I've wanted a pair of monkey boots forever, but the ones I tried didn't work for me. When I saw these on the Jones Bootmaker winter sale for $134, I decided to give it another shot. 25 days later, they arrived at my door. Yeah, this is my second purchase from Jones and it takes a long time to get across the pond from England to Philadelphia.
First, the album with commentary.
So first off, these are quite obviously private label Grenson, with only minor differences in eyelet count and details. Like many Grenson-labeled products, they are made in England and have some cost savings. I'm not sure if the $500 Grenson ones have the same shortcuts, but many of their India products do.
The biggest cheapout here is the insole. Rather than a veg tan leather bend, we have some kind of craziness under a leather overlay. There's some kind of fabric over padding which appears to be stitched to the gemming (or something) with a fiberboard half sole. It's comfortable and appears solid, but not sure how it might hold up with heavy use. I have an Imelda Marcos level collection however so I'll probably never find out. The biggest downside is the overlay, which is made of the same leather as the lining which is plasticky and seemingly impermeable, which does not bode well for breathability.
Moving on to the exterior, the uppers including lining clock in at about 3.5 mm which is pretty good. Tongue is 2.5. The leather is a waxy pull-up which has lovely depth but will show every scratch, nick, whatever. It's quite similar to Chromexcel but with less softening oil and more rigid wax. Break-in will be more of a challenge than I'm used to. I should also note that these felt very dry when they arrived and drank up Lexol like...someone who is very thirsty. In retrospect I should have used Leather Honey overnight as they are a bit too waxy now. I may need to hit them with Renomat and do so.
I read that Grenson's Indian line are "more handmade" than Northampton, presumably because it's cheaper to pay Indian workers $2/hour than buy a machine. It shows with these as there are a number of minor flaws, including some really weird welting. Overall, however, you'll see the same inconsistencies with Alden, particularly as they are hiring literally anyone with a pulse these days. But I digress. Overall th
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