In between those two, if you're looking for something with the vibe of Guidis without being 1-to-1 dupes, I would highly recommend the Danish brand the last conspiracy. I have two pairs of boots from them - the white horsehide backzips (previous season, no longer for sale) and a crack-embossed calfskin chelsea. Their boots during season of release are usually $550-$700, but they put their models not currently in production on sale to get rid of them for pretty sizeable markdowns (my chelseas were $200 down from ~$400 and my backzips were $240 down from $600). The chelseas have stood up really well - I'm low-level leadership at a retail chain and wear them to work in my boot rotation and walk 20k-30k steps a day in them and they've done pretty well over 5 months of wear. The white backzips got some discoloration from sweat and me wearing crappy black jeans with dye transfer, but have also held up well and still look good with scuffs. Good construction - they use different methods depending on the model, with my chelseas being a 360 Goodyear and the backzips being a blake stitch while I've seen a couple of their shoes being Norwegian welt and their sneakers appear to use the side-stitch cup sole method of higher-end sneaker companies. They're a bit hard underfoot - after broken in, they feel somewhat similar to my Iron Rangers, so comfortable but fatiguing after a 9-10 hour shift - and I'm not a huge fan of how they handled the outsoles on my pairs with a round rubber under the ball of the foot and a rubber diagonal on the heel of an otherwise leather bottom, but they have pretty decent traction. The leather quality is decent but they use a lining leather - I believe calfskin on the chelseas and goatskin on the backzips. They also brand their shoes with their little clip insignia along the rear outside edge of the top of the uppers on their shoes, which I thought would be annoying but its pretty minimalist and gives them their own little flavor. They have a wide toe box - I wear a 10.5EE in Iron Rangers that fit perfect, EU 45 in Margiela fits perfect in my tabis but are bit narrow in my sidezips, and an 11.5 US in Converse fits me great, but an EU 45 in the both pairs [especially the backzips] felt a bit unsecure at first but it got better as I broke them in and the sole started conforming to my feet. This could be annoying since they only due whole EU sizes (and only between EU 38 and 47 in men's EU 35 and 42 in women's). Other brands that traffic in a similar space I can speak to are John Varvatos [don't recommend, leather quality is good but construction is unsound, have a pair of boots becoming unglued because they don't goodyear welt/blake stitch] and MOMA [I have a pair of riding boots where the not-so-great zipper gives me anxiety and the leather quality isn't so hot since it's suede with glove leather backing which is design specific, but I love the feel and it's blake stitched which is points]. I'm currently waiting on a pair of 10sei0otto backzips in the mail that I have high hopes for and my next big luxury shoe purchase is likely to be Pollacki which I have even higher hopes for. Last bit of advice is to go for Military surplus instead of looking for dupes if you want to go cheap. 1980s era Austrian Military Mountaineering boots can be found online at ~$90 and the leather quality is nuts for the price-point and they have some of that same rolling quality around where the ankle padding is. Post-1970 Vietnam-era US military issue Jungle boots are the real hotness though - canvas on top and mid leather for sure, but the sole is tough as nails and it's a stellar boot for the summer months with the built-in ventilation ducts and lighter material. If you leave the top two eyelets un-threaded and tie the laces around the ankle it gives a very pleasant Pollacki-esque silhouette to the boots and they're ridiculously cheap for the quality (I got mine for $30 from a military surplus store). Just make sure *not to get the reproductions* , the Fox brand and similar mil-sim LARP footwear are more expensive than era-authentic footwear and have a notably lower quality. It might take longer to find in your size, but it's worth it, they're made to take a beating and when they do they look even better since the wear on the black leather on the bottom reveals an underlying tannish leather that visually ties into the olive canvas of the upper once some of the canvas edges have started wearing into a similar color from abrasion. I also like Bunny Boots [got mine as a solution when I was walking an hour to work in the winter, cost ~$100] since they're ridiculous and make people smile any time I wear them and Desert Storm/Desert Shield-era military issue boots [~$50], which are like a different color variation on the Jungle boots with slightly worse sole and leather quality but they have the bonus of the speedlace system, which absolutely slaps.
Totally agree. Owned plenty and still own a few of The Last Conspiracy shoes. The horse culatta Chelsea boot I own is by far the most comfy shoe, and I can wear it all day in practically any weather. It held up extremely well for a couple years now. Also their sneakers are great, with the same (horse) leather quality. With some maintenance they look as good as new. And also worth mentioning that their soles are solid as hell, many times they use Vibram, but in general you practically don’t see any wear even after some years.
@@stwki5780 pretty much TTS I would say. Their boots are a bit tighter than their sneakers though. For every shoe they have the exact insole measures on their website.
well Guidi is first high end tannery that specialised for horse hide leather and from my understanding they are goodyear welted footwear that is resolable. the process of making that shoe and that leather makes them around 800e range footwear at best some seem as blakestiched that is usually overr 100e construction but still horsehide. that makes them fare higher range than Docs. i love Docs dont get me wrong but im really not shure about dupes being not glued construction that is usual in footwear under 100e
Awesome video!!! I just had a question though. as I also would like to get me a pair of Walker Vietnam 801b’s haha How do they fit ? What size would you recommend ? I really love when my shoes fit me really snug and so my usual size is 38eu in for examole Converse chuck’s which is really close to my feet and toes. Should I go true to size ? Or maybe size down ?
I for me it was a bit of a deal breaker, especially since I found the real guidis for a reasonable price, but it's up to you. The main deal breaker for me is I'm hard on my boots and I don't like needing to baby them. It's worth noting that scuff on the walkers came from just regular wear, not doing anything intense with them
it seems that the walker ones are just painted leather, instead of being object dyed as the guidis, for the price it think they are worth it, you can buy some black shoe cream to fix scratches
