1 YEAR with the RED WING IRON RANGER (2022) STILL Worth It?

a year ago i picked up this pair of red wing iron rangers and i finally bit the bullet i went out i picked one up i picked up a pair for myself and i've been wearing them for the last i'd say about three weeks now at this point that i've been wearing them so did you notice frank the plant back then look at him now look at how good he looks huh over the year i've put these boots through some tough rugged conditions at first i liked them but how do i feel now find out here on blue spy [Music] oh yeah guys thank you so much for joining me my name is william this is boot spy i've owned these iron rangers for one year now so this review is going to be basically assuming that you don't know much about the red wing iron ranger or if you're looking to buy it i'm going to talk about it from that perspective and give you my experiences over a full year of wearing this boot what i like what i dislike all those good things so let's get it kicked off with the style so i wear a lot of slim fit jeans and i noticed that any jean with a significant amount of taper below the knee it just doesn't really look all that great with the red wing iron ranger i think you need a beefier pair of jeans with a wider leg opening so i do have some jeans that work really well with the red wing iron ranger but i can't wear it with everything that i own i found out i actually really like wearing the red wing iron rangers with chinos more so than jeans and that's a little bit unusual but it is because this bulbous toe cap now this is a pretty big toe cap especially if you compare it to something like you know like a thursday this is the thursday logger but this is very similar to the thursday captain but you can just see the difference in that shape of the toe this is way more bulbous it's not quite as versatile as a dressier boot like the thursday captain or the thursday logger in that case so you're gonna have to watch out for that but if you like to wear jeans you know either regular fit jeans or anything with a wider leg opening then the red wing iron ranger fits really well into that category as for leather quality these have actually held up really well considering the fact that i've conditioned them like 20 times just for different videos in this channel i basically over conditioned these a little bit because i'm just making these videos like how to take care of your iron ranger that one video where i just cleaned these red wing iron rangers for like 15 minutes in total silence so i've done a bunch of cleaning on these and i was worried about actually over conditioning the leather but i've gotten a lot of use out of these the leather while it is packed with oils and waxes it does you know it's a very sturdy leather you can see that it's starting to crease a good amount along the toe here and that still looks pretty good uh there's no significant nicks and scratches even though i have like beat these up i've gone all over town with them i have not been super nice to them you could see maybe you can see a little bit of you know discoloration along the toe but ultimately it's like for one full year of wear this leather has held up super super well this is from the sb foot tanning company this is that amber harness so it takes a while to break in it i wouldn't say it's stiff at the beginning it's just the mainly the heel takes a while to break in i definitely had some blisters within the first three weeks or something like that and i talked about it it's probably one of the harder boot break-ins that i've had and one of the longer ones and you're still getting blisters like three four weeks in but eventually your foot kind of sinks in that heel softens up a little bit and it starts to become really really comfortable one of the things i love about the 811 the amber harness leather is that it's pretty matte in appearance it does not have much shine to it but it also doesn't pick up scratches easily at all so you can put this boot through some significant you know you can beat it up and you see some pictures here where i'm walking it through the mud it's totally caked and you just clean it off the dirt doesn't scratch into the leather and it looks pretty much i mean look at this it looks pretty much like it did straight out of the box for a better idea of how it's going to patina over time you can take a look at the tongue and you can see where there's some dark spots where that kind of starts to rub in and you can see it's wearing a little bit in tongue where those those nickel eyelets are but these are like uncapped they're just folded over so these are pretty intense this proves that this is thick sturdy leather the fact that these nickel eyelets the inside have them hasn't like worn through that and into my foot yet uh so it's still doing super well looking at the soul quality this is a 270 degree goodyear welt and it has a vibram mini lug sole on it this is a super super hard rubber much harder than the rubber on many of the other boots that i have even some other vibram rubber soles i'm going to use the thursday logger again as an example but this is a much softer rubber right here and the vibram mini lug super super hard but it offers some pretty good slip resistance oil resistance and it's pretty grippy decently grippy my biggest concern with any pair of boots is how the heel is going to do i tend to whenever i walk i get a slanted heel just i guess i drag my foot particularly my right foot i guess i'd drag it on the ground and so it tends to really wear that heel down so that it just becomes that doesn't look it doesn't really affect the performance it just looks weird when you're walking so to see how that's done over a year it has held up really really really well and i wasn't sure how it's gonna do this is probably the pair of boots that i've worn the most over the last year there is a little bit of wearing down but i'd say it is i mean you might not even be able to tell on camera if anything it's super minor so that is really pleasing to me the sole is made out of leather and cork and for the first four weeks like i said it was not comfortable at all it felt like standing basically on a piece of wood or something like that all day but because it's leather it's natural materials your foot definitely breaks into it just gravity takes its course foot breaks into it and then it kind of feels like it's a custom insole um in some ways and it becomes much much more comfortable so when i put these on now after a year of really wearing them these really do feel like i've fully broken them in and that they're definitely formed to my foot a lot more than most pairs of boots i have if you have anything with like synthetic insole or midsole just doesn't really gently caress your foot or feel like when they say fits like a glove well this fits like a glove for your feet like a foot glove now if you're looking to get your first pair of red wings i always recommend if you're just shopping online get a half size down from your regular size there's a lot of different debate for red wings there's lots of different people get lots of different sizes some say go a full size down some size full size get a wider width i don't know for all of my boots i just go a half size down that has worked really well for me for my red wing iron rangers blacksmiths for my red wing mocto and for the red wing classic chelsea which i don't have a review of but if you want like a full detailed breakdown of what everybody said about red wing boot sizing i do have an article down below that goes to bootsby.com you can check out my full detailed written article with like sizing charts everything that you need to know when picking out the right size for your red wing iron ranger in short if you want the quick and dirty i would go a half size down so i am a size 10 and a half in sneakers i picked up the size 10 in red wing iron rangers and it fits like a dream moving on to the durability now i've covered a lot of this already but just to keep it in the realm of durability like my biggest concern again was the heel that's done super well and of course the leather you know i have not been particularly kind to these boots i haven't been babying them one thing i have been doing is i do keep a pair of cedar shoe trees in there pretty much at all times because the red wing iron ranger more so than most boots it is really susceptible as you can kind of see maybe a little bit in this toe right here it is very susceptible to this part of the upper caving in so if you don't have a pair of cedar shoe trees in these at all times this will really it'll like come down to here you know the the toe cap it'll kind of deflate and it can make them look like clown shoes that's something i noticed i think i left cedar shoe trees out of them for about two weeks because i only have a limited amount and i have so many pairs of boots and i started to notice like oh those are looking messed up those aren't look good so now i always keep a pair of cedar shoe trees in there to keep that leather raised up and to keep this shape otherwise they do look a little bit like clown shoes so definitely get a pair of cedar shoe trees when you get your red wing iron rangers other than that uh through over conditioning the leather probably through caking it with mud cleaning it up the sole everything like that these boots are super durable they have earned their you know legacy in in boot dumb they've earned their legacy for being really tough really awesome boots let's get to the core of it if you haven't bought a pair of red wig iron rangers and you're looking at them and you're wondering are they worth it let's answer that question uh for me i coveted a pair of red wing iron rangers since i was in college of course they are over 300 most of the time sometimes you can find them under if you're getting like factory seconds or you see them on sale anything like that but generally these are over 300 and for a lot of people me included that is quite the expense so do you get a pair of red wing iron rangers when there are other boots on the market like say the thursday captain for 199 um there's some really good options out there so really like is this boot worth it i will say this there is a pretty significant difference between how the red wing iron ranger feels in terms of just its construction the way the leather is so supple the way it feels on your foot the way it makes you feel there is a pretty big difference between red wing and say you know a less expensive company like thursday this is the president now don't get me wrong i love thursday boots i love thursday boots for 199 this is a fantastic value but there is a step up in quality when you go to the red wing iron ranger if you're getting into boots and you want something that's really really high quality made in the usa uses usa leather all those things then it's really hard to go wrong with the red wing iron ranger it is a classic for a reason this is a fantastic boot if you want to save a little dough still get that rugged style then something like the thursday president or the thursday captain i would recommend the thursday captain i don't have it on me right now but the thursday captain that's something that gets you pretty much in the same ballpark but it's about 120 dollars less expensive and it's still really high quality it's a goodyear welt leather's pretty solid it's pretty good again it doesn't feel quite as sturdy as you know awesome as a red winged iron ranger does on your foot but it's going to get you most of the way there if you're really into american heritage there is no substitute for the red wing iron ranger if you're just looking for a stylish cap toe boot then i'd go for something like the thursday captain or the thursday president something that's just going to get you there look good and still leave a little bit of cash in your wallet for maybe a cool over shirt or a pair of jeans so a year ago when i first bought these boots my verdict was that yes you should get a pair of red wing iron rangers and it is still the same verdict a year later i'm even more convinced that this is an awesome pair of boots i am super happy that i i stumped up and got this pair of boots i've tried a lot of different boots in between now and then and this still stands out as one of my favorites as just a great casual boot i've been wearing it all this week because i knew i was going to make this video and i was super excited to bust it out even though it's still pretty hot here but it's just a classic i love the way this leather feels i love the way it's creasing i love the way it looks like a old school tough boot and it's just pretty hard to beat let me know what you think about the red wing iron rangers down in the comments below if you actually own a pair of these boots let some people are coming here they're watching for the first time they're wondering whether or not they should get these leave your thoughts down in the comments below it's super helpful for me and it's helpful for everyone in the community as well again if you haven't already please hit the like button and also hit subscribe both are super helpful for the channel and i really really appreciate it thank you so much for joining me and until next time put your best boot forward

As found on YouTube