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of the dozens and dozens of boots that i've
bought throughout the years there are some i wish i hadn't welcome i'm Carl Murawski and
this is the channel that helps you own less and own better first up are these paul evans
double monk strap dress boots and honestly these really count more as like a dress shoe than an
actual boot but there were a few issues that came out right off the bat the first one was they wore
way quicker than any other shoe or boot that i had at the time now these were the most expensive
boots that i had bought to that pier that point it was like 475 bucks and my alden cap toes were way
outlasting these things they just they just seemed to deteriorate every time i wore them so that was
the first part and the second part was some of the imagery that paul evans was using they were they
were showing these awesome like patina paint job boots and shoes that looked stunning you know even
in some of their collaborations that they have done with other makers i know they did one with
articles of style and stuff they look great but the ones that i got were way different and even
the images on the website showed these incredible like painted awesome looking boots the ones that
i got were kind of mundane i mean there was a little bit of that but not very much definitely
not even close to the level that they showed on their website or social media so i was pretty
disappointed when i got them and to be honest with you i just don't wear them that much anymore
number one i think it's pretty dated style you know the whole double monk thing was really in
a while back but uh these just have found their place at the back of my closet sometimes
i'll take them out and look at them and go yep that was 475 bucks down the drain just not
worth it would not recommend and definitely wouldn't buy again now number two is the duke
chelsea boot from thursday boots i bought this boot originally you know it was a while back in
my channel you could actually go and watch the original review and i was really happy with them
i wore them quite a bit they were very comfortable but then something started to happen after like
about a year or so they started to just go flat and i felt like i was literally standing
on the pavement there was no real support uh the poron or whatever they used for that insole
had collapsed so it was just solid and honestly they're just very uncomfortable to wear unless
i was sitting down for most of the day which is like never the case so you know originally and for
the first year i love these boots they were great and you know honestly now i don't even think
they're very good looking boots number one i don't like the kind of squared elastic section
that they have i'm not a fan of two-tone leather anyway um there was probably just a bit of like
excitement when i bought them and i didn't want to admit that you know maybe they were kind of ugly
but a lot of people love them and actually when i sat down and talked to connor one of the founders
of thursday boots he did tell me that they're constantly refining their boots so the duke
that you buy right now is not the same duke boot that i bought so hopefully they've improved
they've gotten better i know that they have taken a lot of feedback from people especially on their
jackets and refined their product to to make a better overall product and i can't fault them
for that i actually give them a lot of credit so it's cool you know i spent 200 bucks on them
it seems like thursday boots and arizona iced tea are the only things that just don't seem to
be changing their prices in these crazy times so i give them a lot of respect for that uh
but that being said there's still a boot that i wish i had never bought number three the wool
rich yankee boot now this was a boot that i had bought at the time i saw an article on dappered
and i was like man those look pretty good and the price was right they were on sale and i think they
were like 250 bucks and you know to be honest with you they're not a bad looking boot but the problem
was that when i wore them when i first put them on they were a bit tight a little narrow is what
i should say and i kind of didn't think at the time anything of it i was sort of a novice at the
whole boot thing i figured they would stretch and eventually it would be fine well they stretched
all right and that problem was is that they were narrow and my foot is an e-width so i found
that i was actually kind of standing on the welt that's how bad they fit and that was very very
uncomfortable you know especially like i said i mean i spend a lot of time on my feet so i'm
when i'm walking around or standing or whatever i could definitely feel that enough so that i
was like i i gotta get rid of these and i gotta get something else and actually that was when
i started to look in knicks boots so it was my own mistake the boot itself really isn't all that
bad they just didn't offer in a lot of widths and uh to this day i don't think they even offer that
boot anymore but if you could find it on ebay or grailed or something like that just know that they
sort of run a little bit narrow other than that i think they're a pretty cool looking boot number
for my doc martin 1460s i bought these boots these are the made in england versions i bought
these boots when i was gonna do the history of the doc martin boot and i did that a few years
ago and i was thinking that i would sort of have the boot of my high school years which i loved i
mean i wore them all the time you know as a metal head and kind of like you know i was in in bands
and stuff like that that was kind of like our default uniform right it was jeans uh 1460 or
taller doc martens and like a band t-shirt and that was kind of what we were you know so
i thought that i'd be recapturing my youth in a way with those great boots that i remembered
and they're not bad okay especially the made in england ones they're definitely not bad as far
as compared to the main line but i gotta tell you uh they're just too squishy they're sneaker-like
and that's the whole idea is like you know doc martens began as an orthotic like they would make
like you know orthopedic shoes for people so they carried over that airware sole which is very
comfortable very squishy a lot of a lot of give there but they're almost too squishy there's no
real support so when you look at that heel counter and just the overall structure of the boot it's
really you kind of swim in them when you walk you know you can feel it flexing around your
foot it's not a comfortable feeling over time for sure if you're gonna put them on and
kind of loaf around or hang out or whatever that's okay but i gotta tell you i just don't
wear them anymore uh they're not bad looking the qc on these wasn't really too bad so uh you know
i wish i could say that i wear them more but you know what 16 year old me is gonna have to remain
in the past i just don't wear these doc martens and i kind of wish i didn't buy them finally and
it pains me to admit this the john lofgren devil's causeway engineer boots they're beautiful they are
absolutely gorgeous made out of some great leather made in the way all john lofgren stuff is which
is very very very nice i just can't wear them i i could put them on but it takes me 20 minutes
to get these things on and another 20 minutes to get them off and i just don't have that kind of
time and most of the time you know in the morning you're putting on what you're going to wear for
the day often times in the morning i just don't have the the giddy up to go sit there and struggle
with this boot now i have done it maybe a couple dozen times but i got to tell you like not enough
to justify the cost these were thirteen hundred dollars and i have a high instep you wanna come
up what and i have a high end step which means the top part of your foot and that makes my foot sort
of tall right so getting that taller foot down that narrower shaft is just a recipe for disaster
now i've tried and have to use the plastic bag trick um which is you know it basically helps
your foot slide into these boots and you sort of rip them off to get them out i don't want to do
that every single time especially especially for 1300 boots and to be fair i really guess just i
didn't know what i was getting into at the time uh and it pains me to say because they're
beautifully made when they're on they fit just fine but you know that whole getting them
on and taking them off process if i had known that in the beginning i wouldn't have bought
these boots and now they sit there and they kind of mock me in the corner 1300 worth of
boot looking back at me and going hey you know why don't you wear me more and i just i can't do
it now i actually have reviewed all these boots i took down my paul evans review because i
actually did that before they really started deteriorating that was a lesson learned
way way early on in the channel which was you know what you've got to put some time into
your boots and learn about the product before you do a review because i did them after maybe a
week or two of owning them and wearing them around and uh they hadn't really shown their true colors
so besides the paul evan there are reviews of all these boots and you can see those in a playlist
that i've made for you right here now that's my casual boot playlist and inside there you'll find
all kinds of boots many of which i still own and i'm very happy with unfortunately the five on this
list they just don't make the cut and actually soon in the future i'm gonna get rid of all but
five pair of casual boots i just i'm becoming inundated with boots and and they're almost taking
over my life so i think it might be a fun thing to do and i'll make sure i document it with you to go
through the five boots that i'm gonna keep now the rest i'm gonna give to friends and family and put
up on ebay or grailed or offer them to my patreon or something like that um please don't email me
or message me asking about a specific pair because i i don't wanna get into that right now i will
be able to you know offer them up but uh anyway that'll be a time that you know in the
future we'll we'll go through that together anyway guys thank you so much for watching
appreciate it and i'll catch you next time