Wolverines: Weapon X footwear

I have too many pairs of shoes.  18 at last count. Compounding my problem is that this winter has been so brutal that I've worn shoes maybe 3 or 4 times.  Every other day it's boots.  And it's been very cold and very wet so serious boots are the only kind that are viable.  Fortunately I have some Sorels (which I thought was just a term for boots until I was about 13) and when I went home I found these in the basement.  Of course I couldn't wear them every day (alright... every other day) if they didn't play nice with my other clothes...

These Wolverine boots were my dad's work boots back when he was still banging nails.  And they've rapidly become my go to boots when the weather is bad, but not 3 inch pools of slush bad.  But no matter how old they are they're bulletproof.  When I first got them they looked like they do on the right, after a little snow proof paste and some polish they came right back to life (as you can see on the left).



Boots are something I feel very strongly about.  The latest workwear craze in the mens fashion world kind of depresses me.  I come from a small town in southern VT and my dad was a carpenter.  Workwear wasn't a trend, it was just clothes.  You bought decent clothes and wore them til they were work clothes, then wore those til they became rags.  A "workshirt" shouldn't cost $165.  I'll probably never own a shirt that expensive, much less work in it.

I don't say this to be down on people who like nice clothes and can afford them, but when I read about how boots should be "elegant" or keeping your ankles from "getting chilly" (I swear I've read this more times than I'm comfortable admitting) it confuses me.  Boots should look like this.-->  They should be banged up.  They should have scars from working, or trudging through slop.  You shouldn't have to dodge puddles, and if you regularly suffer from cold ankles... well, let's just say we probably have nothing in common (sartorially speaking).


Anyway, enough ranting, onto the multitudinous ways of wearing an awesome pair of worn work boots.

Your first instinct with boots like this might be to wear them with some heavy duty clothes, and you'd be right to.  They fit right in with a leather jacket and some dark denim.  This is what I wore this morning to deal with my flat tire.  Ashley likes to call it "my tough guy outfit" so I wear the rainbow scarf just to prove that I'm a total pussy not pretending to be a 1950's style street tough.

The great thing about these boots though, is that they don't look totally like normal work boots.  My dad, forward thinker that he is bought a vibram sole because he doesn't like the "wafflestomper" sole of a standard work boot.  This means they don't have to go with leather and denim, they match up equally well with the more academic fabrics from yesterday.

After finishing the errands and whatnot I had class, so I made the shift from hoodlum to nerd.  Boots stayed right where they were though (which made pulling on my pants and taking them off very difficult).  The look couldn't be more different, but the items can be similar.












Don't want cords?  Keep the dark denim.  Don't want the full blown sweater-vest/tweed combo?  Maybe you just use a sweater, maybe a different jacket.  Make the look a little more preppy.  Something like this.

You could even probably wear some heavy duty kakhi's with it, I just don't own any.

All of these looks are very different, different silhouettes, different color combos, different attitudes, but they can all take to the same footwear.  I think the fact that the footwear is some heavy workboots changes all the looks, makes it a bit more rugged and keeps it from being stuffy.  Serious boots should never be confused with elegant, beautiful footwear.  They should get beat up.  Hell, I wear these because they're so beat up.