The Boot that BENDS LIKE A STRAW – (KEEN Ridge Flex Review)

keen just released these boots with the bellows 
flex their patent-pending feature that kind of   makes these shoes or these boots bend like a 
straw so we're going to cut them in half and   see what they're all about originally this was 
going to be just a short ad in a different video   talking about their new boot but I got these 
boots and I thought they were so cool because   technology doesn't really progress much in the 
boot world compared to the sneaker world so I   spent the last few days trying to convince um keen 
to let me do a dedicated video on this and they   let me do it so huge thanks to keen for sponsoring 
this video and be sure to thank them by checking   out these boots and their other boots that feature 
this little bellows flex via the link in my   description now let's go over the boot information 
so the brand is keen the model is the ridge flex   waterproof boot the color I have is the dark olive 
and ketchup it also comes in like a kind of a lime   green color they weigh one pound four ounces they 
retail for $170 and they're made in Thailand so   now let's go over the information about these 
boots before we cut them in half starting with   the leather so this is a full grain chrome tan 
leather that's waterproof and there's not a whole   lot of leather on this boot you know there's 
a lot of different parts that are fabric and   reinforced stuff but the leather that is on here 
is a nice pull-up leather that is waterproof and   I don't really know how thick it is we'll see we 
get it cut in half next to the lining the lining   is keen's lining material it's waterproof it's 
called keen dry it it's a breathable waterproof   liner the construction of these is I'm guessing a 
mostly cemented construction there's no stitches   around anywhere so the midsole is a EVA foam 
midsole so you get that nice squishy feel   underneath your foot the outsole is a really soft 
rubber outsole it's five millimeters thick and I   was actually surprised at how soft the rubber is 
so it's gonna be really grippy it might wear out   faster than like a Vibram but it's going to be a 
little bit more comfortable than to the fill and   look of these boots so keen or they're well known 
for their wider toe box boots we pull out this   insert or the insole you can see how it's kind 
of rounded more at the toe get a little closer   you know most of them are taper off kind of to a 
point but keep keen keeps their their toe boxes   really wide which is super nice for you I have 
narrow feet and it's still I hate having my toes   squished so people with wide feet love keen boots 
because they're always wide and you know they look   a little bit wide but they're not so wide that 
they're unbearable like some some white toe box   shoes and then this insert speaking of inserts 
is a PU foam insert just a nice squishy insert   not super thick but it'll give you a little bit of 
comfort and then underneath the insert is a knit   material that's that's Strobel stitched to 
that keen dry lining and that's kind of it   for the general construction of the boot some 
of the features that are that make this boot   different than a lot of boots is like they wrap 
this rubber toe guard up on top of the toe which   is nice it doesn't wear out as fast they've got 
the heel lock here which is a which is kind of a   classic mountaineering or hiking boot thing 
to do where they set this loop further back   so it sucks your heel into the boot so you 
don't get as much heel slip and then to the one   feature of this boot that really makes this boot 
stand out to me that's kind of progressing the   technology of boots is that patent-pending keen 
bellows flex well it's these two spots here at   the toe and around the heel that is a softer 
rubber that's kind of rippled like a straw so   that when you flex this boot while you walk 
the two parts the two spots in a boot that   flex most at that junction of the toe and at the 
heel that you're not stretching and flexing and   rippling leather you're you're unfurling this 
rubber kind of like a straw does when you bend   a straw the same kind of principle and I thought 
that was really unique because that's if you look   at any boot like these old iron rangers that we 
couldn't have that's always where you see the   first failure is right at the toe because you 
can see even on this this boot right here those   creases slowly just become deeper and deeper it's 
kind of like when you bend a wire over and over   it slowly fractures and breaks same thing with 
leather so that's why they've replaced those   areas with this bellows rubber here and you might 
be thinking like rubber wears out too but the cool   thing about this is keen's a big enough company 
they've run extensive tests on these and they've   tested these to a million flexes without failure 
so they're rated to a million flexes a million   steps how much I don't even know how many miles 
that is we'll do a calculation right there but   it's a lot of miles one thing I didn't even 
consider until I was reading their material was   that every time you take a step it takes pressure 
to flex your boot and so if you've got a big   heavy piece of leather over top of that it's 
taking muscle to flex that that part of the toe   versus this um rubber here it's a lot softer it's 
a lot more malleable it's really easy to flex   and keen says it's 60 percent easier to flex than 
a normal boot it should be an easier boot to hike   in it should be an easier boot to walk in with 
spending less energy and I'm really interested   to see how this is actually structured on the 
inside how thick is this rubber and is there   anything else reinforcing it to make it be 
able to last a million steps under water so   I think that leads to the next part of the video 
which is cutting it in half after we talk about   our sponsor privacy allows you to buy things 
online using virtual cards instead of your real   ones protecting your identity and bank information 
while you're shopping on the internet and right   now new customers automatically get five dollars 
towards their first purchase if you sign up so   go to privacy.com/roseanvil in the links in the 
description to get those five dollars for free   so how does privacy work so basically you create 
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your first purchase thanks again to privacy okay we got it cut in half let's see what's inside so the shoe is a lot more basic than I anticipated 
it's built a lot like kind of the red backs and   blend stones where you've got that really soft 
midsole and then a harder outsole but there's not   a whole lot to other than that you know you've 
got you've got the rubber outsole the EVA foam   midsole and then you've got some sort of shank in 
here which it doesn't necessarily need because it   doesn't really have much of a heel but it is 
nice to have it for when you're like climbing   ladders or hitting shovels you want some sort 
of shank in there it's not a super strong shank   but at least it's something there it's also more 
flat than I thought you know from the outside it   looks like it's got a pretty good heel on it but 
the amount of heel compared to the toe isn't very   much I'd say it's even less in like a blunt stone 
or some of the other typical boots and then you   can see on the inside we've got that waterproof 
layer with some backing on it and let's take a   quick measurement of the leather it comes in about 
two two to two and a half millimeters somewhere in   that range there's a few different spots with 
with various thicknesses but decent thickness   of leather it's gonna last a decently long time 
anything under two millimeters I get a little   bit concerned about when it comes to boots so 
this is a good range of thickness and then to   the bellows flex so it's pretty interesting how 
this is all structured so the actual thickness   is only one millimeter thick it's not really 
used in the same way as leather you know if it   was leather that was a millimeter thick I would 
be pretty concerned about it because a millimeter   thick leather at that toe where it's going to be 
creasing and pulling and compressing over and over   you're going to wear that wear that out pretty 
quick but rubber is a little different type of   material it's got different characteristics 
and the way that it's zigzagged like a straw   when you're flexing the boot you're not actually 
stretching or compressing the material you're   you're compressing and stretching the structure 
of the material which i thought was really cool   you know there's a reason that they use this the 
same style of uh bellows in like airbags with cars   like the the the shock absorption airbags in 
cars and and other industrial applications and   then what I thought was interesting is underneath 
it's backed by a kind of a matted backing I think   it might be just be there to add some structure 
so you don't get any hard pinch points that   are going to prematurely wear it out then for 
the counter you've just got a typical counter   for this price range with the cellulose based 
counter and the tongue is is gusseted up pretty   far too which is nice to see that and it's also 
waterproof because you know like we saw in those   sorrels that wasn't gusseted very high so they're 
only waterproof a couple inches up these are   waterproof at least up to that heel lock area 
so you got quite a few inches of waterproofness   so kind of an interesting boot I was really 
excited to see this from the inside and see how   it's all structured I think it's really cool that 
keen is trying to improve on the boot industry and   make new innovations and advances in technology 
because boots lack the advanced like boots boots   one of those things where it's almost favored to 
be traditional and not change things over making   advancements in the tech cons of this boot you 
know there's a lot of man-made materials in it   you know the lining I always prefer a leather 
lining but leather is never going to be as   waterproof as a synthetic liner with waterproof 
like this this keen dry it's going to wear out   more potentially but you know it's also lighter so 
there's pros and cons to it I don't I don't always   love the style of keen it's a very it's a very 
keen style um that's far and away from like uh   Nick's boots or whites or anything you 
know it's a completely different style   and some people like it some people don't but a 
lot of people love keen because of how comfortable   they are especially because the wide toe box 
and the soft midsoles and the soft outsoles and   yeah they're just a good all-around boot so pretty 
fun I'm glad I'm glad I was able to convince   keen to let me do this video because I'm it's 
really cool seeing this from the inside and how   it all flexes and and compresses almost like 
an accordion or a straw as you're walking   thank you guys for everything you do thanks again 
to keen and privacy be sure to check them out be   the links in my description and thank you guys for 
watching and subscribing and liking and watching   all my videos it literally is the only thing that 
makes these videos possible so thank you see ya!

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