2 Flaws Ariat Fixed – What You Are Supposed To Get For A $150 Boot

So
the Carhartt video is kind of blowing u,p and I did not see that coming.
So I thought I''d record a little extra intro for this Ariat
boot video because both of these are around $150
and so I thought that might give a little context to why I was so upset
with these carhartt boots. Because one of them is clearly not
a work boot and the other one is clearly a work boot.
And I actually recorded this video about a month ago but Ariat Wanted to wait a
month until their sale that started yesterday. So
it ended up working out perfectly. Because then you're going to see kind of
what you're supposed to get for $150 for a work boot and you can save a
little bit of money. So I added three links to the description.
One is to the listing for this boot.

The other one is to save 10%
by signing up for their email list that you can use on this boot, and then the
third link is to the sale they have going on that has all the other
products and boots that are on sale right now. So thanks to Ariat for
sponsoring this video and check out those links in the description.
Now let's get back to last month me talking about these boots, cut them in
half and then we'll go back to current me at the end of the video to kind of go
over what you're supposed to get for a work boot that's under $150 or
around $150.

So if you've been watching my channel
for a fair amount of time you know i'm a pretty big fan of this
work chelsea style boot because they're super comfortable. Like if you're
standing on concrete all day it's- it's hard to beat this style of boot. And
they're super easy to put on but there's some pretty big negatives
associated with this style of boot that you kind of have to take into
consideration when buying these, and Ariat has attempted to fix two of
those issues. What are those two issues? The first one
is: because they're basically all foam you don't have a whole lot of support
through the sole. like you would with a normal style boot. There's just a lot
more torsional flex. But what Ariat has done is they- the shank
that they put in this boot kind of forks off into a Y to give you a
little bit of extra support.

So I'm really interested to see
what this shank actually looks like and if it's really wide enough to
give you extra support, or if it's just kind of a
branding or marketing gimmick. The next thing
is these boots are terrible at being puncture resistant because they're all
foam. A nail will just go right through them.
And most of the other brands, they use a fiber board which is going to
give you some protection and most of the time you're not going to
experience too much issue with standing on nails.
But Ariat put a layer of Swen flex into this.
So now let's kind of go over the information on these boots
starting with the brand. So clearly it's an Ariat boot. The style is the Turbo
chelsea waterproof boot. The color I got is the
aged bark but it also comes in black. These retail for $139.95
and they're made in China.

So before we actually start ripping these apart let's
go over some of the features of them and kind of the information that we can
gather before cutting them in half. So let's start
with the leather. So this is a full grain kind of a suede texture leather where
they just buff the top texture to give you just a
little bit of that suede feel, but it's still a full grain leather. It's chrome
tan and it's waterproof. The next thing is
these are a non-metallic boot. So when it comes to electrical shock or
going through the airport you're not going to get buzzed for that
in either of those situations. They're puncture resistant like i mentioned
earlier and they also have a few different options for the toe,
and the construction is a cemented construction. But I think what these guys
do, and this is maybe how they do the other
boots too, is while the polyurethane or PU midsole is still soft,
or maybe they re-soften it, they attach the upper so it's kind of
molded to the midsole.

So you don't get any big
lumps or anything in there, and it just adds to- makes it a
stronger construction. And for the general layers of what we know
so far, the outsole is a TPU or thermal polyurethane outsole
which is oil resistant, slip resistant, and non-marking.
And it's basically just a harder compound, so you have that
wear resistant layer on the outside that still adds a little bit of comfort. And
then you go to the midsole, which is the PU midsole,
which gives you all that comfort and all that squish that's associated with these
boots. And then I think from there you've got
the swan flex puncture resistant insole.

Then from there on the inside
here there's a little bit of a lining, and i think this is kind of like a cool
max lining and kind of like what we saw in the
rockrooster where they add a layer to wick away moisture so you don't get a
super swampy foot. And then the leather upper, and that's
pretty much all there is to it.

And then- oh, I forgot the shank.
There's that shank in there as well. So I think that's what's inside of it. I
think that's everything. So now we just need to
cut it in half. Okay, we got it cut in half. Let's see
what's inside. Now that's a shank! That took me
so long to get cut out. I think it's crazy looking.
So if you look at it, this is the forked side.
It kind of helps prevent that torsional flex but more importantly,
this is the side that goes underneath of the heel
and adds a little bit of structure to the entire boot.

Because with it-
if the shank was just going from the start of the heel to here,
you wouldn't have nearly as much structure
through the heel and the heel could potentially move independently.
They kind of show a breakdown of what's inside of this boot but they definitely
undersell it. There is a lot in this boot. You know, I thought
that this was just gonna be about the same as the other work
Chelsea's- i'm so out of breath- but it's- there's a lot more tech in this
than I expected. I learned that the puncture resistant
layer is just underneath of this insole layer
because I dulled my knife up on it. So let's quickly go through the layers just
to identify what they are starting with the TPU outsole. Then we go
to the polyurethane or PU midsole. Next there's this little orange patch
here of a much softer foam for your heel, and then on top of
that is that swen flex layer.

Underneath that near the toe, it
looks like we actually have just a little layer of fiber board. Then
above that we've got a foam layer, and for the counter
is a composite counter that's reinforced. So now if we look at those two things
that they are trying to prevent or trying to fix with the work Chelsea,
the first one being the torsional flex and support of the shank,
I would say that they nailed it. At least from the outside looking in, it's really
hard to put this to the test, but if you were going to design a shank
to help prevent that, you would probably design
it just like this.

The next issue was the puncture
resistance. I don't think it's quite as puncture resistant as- say, like that like
a kevlar layer or even a steel layer like you see in some old school boots,
but it's an extra layer. It helps prevent- it's not going to be no-
it's not going to be anywhere near as puncture resistant or
proof as some other boots that actually are built for that, but it does add an
extra layer. I'm very surprised at how much they've
stuffed into this boot for $140.

I am pleasantly surprised at this boot.
So what are you supposed to get for a work
boot around that $150 price point? A full grain leather, a
dedicated counter cover, a real dual density outsole that
actually is going to be fairly wear resistant. You know, this isn't going to
be the most wear resistant outsole. You know, it's
nothing compared to like a vibram but it's going to be significantly
better than a really soft foam outsole. And then finally the
insides aren't floppy and gross. You know, like
when I was- if you listen closely in the "me cutting up the shoe"
part of the video you can hear me breathing heavy and you can see the
sweat all over my face because this one was so hard to tear
apart.

That's what you want in a work boot, not a floppy work boot.
So hopefully this adds some context to yesterday's video and why I was so
disappointed in these boots and what you're supposed to get for a
hundred fifty dollars in a work boot. Because,
you know, it's still a budget work boot when, at the end of the day you know you
can buy really nice work boots for $500 but not everyone can afford that. Not everyone wants that.
So for $150 this is around what you're supposed to get.
So if you like this video consider liking and subscribing. It makes a huge
difference. And now we're back to Moctober. We had
to take a little detour into Chelsea work bootland to get this
video out for Ariat, but next we've got- actually next video
is going to be me showing you guys how to clean up a
pair of these boots, because these white soles are
notoriously hard to get clean once they're dirty.
And I got a few techniques I think you guys will like.

And a lot of people ruin
the look of their upper when they add the
wrong conditioner or clean it the wrong way.
So I think this video of cleaning a pair of moc toe boots is going to be
Thursday, and then Thurs- then on Sunday is the Thoroughgood cut in half
video, and then onward and upwards from there.
So thanks for everything you guys do. See ya..

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