I’ve been wearing the same boots for four or five years now. I busted out the sides of them about a year and a half in. The soles have been leaking for at LEAST two years. They’re starting to separate from the soles, which look sewn in but aren’t. The insoles are wearing thin enough to feel the holes. They’re starting to legitimately fall apart on my feet.
They’re the best shoes I’ve ever owned. They felt like they were made for my feet the second I put them on. Tough enough to wear at work, comfortable enough to be daily drivers, snazzy enough to wear to The Function. Truly the platonic ideal of footwear. They stopped selling them well before I blew out the sides with my flat fuck feet. Timberlands women’s work boot pro, size 7-1/2, model number A1KJR. I looked for a replacement for this fuckin boot for years. They’ve been out of production for so long now that, even if I did find a pair, the soles would be dry-rotted.
All the replacement options are butt ugly. I’m not asking for much, I just want composite toe boots. The brands that DO carry safety toes in women’s sizes don’t exactly have a good selection (do any of them carry men’s 5-1/2s or 6es? ALSO NO). One brand has like four butt ugly options, three of which are sneakers (actually, half the safety toe options across all bands are sneakers). Another brand in particular have this camelesque hump at the toe which makes them both distinctive AND absolutely unbearably buttfuck ugly. It’s rare that ANY of them have all the options I’m looking for. And nothing will ever feel that comfortable again; to reiterate, it truly felt like they were molded for my feet alone from the very first day I put them on.
Anyways. I picked a pair that I hate the least. I’m upset about it and I know they’ll be shit and I’ll regret spending the money. But the meager comforts I have been clinging to continue to disintegrate, whether or not I get new boots.