Sagara Valiant

Lao Tzu wrote “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. I know I haven’t even journeyed a tenth of that during these 6 months but I’ve enjoyed the first step to the last in these boots. The journey almost didn’t start, but the good folks at Sagara and Standard and Strange made it happen when they knew they were for the Dome. My wife took the first pictures for me since they arrived when I was out of town for my job. The steps were few and far between for the first two months since the job I was on was a large demolition of buildings and infrastructure and I couldn’t wear them on site. Made me think I should have entered the work dome. Those two months were mainly steps to the job site and back, pubs, dinner, and weekend chores. After that I was able to wear them on less demanding field jobs and started getting in some miles. This was my first pair of Veg Tan Cloe Crust Horsebutt and the changes were dramatic as they were worn more and more, just as was advertised. I live in a normally foggy region, but this year we had record rain which always seemed to intensify the 1st to 5th of the month when photos were due. I took care of them mainly by using shoe trees and periodic brushing. They were lightly cleaned with a damp towel and conditioned with Smith’s Leather Balm twice before two of our biggest storms to help with water protection. Now that 6 months have passed and the Dome is over I am somewhat melancholy, but looking forward to the patina they will develop on the journey to the thousand miles.