Harking Back To Olden Days - The Craft & Glory Leather Hike Boots

The Craft & Glory Hike Boot is such a harking back to the good old days of leather, welted hiking boots, and it’s great to see. Today, with some notable European exceptions, hiking boots are made of waterproof and other man-made materials, glued and cemented, but super comfortable on a long hike up hill, and down dale.

But their main drawback is that they are not re-solable once your outsole wears out or tears off the uppers, and being man-made, they can stink if you sweat in them or otherwise get them wet. They have taken over so much of the hiking boot niche that whenever I say in my videos that I go for long forest hikes in my heritage welted boots, I will get at least one comment that, no, leather boots are too heavy and uncomfortable and “real” hiking boots are lightweight and nylon.

So, how comfortable are these modern, leather welted boots? You can watch my video by clicking on the image below, and read on!

HISTORY OF THE HIKING BOOT

In the 1920s and '30s when outdoor pursuits became a fashionable hobby, most hiking boots in Europe and the USA were based on wartime leather footwear for soldiers, and these would certainly not have been totally comfortable. So, shoemakers, especially those in northern Italy,  started to tailor boots for hikers by altering utility service and work boots to develop more appropriate footwear.

Early specialised hiking boots laced up to just above the ankle like most modern boots. Long before synthetic materials were used, these boots were normally all-leather, including a leather outsole, which could lead to insufficient grip.

One of the driving forces that led to the introduction of better rubber outsoles was Italian mountaineer Vitale Bramani, who blamed the deaths of his friends in the Alps in 1935 on "inadequate footwear". This tragedy drove Bramani to develop an alternative to the soles that he said put climbers and hikers in danger.

In 1937 or ’38, he launched the first "Vibram" vulcanised "Caramato" rubber lug sole coupled with a better design of boot that laced around the foot, from ankle almost to the toe, thereby providing both comfort and protection. This type of all-leather and re-craftable, welted hiking boots prevailed until the 1960s when cheaper, lightweight synthetic materials became available.

By the eighties, the water-resistant, breathable, and lightweight materials that we see in hiking boots today had become standard. Leather was relegated to a supporting role, often as reinforcement panels for lacing eyelets and other sensitive areas. Polymers were introduced to make lightweight boots that were comfortable and water-resistant while still being durable, flexible and supportive for the outdoors.

In time, only some top-quality and expensive Italian brands, and in the US, Danner, continued to make all-leather or mostly-leather hiking boots.

So it is really pleasing to see Craft & Glory create a Hike Boot model that looks and hopefully performs like a blend of old and new.

STYLE AND AESTHETICS

This Craft & Glory “Hike” hiking boot has a few stylistic characteristics of an old-style hiking boot.

It’s not very tall at the shaft at only 5 inches, so while it provides support for the ankle, it also allows it to bend flexibly. The collar is cut with a slight angle down to the back, allowing your foot to bend naturally when you walk.

The collar is fully gusseted and designed to fold inwards under the lace facings to allow protection of an additional layer of leather at the instep, as well as water and dust resistance.

The toe box is rounded and has a high volume profile for comfort and mobility, as well as allowing your toes inside the boot to purchase grip when walking uphill.

The lacing hardware is perhaps the most iconic of a hiking boot - D-rings rather than eyelets.

The top lift on the block heel and the outsole itself, use the commando lugged sole pattern for durability and grip.

CRAFT AND GLORY

Craft & Glory are from India, which has a rich tradition of making quality leather crafts and footwear.

India has been tanning leather for centuries, supplying the needs of the British Raj in making footwear in England, as well as supplying British troops with leather belts and webbing all over the Empire, particularly during the 18th Century. Just like in Indonesia where the Bandung tradition came from the craft and experience left behind by Dutch boot makers after independence, Indian footwear companies first started making high volumes of shoes and boots for the British during the colonial era. Boot styles like chukkas, named after a 7-minute session in the Indian game of Polo, and Jodhpur boots, named after the city in Rajasthan, originated from India.

Today, India has factories that make Adidas, Puma, Nike, Reebok and Skechers, and exported over US$ 2 billion of leather footwear in 2017. In that year, the top three countries that imported Indian-made leather footwear were the US at US$ 405 million, the UK at US$ 400 million, and Germany at US$ 340 million.

Many of you may know that many UK Northampton names in the boot industry, for example, Grenson and Loake, have a second tier to their products, with one tier made in England and the other made in India.

Craft & Glory started in the mid 20 teens and was founded by Rohit and Nitika Anand. They gathered together a group of leatherwork craftsmen and artisans and started making handmade everyday leather gear. They first started selling their products in their store in Delhi and then moved online to an international market.

Apart from boots and shoes for men and women, they also make bags, jackets and everyday carry items.

CONSTRUCTION

The uppers are made from a 2-millimeter thick, waxed buffalo leather. That’s the Asian buffalo or water buffalo rather than the American buffalo or bison, although they do share similar characteristics of having a high tensile strength for the relative thickness.

The leather is full grain, which you can see show off all the craggy wrinkles, pores and hair holes of an animal, and it’s locally tanned in India using a combination veg and chrome tanning process. The tannery they use is certified, so there’s apparently a lot more regulation that they have to adhere to, about the treatment of poisonous chromium salts from the process.

During the tanning, the hide is hot stuffed with waxes and oils and is then aniline finished. The "hand" or feel of it in your hand is light and firm, yet supple. It’s not oily or waxy to the touch, but there is a slight pull-up effect when you put pressure behind it.

While the tongue is unlined, the rest of the boot - shaft and vamp - is fully lined with a 1-millimetre thick, possibly goat, soft leather lining.

I believe the heel counter is veg tan leather and so is - I think - the small, bulbous toe puff.

At the back is a two-piece backstay, with the central strip curling into a soft pull loop that doesn’t catch on my jeans.

At the top of the shaft, they add a soft, padded leather collar for extra comfort, although I find it is almost too soft and floppy, because as you push your foot in, you have to be careful to pull the collar back out, otherwise it can stay pushed in and you don’t notice until you walk for a while and it applies pressure into your Achilles tendon, and hurts.

The tongue is wide and fully gusseted. The edge is sewn on top of the opening in the vamp, and is then folded over so that it is tucked in behind the edge of the opening and forms a puffy, double-folded tongue. The top of the tongue has notches cut into the side and then the tongue opens up to a very wide T-shaped top.

This makes it really protective, and the notches mean that they bend nicely just above the instep and don’t crease and cut into your instep and ankle fold.

I really like that attention to detail.

The hardware is all brass. I don’t think I’m being unfair to say that perhaps they’re not the best grade brass, but so far, they’ve been hardy. The D-rings do make it hard to cinch up the boot tight, but with this folded-over gusseted tongue, I’m not sure you can otherwise punch holes for eyelets.

There is a "set-back" D-ring placed at the angle where your ankle bends, put there to pull in the ankle/instep area, before you use the speed hooks to tighten up the laces, and it really works.

The stitching on all the panels are clean and pretty regular, but perhaps not super fine like some better English and high-end American boots. The contrasting stitches on the saddle tan colour are pretty and eye-catching.

Inside the boot is a 4-millimetre thick veg tan insole, and looking inside, it looks glued, stapled and stitched to the inside edge of the welt. At the heel, there are four stonking big screw heads as evidence of them screwing through the insole into the heel block. To protect your feet from the screws and staples, they insert a full-length veg tan removable leather footbed.

Underneath the leather insole, a steel shank is glued on to give you arch support and torsional stability. Then a cork filler is also put in to fill the cavity caused by the welt going around the outside of the boot.

Then - there is no midsole - the rubber outsole is glued on to the cork and insole, and then stitched through the welt’s outside edge and through the rubber outsole. The welt stitching goes up and down the lugs without the use of a channel, so you can see that even with a few wears, the stitches can wear through quickly. I believe that it’s not a problem, because of the stitching on the inside, and because of the quality of the modern glues used these days. 

The heel is multiple layers of stacked leather, and securely screwed on. The top lift is made of the same compound of rubber used for the outsole, and it’s not bad - it’s not crazy hard so has some good shock-absorbing properties.

All in all, it’s put together pretty well - not like Viberg or even Grant Stone, but then, what is?

LEATHERCARE

On the website, they provide a few videos about the Craft and Glory brand, their factory and team, and there is one about how to care for their boots. They also have their own, branded care products including brushes, saddle soap and conditioner.

As usual, my care routine for this pair includes brushing them after you use them if you’ve been outdoors, otherwise if used around town, maybe brush them every 3 or 4 wears. If dirty or muddy, wipe first with a clean damp cloth. The leather is smooth enough that a damp cloth should get rid of a lot of stuff.

Then assess - do you need to saddle soap? The buffalo will take saddle soap, no worries.

When you condition, I’d use a less oily conditioner and more of a cream or a balm for a dryer leather. I think Venetian Shoe Cream will do but is probably overkill. Bick 4 will be fine.

If you want to, you can polish them with either a boot cream or wax but I’d stick with neutral rather than a guess an appropriate tan colour.

To be honest, it’s a rough and knockabout feel to this leather and I wouldn’t get too psychotic about conditioning them all the time.

SIZING, FIT AND COMFORT

As for sizing, fit and comfort, the sizing guide on their website indicates that they fit true to size. So as I measure US 8 ½ on the Brannock, I know I size 7.5 True in UK size and between 41 and 41.5 European, and my foot length is around 26 centimetres - all that information checked to their sizing guide indicates I should take size US 8.5, being true to size. However, when you order, in my experience at least, they email you back and ask you to measure your feet. If this is their standard customer service, I recommend you do.

I pooh-poohed it their queries and said not to worry, and told them I knew my size. And I regret it.

As it turns out, this boot has a bit of volume at the toebox and instep, similar to say, a Thorogood Moc Toe or the Red Wing Classic 875 Moc Toe, despite not having any variations in width from their ordering system on the website. It is a little loose on me and I believe I could have taken a US 8 or a European 41, or a UK 7. In this size, I removed the removable leather insole footbed and replaced it with a thick comfort orthopaedic one I bought from the pharmacy that filled it up nicely.

Sized this way, I can’t say the heel grips my heel, but it doesn’t slip if you cinch the laces in their D-rings down really tight.

The ball of the foot is wide enough not to cause me a hot spot where often I get one, at the ball, and lengthwise, I think heel-to-ball is perfect, but heel-to-toe is marginally long. I’m ok with that because the best fit should be based on heel-to-ball as long as heel-to-toe is not too far out of whack.

In terms of comfort, the lack of a leather midsole makes this flexible from day one. Cinch the laces tight and your feet are snugly held, and the suppleness of the buffalo leather means that it’s comfortable around your foot.

Arch support is okay but not spectacular, made up by the flexibility of the sole construction, allowing the shank to hold your arch up. Shock absorption is good, even with just the leather insoles they come in, and that’s probably because of the composition of the rubber-lugged outsole. The grip on rocks uphill and scrabbling on loose shale coming downhill is pretty good. In sand, it performs well, and on urban hard stuff, it’s as comfortable as any city boot.

If you size right, I reckon this is at least an 8 out of 10 for comfort.

VALUE

Let’s talk price and value.

These are listed at US$ 219 at the time of writing, and from memory included shipping to Australia.

That puts them into the Thursday Boot Company range, and in the category of leather hiking boots, close in price to a Danner Mountain Leaf and Mountain 600s, but those are cemented soles. Their re-craftable Danner Mountain Lights are over US$ 400. You can get Timberland hiking boots, also cement construction and with leather “panels”, for around US$ 100.

So in terms of their price range and considering their mostly handmade and natural materials nature, they are squarely in the ballpark.

In terms of price to value, I think they hold up well. For that price, there are no glaring corners cut, they are well made enough, and they look decently good. They feel durable and protective, so the price to what you get comparison is good.