I wear slippers a lot!
I used my foot as a “last” with a completely unstructured upper.
These are my kick-around house slippers! Or my brew-shoes. Maybe even my surf-sandals. Of course that means they have been used for weightlifting and homebrewing, and much more beyond just round-the-house goofin. That means they got scratched by dumbell and barbell grips, served as platforms for me to stand on when doing pull ups from the tree in my backyard, got stained multiple times with hot wort (which tragically does not come out), and maybe even a little paracetic acid (sanitizer). I also take them on walks around the neighboring lake when the weather permits (central NY weather has been quite strange lately). And that has just been while I am at university! In the winter when I was home in San Diego, these were my surf shoes. They made changing in and out of my wetsuit during dawn-patrol sessions a total breeze. So they left San Diego caked in a bit of Sticky Bumps (surf wax) and filled with sand (admittedly waterlogged from my last surf).
There was a tiny, tiny amount of break-in because these shoes are unlasted. Means you kind of have to deal with some really tight toes for a week or two before they really fit. Fortunately this calfskin is tumbled, so that happened pretty quick and painlessly. They have held up remarkably well to wear, healing from numerous scratches with ease. My normal care routine involved brushing with horsehair at the end of every month. However, after I waterlogged the slippers while surfing, I had to let them dry out and took more care to condition them with bick 4 after cleaning out all the sand. At the end of the dome, I used saphir renovateur to condition, caranuba wax to seal, and a horsehair brush to shine the uppers. The patina was very slow, but the leather darkened significantly and developed immense character over the whole six months. I wish more bootmakers would use it in their products!
These take “foot-shaped last” to another level.
While cut identically, the uppers ended up with different circumferences, leading to a slight asymmetry.
Super durable, just like birks! Kind of hard for me to evaluate sole durability except in relative terms because my gait is near-robotic.
I love this leather. It was very expensive (albeit purchased in very small quantity), but I really wanted some Iron Boots TCOs with the chocolate variant prior to this dome. Now I have proof of how well it ages, and how freaking durable it is, and I want them even more. I will wear these slippers into the ground.