amount of high-quality materials
it's really surprising that this boot isn't more than five hundred dollars
especially compared to the price of these other boots so these boots are
really interesting so if you're interested in getting a pair of these
boots check out the link in the description or the discount in the
description I don't think you'll be disappointed in these boots and there is
this weird trend where the only companies that want to sponsor my videos
are the companies that want to have their stuff cut in half and they're the
only companies that really believe in their stuff and so
I keep having this feeling that I'm like only talking good about these sponsored
videos but I'm only getting boots that are good from the sponsor videos and a
few people have kind of in my comment sections calling me a sellout and that
I'm like just trying to promote stuff for my own personal gain I try my best
to stay as unbiased as possible but if you do think I'm selling out just back
it up with some information from the cross-section like where did I get it
wrong like if you don't think these are worth five hundred dollars how much do
you think they're worth and what about the product do you think that I was
lying about or over promoting because I'm always open to criticism and as much
as I try to be unbiased it's it's hard to be completely unbiased but I feel
like I do a pretty good job so that's what's in the Builder pros that's what
makes the ultimate work boot and these things are crazy so if you enjoyed this
video consider liking and subscribing and if you guys do get a pair of these
boots send me some pictures I want to see what they look like because they got a
bunch of really cool different models they're not just work boots they've got
a bunch of different styles that are more similar to some of these like Ariat
boots and the red wing boots that are really cool so thank you guys for
everything you guys are literally the only thing that made it possible to
get the sponsors like this to see these types of boots and to have as much fun
as I'm having making these videos so thank you guys see ya