Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Work Boots . . .

Look at Nicks https://nicksboots.com/ or Whites https://whitesboots.com/. Back when I was a young man I spent my summers working on a forestry crew and I wore Red Wing boots. I would wear out a pair every summer. Nicks and Whites are expensive but will last much longer that anything Red wing ever made. They are rebuidable also when you do wear them out.

Surveyor= hiking..... most surveyors aren't doing work like a plumber or electrician.... when I was a grade setter (similar to surveyor) I wore Meindl or Lowa all leather hiking boots OR you can go with the Whites/Nicks/etc. but they are heavier.

I have a pair of Nick's and 2 pairs of White's boots. They make great wheel chock blocks when working on or under a vehicle.

I'm not masochistic enough to put 'em on as daily wear boots.

I am hard on work boots, and I get sore feet easily. For me, the insole makes more of a difference than the boot. I will pay 75-100 bucks for a cheaper pair of work boots, then pay another 50 for aetrex insoles. For me, those insoles are worth their weight in gold. Make sure to pull out the old liner before installing new insoles.

I've been a Danner guy for so long I can't remember when I wasn't. However, there were times when I was short of cash or other reasons and I wandered into different boots and always came back to Danners for work, hunting, and working on the property. Tried Irish Setters several times when I worked for a company that gave us a discount there for their boots and they always came apart on me in short order.

In your position I would look at the Danner military style boots. Very comfortable and relatively light and usually priced very attractively. Those guys put some serious miles on boots and they tend to hold up very well. I usually wore Danner GTX for work and they help up pretty well on the raw concrete, mud, rocks, and other conditions we put them through. My hunting boots are the Danner Pronghorns and they are very comfy and I put lots of miles on them all year round.

Don't even look at Keens. I've had a couple pair and a buddy has had a couple pair and they fell apart in less than six months with light use. Their customer service sucks also.

As I've aged my feet have widened also. With the Danners I had to go up a half size and go to a DD or E width boot to solve the problem. Made a world of difference. At 69, comfort is a big thing to me these days...

I will always recommend Red Wings.

Another vote for Danner. Mine are steel toes and they are the most comfortable I have worn. YMMV

Thorogoods like Cheesy recommended are all I buy anymore. They are murderous for the first two weeks while you get them broken in. But once they’re broke in they’re as comfortable to me as tennis shoes and they’ll last me right at double the time the comparable model of Irish Setter/Redwing will.

I learned my lesson years ago working in the oilfield.

When you gotta have a new pair isn’t the time to be breaking them in.

2 wks in a brand new pair of redwings will have them dogs barking.

I put a lifetime of use on a pair of Lowa Zephyr Mids one summer in Afghanistan. They saw every imaginable type of terrain and held up very well. I tore the leather trim of one boot on a sharp piece of rebar that was exposed from the bottom side of a T-Wall. An Afghan PA who was a tailor before he joined the ANA sewed the cut with the thickest piece of Dacron suture material he could find then covered it with Dermabond. It's still holding 10 years later.

I like my Lowas alot!

I had PF in both feet. Tried inserts and other "cures". I started rotating between different boots a few days at a time and the problem went away in a few weeks.

And I thought this was going to be jokes about the only things left in the stores after the riots and looting.

Wesco Jobmaster's or Packer's... Way better quality and longer lasting than mass produced boots... And no long and painful break in process like Whites or Nicks... And when they wear out they will rebuild them... Just my experience...

This has been my experience^^^^^^

I like my Ariat Sierra’s