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Hi! I'll tell you straight up that this is a blog about steel toed boots.
Nope, no girl troubles, or in my case fiance troubles.
Boots.
So listen. Once upon a time, me and my now fiance were in dire financial straights. So I was forced to "man up" and embark on a ridiculously difficult and dangerous labor job. Against my ideal life, I'm still working at this same job almost 2 years later. I've been chewed out for being on L&I (worker's comp for injuries occurred on the fucking job), a visit to the E.R., a surgery, and tons of pain from said injuries and many unmentioned injuries. Life is what it is. You do what you have to.
But no, I could write thousands of words about those problems, and others that include nepotism, misuse of funds, and downright sexism, as well as intense slob-knobbing.
These are things I can't control. All I can control is my output and my attitude. And my sanity.
Our shop is massive. To find someone you have to walk quite a distance. The sales office is on the opposite side of a warehouse the size of three warehouses. The higher-ups are far upstairs. The installers are outside and widespread. Even my primary work area is quite vast. We have seven shop stations ran by only four people that span all warehouses. As you might imagine, industry standards require steel toed boots, that are also leather. Lots of glass, among other things, before you ponder. I've burned through quite a few pairs of shoes and boots working. And in the case of footwear, the price seems correlated to quality.
Having about $100 dollars in my name at the start, I bought a pair of shitty Wal-Mart steel toed boots. They cost $30 and they fit terribly. They felt three sizes too big and the had were incredibly uncomfortable. Also, they were high tops. Why is noteworthy? Oh, I don't know, because whatever crap was in the pleather/vinyl shit was rubbing against my calves and was giving me hives. Never in my life did I have an allergic reaction to goddamn footwear. A nightmare.
My local Payless Shoes had NO steel toes in their store. Literally isles of shoes but no practical work shoes.
I threw out those fuckers and went to Big 5 Sporting Goods. Surely this place must have something I can use. They had only 2 pairs of steel toes. One were widefoot romeos (definitely not a widefoot), and some CLEARANCE boots, for again, $30 dollars. Obviously not leather, but high-top. They were pretty comfy, did not make me break our in blisters, and the fit was fair for the price. With the amount of work and strain and movements I do, the boots fell apart in 2 months. The soles had completely separated. There was kind of a double slap when you walked. I had at some point wrapped duct tape around my soles to my aglets. Needless to say the company safety manager noticed this quite quickly. It was time to move on...
I found a new avenue: Shoes For Crews. I had experience with their non-slip shoes, which fit well enough and were pretty durable. So I bought a pair of their steel-toed boots for about $70.00, non-leather again. These babies held up for about 6 months. I've pushed the last 5. They squeak with ever step and feel one size too big, and the steel plate began to give calluses on the top of my toes. But before they callusized they were painful bloody scabs. Pleasant! Eventually, the sole separated from the toes and the steel plat. I could sink my index finger all the way though my toes down my toes across the steel plate. Water leaked through if I stepped in any puddle deeper than 1/16 of an inch.
So I gave up. At this point (over a year into my job), I was no longer a broke-ass scraping by and could afford to make a real investment in footwear.
I noticed my fiance had a pair of steel-toed Doc (Dr.) Marten's that still looked near new, years later after she bought them. Of course, her were more like "biker boots," but for work boots, I investigated and found their consumer ratings were very high for men's work boots. What was initially concerning was that I found a cool pair that I wanted (full leather, thick sole, steel toe, rusted brown finish), but they did not sell half sizes. I am a 10.5 (US) through and through. 11's are MASSIVE, and 10's run a high probability of bloodying my toes. Due my prior boot purchases I decided I'd rather roll the dice and take a size too small that might fit snugly vs a larger size that will slide around and scrape up my foot and knock around.
Finally, my boots arrived.
And they fit like a glove. They have built in insoles (my experience with insert insoles with boots previously was beyond negative), were full-leather. The look great and feel so comfortable, better than any casual pair of shoes I own even (I have a lot of shoes... none of which I wear these days). They didn't feel like a half or full size too small. They were juuuuuust right. I can walk in them for hours and my feet don't hurt like crazy like in my SFCs.
So I guess the moral of the story is, nothing at all. But on a personal note, being a cheap-ass, and being resistant to buy real shoes, cost me to lose money in the long-run, and put great strain on my feet, ankles, and back. Had I made the initial investment of pricy high-rated boots to begin with, I probably could have avoided my inconveniences (shopping, pain, wear-and-tear).
This blog has no real purpose. I've been drinking for the last 5 hours and I put on my boots again and I was like, "I must tell the world!" Meh. A bit of a tangent from my previous blogs, but it's nice, as an American consumer, to actually feel satisfied with something you paid for. It is a rare occurrence.
My current beer is called "Odin's Gift," and is an Amber Ale brewed with Juniper berries. Actually much better than I expected.
Meh, just having an okay day really. A rarity as of late with my health, and among other things.
Please utilize your weekends to the fullest extent! I have to work on Saturday, but I'm hoping the lot of you will get out with your buds or your lady friend and let loose! Cheers
 
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Beer and quality footwear are two of my favorite things in life. It sounds like you've learned an important lesson! "too poor to buy cheap" as the saying goes... too bad this runs directly counter to what consumer economy is all about! enjoy your use-value 
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Good blog. Makes me remember Sam Vimes's economic theory based on boots
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness." - Terry Pratchett.
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oh shit thanks for reminding me of that quotation, that's awesome... gonna put that on file. Do you have a page number and which one is that from again?
edit: omg there's even a walter benjamin intertext here, pratchett u so erudite
edit: @below, thanks anyway
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Glad you like it - it's from Men at Arms I think. I just googled Sam Vimes and wet feet, so I don't have the page number.
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At least no one tried to steal your car this week!
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I clicked on this thread thinking I would find a horror story about buying a cheap pair of boots and the steel plate failed causing you to lose your toes.
Glad that wasn't the case.
Very informative, i'm looking into some new work shoes as well and I will for sure keep this in mind.
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Yeah I guess paying for that extra price for a good quality products helps in the long run compared to just buying some cheapskate products that wear of once you used it for one good year.
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Nice find on the socio-economics example. My Resource Economics prof stressed the important of durable goods and in the same breath, the importance of renewable and maintainable resources and amenities. Still I ignored the logic, due to low income, and my personal cheap-assedness as I admitted. My truck was very inexpensive for my needs (though currently problematic), my laptop was the cheapest one at Best Buy (and it sucks, really sucks), and all my boots and shoes wear out quickly (Vans/Adidas... why do I buy you?). The trouble with being a very very frugal man is I let my nearsightedness of money and immediate goals cloud the logic that I'm actually taking higher risks or possibly spending more over time with certain products just to save a buck today. It's embarrassing now that I think of it...
On November 10 2012 11:59 Probe1 wrote:
At least no one tried to steal your car this week!
Yes... A hell of a month it has been for me... Actually didn't crack the top 3 for shittiest occurrences 
Speaking of which the car is barely running anymore. It dies on me about three times a day now. In the spirit of resolving not to be a cheap ass, it's time to bite the bullet and sink some money into that (or a new) carb. That truck has almost 300k miles on the body, and the engine behaves similarly despite being much newer comparatively. The clutch is sticking, too. Getting harder to shift everyday... Responsibility!
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Wow what a boss. Good on you for sticking it through and being a real man haha ><
I guess there are a few things you and we as the audience can take away from this story. Keep on truckin' yo.
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A company I was working at (where I absolutely did not need Steel toes) was about to move to a new lab, and had me go and take a look. So my coworker and I went to go buy some steel toed boots on company dime. So he bough a pair for like 170, and I bought a pair for 130.
Free boots! And I eventually moved to a different job where I needed them! so yay! And I've grown attached to them, but they're kinda worn out now.
And I work in an office now, where the most dangerous injury that can occur is a papercut, so I have no pressing reason to buy a new pair.
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Redback boots are pretty good, they make them in australia.I always stay away from the Chinese made ones as the quality varies too much but i have had good use form the redback ones - it has been two years and the stitching is still completely intact.
Still, if you are on a budget try looking through thrift stores.I picked up a pair of lloyd dress shoes made in Germany for $8 that lasted me 2-3 years for my weekend hospitality job.Quick tip on cheap dress shoes - the sole will come away from the rest of the shoe especially when they get wet that is the main problem you will have.
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Damn, i wanted to post that Vimes quote, so fitting.
As for the boots - i wear steel toed boots for most of the time, i think it's fair to say that i only wore other kinds of shoes on about 100 days in the last 10 years. With that said, i got a bit of experience with boots. My first pair actually lasted for 4 years, they were Knight's Bridge Rangers and i simply loved them but after that i never got the same quality. Nowadays after a year the soles are so thin that they begin to crack. I hate it, i want my Knight's Bridges back =/
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I pay about £30 for mine and wear rigger boots most of the day.
The only reason i'm adding to this blog is that I took my steel midsole out of my last pair of boots to have a look at it the other day and it had sheared in two, so there was no protection along the shear.
There were also lots of perferations (this is only about 1mm of steel) which could easily have been nails or sharp objects in my feet.
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EPT
