In many ways.
Yesterday was a bit of a shitty day. I thought I’d sourced a new supplier with leather suitable for the Everyday line facelift, but after making a test boot, I knew this likely wasn’t the case.
The leather temper wasn’t firm enough. I’d suspected this before starting the build, but the only way to really confirm it is through manufacture.
It’s always such a terrible feeling when things like this happen, but that’s how it goes. Back to the drawing (or rather, sourcing) board again.
Speaking of uppers, I’d mentioned briefly in the last Journal entry that a boot is like a car. And what I mean by that is, in many ways, a boot is very similar to a car.
I use this comparison when talking to customers, especially those new to the boot world. It helps them to understand what they’re getting for their money and why Outstation boots are perhaps different to other boots they’ve owned.
Not all cars have the same purpose.
I got a great question from someone a few weeks ago.
Referring to my two boot lines, Everyday and Frontier, she asked ‘what makes them different?’.
Now, the easiest answer to this would be to try them both on. Nothing beats experiencing the product on foot.
But that only works for people who come to visit me in the workshop.
If the question is asked through social media, I simply answer as follows.
‘Use case. This is the difference between the two boot lines.’
Let’s start with the Everyday line. It’s like the typical family sedan. Jump in it, drive from A to B, safe, looks nice, comfortable to sit in, easy to drive.
Now let’s go to the Frontier line. Think 80’s Toyota Landcruiser. A real 4×4.
Not particularly comfortable, definitely not pretty, found everywhere on Earth in all terrain conditions. They live forever, reliable, repairable.
Let’s now go a bit deeper with the comparisons.
The upper of the boot is the body of the car.
The upper of a boot is like the body of a car. Generally speaking (aerodynamics aside), a car body is simply there for aesthetic, to cover the cabin and chassis.
The body has a certain design language, appealing to a target customer group.
And, the body is what most people take in when they look at a car, immediately judging it from that viewpoint.
It’s the same with boots. The average person will look at a boot and make an opinion, purely based on the upper. And just like a car, this opinion will also include an aspect of quality.
Which unfortunately, has almost nothing to do with the aesthetic of the body.
The base of the boot is the chassis of the car.
This is where the real quality of a boot lies. And a car for that matter.
For simplicity, let’s say the chassis of a car is the engine, drivetrain, suspension; all the internal parts of the car that people don’t usually see.
The components of the chassis completely change the way the car drives.
It’s the same with boots.
The boot chassis, comprising of the welt, midsole, shank, filling, outsole and heel combinations, drastically change how a boot feels and performs underfoot.
So in the case of the Everyday line, the chassis is built for comfort. It’s the family sedan.
Thin midsole, EVA filling and leather shank, soft wedge sole.
For the Frontier line, the chassis is built very differently. Thick leather midsole, cork filling and metal shank, firm sole unit with heel. The equivalent of a 4×4.
Into the depth of the chassis.
Let’s go deeper down the rabbit hole.
For both cars and boots, the chassis consists of all the bits and pieces that most people have never heard of, let alone seen.
It’s technical, complicated and often boring as hell.
The outsole is the set of tires.
When I tell customers that Outstation boots are designed to be resoled, they’re amazed. Particularly the younger generation.
People know that worn out tires can be replaced on a car, but the awareness that the same concept can also apply to boots is slowly dying.
That being said, after receiving this info, many customers change their perspective on buying an ‘expensive’ Outstation boot. From something they thought could be worn a year or two, to something that can be used for many, many more.
Outsole is worn out? No problems. Take it off, replace it. Cheaper than buying a new pair of boots.
Need a more rugged outsole? Also no problems. Take it off, change it to something more hard wearing.
It’s no different to tires on a car. In the summer, regular tires are just fine. But in the winter, it’s a different story.
Winter tires are far more suitable in cold, wet weather. Softer rubber, deeper tread. A different tire for a different use case.
If people treated their car like their footwear, they’d be throwing out the car every time they needed to replace their tires.
The shank is the suspension.
In a car, how suspension is set impacts the ride. Within the chassis of a boot, it’s the same concept, with the shank taking the role of the suspension.
A metal shank adds torsional rigidity. The boot won’t bend or flex. It’s the same as having stiff suspension in a car. Stiffness make sure that the car doesn’t roll around when turning sharply. It keeps it planted to the ground.
Stiff suspension is often found in a 4×4. And the Outstation boot equivalent, the Frontier line.
Conversely, a leather shank is like soft suspension. It gives comfort and flex. Soft suspension in a car is great for city traffic and casual driving, because passenger comfort is the priority.
As it is in the Everyday line.
So, don’t underestimate the shank. Because just like a car, the right suspension setup can really change how a boot feels underfoot.
Price depends on the chassis, not the body.
This is where the consumer is usually misled. Or rather, uninformed.
And it holds true for both for cars and boots.
Humans are humans. The eye looks at an object and bases decisions purely on what it sees. For most people, if they like the look of a product, then it’s usually worth the price.
The problem here is that this concept of ‘worth’ is based on the body of a car, or the upper of a boot. The aesthetic.
But in actual reality, how a car or a boot performs, is almost exclusively related to the chassis. The part that people don’t look at, let alone consider.
And, for a high quality product, it’s where a majority of the manufacturing cost goes. To achieve that desired performance.
If the customer doesn’t care, the manufacturer won’t care.
Let’s focus on boots now.
Because a consumer looks at the upper to make their purchase decisions, it means that brands put the majority of their design effort into this.
Conversely, it also means that they don’t need to put effort into the boot chassis, because few customers actually take this into their decision making process.
Crazy right.
The part of the boot that is the most important, that really determines how it performs for a particular use case, isn’t even considered by the average consumer during the purchasing process.
And because of this, the majority of brands will simply cheap out on the chassis. Meaning, using whatever they like on the inside, at the lowest possible cost.
Paper, cardboard, plastics. Then cap it off with the cheapest sole possible.
Quality comes at a cost.
Only if a customer cares about quality will manufacturers care about quality.
The challenge though, is that quality comes at a higher cost, not always accepted by the market.
For example, when wanting to upgrade from an EVA wedge to a leather sole and heel stack, my customers pay upwards of 60% additional to the base price of the boot.
I explain to them, the labour time has significantly increased. Building and stitching a leather outsole and heel means working with tougher, higher quality materials.
It can take up to 4x as long to build compared with simply cementing on a wedge sole. Because higher quality generally means higher complexity.
Now, if somebody wanted to change their family car chassis to a 4×4 chassis, there would also be a significant cost to this.
Somehow people can understand this, yet can’t understand that the same (proportional) complexity can exist upgrading the chassis of a boot.
So, higher quality is due to higher complexity, which leads to higher cost.
To upgrade an EVA wedge sole with a leather sole and heel stack, only costs the customer an additional 60% of the base price. Despite the upgrade taking 4x the labour time and 6x the material cost.
The math isn’t mathing. Well, for the business that is.
The small details matter.
Within the boot and car world, these are the final differentiators that really sort the wheat from the chaff.
I’m talking about the heated memory seats, the interior lighting, the hidden storage spaces, the component finishings, the soundproof cabin, the smart controls.
These small details all add up.
And after driving a car with them, driving a car without them becomes much more noticeable.
It’s the same with high quality boots.
Rolled edges, backing on the eyelets, solid metal speed hooks, leather heel counters, breathable materials, anatomical last shapes, leather insoles.
These all add up in how the boot feels and wears underfoot. And once trying them for any significant amount of time, it’s impossible to go back.
Branding helps tremendously.
From the majority of people, they’ll look at two boots with a similar design, and think ‘oh, it looks the same, so it must be more or less the same’.
It’s a similar story when the average person looks at a Mercedes-Benz AMG and compares it to a standard production Mercedes-Benz.
They look (more or less) the same.
However, this is where the comparison between cars and boots now finishes.
Because for cars, even if someone isn’t lucky enough to compare both Mercedes-Benz variants by driving them, the marketing money spent by the brand still leads to product differentiation awareness.
That is, irrespective of whether the customer actually knows about the quality difference between the two cars, they’re still aware that there is a quality difference.
Within the boot world, we’re still at a more basic level. People aren’t even aware there can be a quality difference between two boots.
Or perhaps it’s just not as important to the average footwear buyer, as opposed to the average car buyer.
Is there a moral of the story?
A boot is like a car in so many ways. Both even get you from A to B. And just like cars, they come in a variety of qualities, price points and use cases.
Many similarities. However there’s also a major difference. It’s not technical at all. It’s actually a difference in consumer perception.
Compared to cars, footwear isn’t viewed with any level of complexity. Everything is just assumed ‘simple’ which also means, cheap’.
And outside of branding, fewer and fewer people truly know why an expensive boot, is expensive.
This isn’t any fault of anyone, it’s just how the footwear industry has evolved with time. Towards a simpler, cheaper and lower quality product.
Of course it can be argued that manufacturers and brands move in this direction because of the consumer. But on the same note, the majority of manufacturers and brands will also find ways to maximise profit, given any opportunity to do so.
Anyway, for anyone still reading this out there, here are my final thoughts.
Please don’t judge a boot by its cover.
