Unmarked DB Hunter Service Boot in Navy Chromexcel

I haven’t been as excited about a boot in a long time.

The Unmarked D B Hunter in Navy Chromexcel is a beautifully designed service boot made with quality materials and incredible attention to detail.

You all know my preference is toward service boots and Chelseas so this style is not unknown to tickle my fancy. And, you also know I get interested when I’m reviewing a small boot brand because I like finding out what makes them different. But it’s not often I get a two-fer, because Unmarked is a brand I’ve heard of, but I've never tried, and what I see excites me.

You can watch my YouTube review by clicking below, or just keep reading

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In my opinion, the line between service boots and some work boots is grey and blurry. What is the Red Wing Iron Ranger, service boot or work boot?

I've placed the Unmarked D B Hunter in the category of service boots, not because of any lack of sturdiness, but because it fits certain characteristics I have in my head about service boots. It has a flat sole and a low heel. It has a Derby-style open lacing system with 5 generous-size eyelets and three big speed hooks. It has generous quarter panels and the backstay is a two-piece supportive backstay. There’s a toe cap with brogueing, reminiscent of a Viberg service boot. It’s about 6 and a half inches in the shaft, measured from the top of the heel, so taller than most but reminiscent of paratrooper boots with the higher shaft to support the ankle.

The last, like modern service boots in the heritage style boot market, is sleek and slim but clearly quite rugged, and it’s put together like old style service boots, with the stitchdown form of construction - which I’ll go into when I talk about construction.

UNMARKED

Unmarked was founded about 10 years ago by Chinese-Mexican Hugo Fonce.

For all the reasons that founders started their brands, he found his drive centred around traditional shoe-making craftsmanship, believed in the heritage methods but adding his contemporary designs to the traditional methods.

In their publicity material, they emphasised being meticulous about their work, about making things that last as “timeless masterpieces” and about being durable and exceptional in quality, and being “unique”. In doing so, they make their boots in Leon, Mexico, quite often referred to as the shoe capital of the world, where everything you need to make boots is integrated and available in the one city.

Unmarked have their own workshop in Leon, so, in not subcontracting to a big factory like Thursday or Drews do, they control their quality and output, but this also means slower production and stock availability. In fact, with only a few ready-to-wear pairs, most of their boots are produced once you order them. This allows them to control costs including warehousing costs and inventory costs, but also allows them to control quality. I experienced it myself because the delivery of these boots was held up several weeks and when I enquired, I found that after making my pair and about to send them out, they discovered a fault and started again.

Now that’s quality control.

Their workshop produces a stunning range of footwear, which you can see on their website here. If you look at the website you’ll see they produce for men and women, they produce shoes and boots, and in men's boots alone there are something like 50 different models. They use Goodyear welt, hand welt, and stitchdown forms of construction, in making a dizzying array of styles from Cowboy boots to Lace-to-toe boots to Chelsea boots, work boots, jodhpurs and service boots.

There is literally something for everyone!

CONSTRUCTION

This pair of DB Hunters is stitchdown constructed.

This means they last the boot and splay out the uppers over the midsole and stitch it down the edge. In some stitchdown boots, there may not be an insole because the midsole forms both insole and midsole, but this one does have a veg-tanned insole and cork filling. The stitchdown stitch fixes the uppers to the midsole, and a second one then goes all the way around the boot, stitching the midsole to the glued-on rubber outsole, and at the toe, also goes through the uppers, hence the double stitch at the front.

The double row is not as clean and precise as say, a Viberg - but, remember the difference in price - however, it is still clean and with a pretty good and consistent stitch density.

The outsole is good quality UK brand Dainite, and you can see the existence of a shank at the bow under the arch. The Cowboy boot heritage can also be seen in the use of brass nails under the arch so that nothing is going to come apart with all that glue, nails and stitching.

The heel is stacked veg tan leather topped by a Dainite studded heel top lift.

The Dainite grip is good on dry ground, on sand, tiles or concrete, and from personal experience, good in mud and wet soft ground but a little slippery on wet tiles and smooth pavers. But it’s pretty durable and wears less than some proprietary studded outsoles like those used by Thursday or Grant Stone.

The heel counter is leather, and quite malleable so, comfy and doesn’t dig into your Achilles.

The boots are fully lined inside with soft calf leather, even up the shaft, and uppers and lining together is about 4 mils thick. The tongue is unlined and semi-gusseted up to between the 3rd and 4th eyelets.

Inside, immediately under your foot is a veg-tanned full-length comfort liner. The combination inside the boot is really, really comfortable.

I find the last also nicely designed and measured. I’ll talk about sizing in a minute but well-fitted, it hugs the foot in all the right places, and despite the pointless of the toe box, does not squeeze at all.

Looking at the uppers, the brogueing on the toe cap is meticulously punched - it’s symmetrical, even and clean. I don’t think this is a real toe cap - i.e. an extra layer of leather - it feels reasonably unstructured to me, other than the lining.

The triple stitching on the front of the quarters is pretty much perfect - perfectly spaced and even. So is the double and triple stitching on the backstay, where I could run a protractor between the stitch-lines and show how evenly spaced they are, and with incredibly close stitch density, like a gazillion stitches per inch!

The collar is rolled under the lining so it’s finished well, with the dinkiest damned stitching around the edge.The cloth pull tab with what I take to be traditional Mexican embroidery, I find useful to pull on this slightly taller boot.

The hardware is solid and good quality. The eyelets are just pressed with no washers. I can’t see how the speed hooks are backed because the lining goes over them - which is interesting because it protects the tongue where you’d see scratches.

The clicking is good, but not exceptional. The shaft does show more creasing and possibly a little loose grain - the so-called lottery of Chromexcel, but if it is loose-gran, Unmarked have done the right thing and chosen the looser leather for the shaft where you won’t see it under your pants.

This is my first blue Chromexcel, and I like it.

The navy is not as dark as I imagined, and I think has some inner olive and sea green under the aniline finished navy. This is going to wear and patina in all kinds of interesting ways, not least of all getting a teacher effect where the underlying brown shows through - but I’m waiting to see the variations of blue and green across the whole boot.

SIZING, FIT, COMFORT

As for sizing, I measure 8 and a half in D width in US sizing on a Brannock device. I usually wear US heritage boots in an 8 D.

I was advised to go true to size in Unmarked rather than size a half down and it’s a great fit.

Their website says this last is an E width - I don’t know, I think it’s a D width to me because there’s not a lot of flabbiness side to side. In fact, when I first started wearing them, the ball of my right foot would hurt at the end of the day, and it wasn’t until I used a boot stretcher on that area that it eased off.

How does the right size fit? Like a snug glove - really gets that “firm handshake” feel all around the foot, the volume up the instep is just right for me, and the support up the ankle and calf is firm and dependable. Break-in was not a serious issue due to the Chromexcel and the stitchdown construction - less layers under your feet trying to stop you from bending when new - so no heel slip, and the boots were totally comfortable after maybe a week of wear. Through the day, I can’t say I’ve forgotten I have boots on - you know you have boots on, but they feel supportive rather than uncomfortable through the day, if you see what I mean.

VALUE

I am super impressed by these boots, and therefore by extension, by this brand. I really think this does embody their philosophy of “being meticulous” and “exceptional in quality” and I do feel that this is durable and could well be a “timeless masterpiece”. To me, the design is “unique”, so I think it does tick off a lot of boxes they set up for themselves.

These thoughts form my opinion on value. These cost US $490.

What’s similar?

I think they give Oak Street Bootmakers a run for their money, with their Chromexcel Trench Boots coming in at US $488. I think quality is similar with Unmarked having the edge on attention to every detail.

Truman doesn’t use Chromexcel much but their comparable Double Shot leathers are US $ 410 and I think there’s a lot more attention to detail and construction consistency in the Unmarked product.

Parkhurst also doesn’t use CXL much but their smooth stitchdown models are in the low 400s and quality is a little more “rugged” than Unmarked so the price difference is, I think fair.

As usual, Grant Stone’s an outlier with their CXL Diesel models selling for mid 400s and the quality is similar.

All in all then, in my opinion, the Unmarked DB Hunter price matches the value to me, and the comparisons seem to bear that out.

The downside?

You’d have to wait a couple of weeks to get your boots while they make them, but truthfully, due to their QC, that could be a good thing. And for those of us who do not live in the US - wait for our boots to arrive? So what else is new?