It’s been a few years since I made myself a hiking boot. (I gave the last pair to a lifelong friend with the same size feet.) It’s been even longer since I first got the pig suede I wanted to use for them. I really liked the sage green color when I saw it at the Footwear Materials show here in Portland. With some time on my hands during the pandemic, I had no more excuses to put this off.
The pig suede quarters are made by Wolverine – the tannery and brand perhaps best known for the Caterpillar (CAT) brand boots in a striking yellow suede. They treat their leather with a water resisting silicone. It’s flexible and seemed like a good choice for a hiking boot shaft.
The vamp and outside counter are Italian cordovan. The boots are hand sewn using double-stitch welted construction. The hidden feature is a basalt fiber footplate between the leather insole and leather midsole. It’s intended to put a little spring in my step. Basalt fiber is much safer to work with than carbon fiber, but the strength and function is the same. The footplate is quite stiff in the heel/shank section where the fabric is more compressed and flexible in the forefoot where the fabric is thinner.
A not so hidden, but maybe not so obvious feature, is the lack of back seams on either the upper quarters or the liner quarters. Why not? Finally, it is finished with a Vibram Montagna outsole.
