I’ve been wanting a pair of Blundstones for ages, and so when I started ramping back up to the office I was looking for what boot I might buy to have a good pair of black shoes. Somehow I didn’t have any.
I found these on sale and jumped at the chance to try them out. These Dress Chelseas are fantastic.
Materials
There’s really only a few components to this: waterproof full grain leather for the uppers with elastic to help secure, and a TPU sole with cushioning. The magic is in the “SPS Max Comfort” system which is essentially a method for reducing impact to your heel when you step/move/whatever.
For now I’ll focus on the primary material: the leather. The majority of my shoes are leather and the majority show the same things: scuffs on the toes and scuffs on the inner heel of the shoes. These are high wear areas on any shoes or boots and leather tends to show these. The Blundstone leather here is slightly matte, maybe eggshell in sheen. And in the black color I have it takes the right angle of light to see any scuffs in them.
Even when you do get the lighting correct, you’ll find almost no scuffs which is unusual for my shoes. In fact I was taking out the garbage in these boots and the giant plastic wheel accidentally nailed the side of my boot at an angle — the type of thing that would put a serious mark in most shoes. It was hard to see on these, and then almost completely went away with a wipe of a damp cloth. A few days later I don’t see it at all.
This is seriously durable leather, and while I can’t speak to the waterproofing, I suspect there’s not a lot to worry about with these. The sole is likely to wear out before the leather.
Fit & Style
As with any boot, getting the sizing right is important. I wear 11.5 in Nike’s and many shoes, and 11 in others. I ordered an 11 after measuring my foot per Blundstones guide and hit the mark out of the box. Note that the half size increments don’t change the length, but change the width.
The style of these boots takes the classic Blundstone Chelsea design and applies a smoother/less aggressive outsole to it. The end result is a dressier looking Chelsea boot which only suffers from performance by having a less aggressive sole.
I love the way these look and fit. Overall they look great in the office and with a pair of jeans around the yard.
Performance
With boots there’s a wide array of performance attributes, but I’ll focus on three for these boots: comfort to your foot; breathability; and durability.
When you talk about Blundstone what you generally hear is how comfortable they are. I own a lot of boots, and in fact they are my most worn shoe type because if I am wearing pants I am wearing boots. The Blundstones are a top performer when it comes to comfort. They are soft but supportive under your foot. The entire footbed is really nice, but not so nice that they out perform other boots (GORUCK’s MACV-1s for example wear more comfortably over a longer day). They are certainly comfortable, and for the price you rarely see comfort like this, where you aren’t just buying a sneaker made to look like a boot.
However, the breathability does suffer in these as they are thick leather with no vents. The only breathable areas is the elastic on the sides to secure your foot into the boot. A thicker wool sock is recommended for these to help your feet regulate moisture better, once that is done I have had no issues wearing them in Houston during the summer — I would say they are on par with all other leather boots.
The last thing is durability. The leather here impresses me a lot, as it is very durable and will lead to a boot that looks good well past it being useable. Meaning that they are low-maintenance boots and not something which scuff the instant they see your foot slipping into them. That said, the lower profile sole doesn’t have as deep cut tread so it’s likely to wear out sooner, and these boots cannot be resoled. In the two and a half months I have had my pair, I don’t notice any concerning wear on the sole thus far.
Break In
With all boots we need to talk about break in periods and how that goes. I found that with these the break in is very short, but is needed. I only had a mild hot spot develop on one foot from my driving position, that went away after just two wears.
What took much longer to break in was the top edge of the boots. Getting the top to relax and mold to how you sit and stand took about 5-6 wears of the boots. And the first couple had the spots around the top edge of the boots feeling carpet burned. Switching to heavier socks resolved this after the first wear, and since then they have relaxed nicely to where it’s not an issue.
So the break in for these boots is at the top edge, and will take 3-6 days of wearing them to get feeling good.
Overall
I love these boots, and they are among my most worn. While you can get them from Blundstone directly, I found mine on sale at Amazon for a very good price. Knowing what they are now, I would be happy to pay full price, and would love to get another pair in brown as well — even if I have nothing but brown boots already.
They are comfortable, easy to slip on without worry. And they fit in a lot of situations. My wardrobe trends more Smart Casual in style and this dress variant fits that styling very nicely. If you are more casual then the standard Blundstones are likely the best bet for you.
Great boots, good comfort, and really durable leather on them making them the lowest fuss boots I own.
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