Nicks
Falcon
Nicks Handmade Boots
After winning last year’s Patina Thunderdome with my LL64s, I wasn’t even planning on entering again, to be completely honest. I even pushed for an Esteemed Judge position but never heard back. I didn’t have a boot I wanted to make or a leather that I was in love with, and I felt like entering again might be overstaying my welcome. The competition is supposed to be fun, and I didn’t want to enter if it wasn’t going to be fun. My plan to not enter the contest was going so well that October 5th came and went, and I didn’t even have a boot on my radar. I did it! I missed the October 5th deadline. I was retired! 🤣 That’s when everything changed. The next day, I got word that a shipment of new leather from Horween was coming, and it was called Italian Brown Cypress. I had fallen in love with how the Cypress Grey looked and thought a brown version would probably look even better. So, sight unseen, I asked Shuyler, our owner, if I could get the first boot made from the leather. He said yes as long as I chose a standard model/configuration so we could get some photos. I had been wanting to get a redo on my first pair of pre-Nicks employee Falcons that I unfortunately built with a toe cap. So, I decided to go with our classic Falcon model. The following week, the leather came in, and it was more beautiful than I could have imagined. I immediately wrote out the order. I still didn’t want the pressure of coming out of my 5-week-long retirement, so there it sat, on my desk for another week. I was finally forced to put them into production so we could get photos for the site, and when they were done, I knew there was no chance that I wasn’t going to enter them. They were the most classic brown boots I had ever seen.
Working for a boot company has given me the opportunity to really dial in my size by trial and error with a mix of my personal boots and try on boots. I started as a mismated 11.5 A/B combo with my very first pair of Nicks, moved to an 11.5 B, then an 11B, and finally landed on an extremely comfortable 11C. My last few pairs fit perfectly and require little to no break in.
I put in an order for 10” Engineers in February of 23, switched to the Anthem a few months later, and in October of 23 landed on a Falcon. I wasn’t sure what I wanted and kept putting it off.
They’re my daily boots. Nothing too crazy. Work, kids, and walks.
It's the most hassle-free leather l've ever worn. Break in was almost nonexistent, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this: I conditioned these once and brushed them a handful of times over the last 5 months. I was blown away by how easy they were to maintain. I wanted to condition them, but they never dried out and stayed as soft and supple as the day I took them home. Casual amounts of rain and snow had almost zero effect on them. If you've been looking for beautiful, easy-to-maintain leather that you can dress up or down and screams "classic brown boot," this is the one. I saw a bunch of these going through boot production over the last two weeks so l'm interested to see how everyone else's experiences are with this leather.
All my current boots are built on the HNW last so I know it well and feel extremely comfortable in it.
Like with all Nicks boots, construction and durability are second to none. The Falcon has a very classic and sleek(for a PNW boot) design. It’s a beautiful pattern IMO. I did the cutting, shanking, sanding, and finishing. I am very hard on myself to do quality work, so I feel pretty good about this boot.
It’s my favorite some that Nicks offers. It’s minimal with the perfect amount of traction. Extremely durable and easy to break in.
I've spent almost every single day in these Italian Brown Cypress Falcons over the last 150 days, and I think Horween Cypress might be the holy grail of leathers. The Italian Brown started as a beautiful rich brown color with just the right amount of character and only got better with each wear. My favorite part of this leather is how the lighter undertones of the leather started to almost crack through the dark brown surface to give it an almost antique look.