Great boot at a great value crafted by great people in a great company with great customer service.

It seemed really cool, the concept that is, and I had never owned a barefoot shoe/boot before so I thought I'd give it a try!

Jim Green has a size guide for all their footwear on the site, and it corresponds to what last the footwear uses.

It was interesting since when the Barefoot African Ranger was released, the site had crashed due to traffic haha. When I realised I had gotten 1.5 sizes too large, I emailed asking for a size change and it then became just 1 size too large which was at least wearable.

As a foreword, I have never worked in this pair. I wore these to do everything in my life, from light hiking to walking in extreme weathers of wet, hot, humid and dry (Australia, baby) and they held up fairly well. Given that the stitching and midsole are waxed when received, these keep everything below the ankle fairly dry in rain and puddles. Sand, dirt and small rocks stay out for the most part, and they wouldn't be able to get in at all had I gotten my right size. Extremely comfortable for everyday use and very (surprisingly) light.

From my experience in leather footwear, this pair of mine have been the most breathable all-leather footwear I've owned, not only due to thinner thicknesses being inherently more breathable, but also the nubuck aspect itself acting as a tight mesh yet mesh nonetheless in comparison. Break-in of the leather was easy; it wasn't stiff much at first and it only got easier to flex over time. This applies for nearly all nubuck: scratches show easily and can be rubbed out easily. However, for 'Fudge Crazy Horse' it almost retains a memory of where the scratches were, causing it to become lighter or darker depending on what happens to the leather in that area. For all leather, it gets darker or lighter at rolling parts, in the case of 'Fudge Crazy Horse' it becomes darker. The colour changed significantly when conditioned, almost looking like Jim Green's 'Houston Brown'.

For grip, it does well in the conditions I've been in and even on wet tiles in a rainy city (went there with friends), to me it performs better than some lug soles due to the softer Shore Hardness squishing and wrapping around what's underfoot more. The squishiness of the sole certainly does help with comfort as, from what I can tell, it aids in displacing my body weight across the whole sole. Unique sole, and triangles are cool :)

The worst part of break-in for the Barefoot African Rangers would have to be on my instep for the first 2 weeks, the pain was unbearable if I laced even slightly too tight. My guess for this pain would be the unique eyelet pattern piece and gusseted tongue not being formed to my foot and laces, causing a high pressure point. It's an all-leather, barefoot, resoleable footwear and there's nothing else like it on the market being made at this scale or cost. "You can get it fast, cheap, or good, but you can only pick two," is something which is nigh universal except when it comes to Jim Green, in which case you get all three.