RCS Review: The Billy Reid Terrance Boots

The older I get, the more I consider value when making clothing purchases.  I tend to spend less money on clothes these days, but find myself spending more at the tailors.  Footwear falls right in that line as well.  I’d rather spend more on a pair of shoes up front and know they will last for years.  The things I consider when buying footwear (beyond ‘style’ and fit): quality materials, good construction, and the ability to repair/resole.  Besides running shoes and Rainbows, I haven’t bought any footwear that hasn’t met that criteria for quite some time.

So recently I splurged.  I splurged big.  Florence’s finest Billy Reid released his Terrance boots as a second version to his famed Kentwood, and I couldn’t resist:

While these are necessarly ‘ranch-ready’ boots, they are exactly the style that I prefer – rugged enough but able to be dressed up.  I’m very picky about the toes of shoes, and these are great – they aren’t a big and boxy; they are slim and refined.  The leather is very unique – out of the box it is thick and waxy, which means that it will wear in perfectly.  The top of the boots are somewhat narrow so they will fit under slimmer fitting pants, and have pull-on straps held on with brass rivets.

The kicker for me is the thick leather sole.  They remind me of the double-stacked leather Gunboat soles on the old Florsheim longwings.  While these won’t have to be resoled any time soon, the ability is there.  The color is called ‘Anthracite’, which is a dark brown with a hint of gray.  Overall, I’m very happy.  Thanks to the good folks at Billy Reid Atlanta‘s store (total enablers) for sourcing a size 9 for me.  Now…off to break these bad boys in…