Dirty Buck

/ Turning in my Domework / Well, that’s a wrap on the stitchdownpatinathunderdome six months of showing how these grantstone boots can break in. They showed their age gracefully. We’ll see what the judges think. Swipe for submission photos and comparisons with the first day. This was my second pair of Grant Stone Diesels in the Badalassi Carlo Saddle Tan Minerva leather. The first I got in late 2021 or early 2022. They were on my feet when I defended my dissertation and traveled with me that summer for adventures across Europe. So I knew a little bit about this Badalassi Italian Saddle Tan leather: it darkens to orange, and then to an almost red at times with nothing more than wear and brushing. This stuff loves the brush. You can almost watch it transform as the bristles do their work. My previous pair creased at all the right spots, giving a worn-in, world-weary look, like a saddle from a spaghetti western. Rugged with refinement beneath the surface. When I had the chance in early 2023 to buy a pair with a studded rubber sole and unstructured toe from a one-off make Grant Stone did, I was amped: these two elements would make it darn near my perfect boot. Leather soles are sleek and classy, but I didn’t want to spend six months in Wisconsin snow navigating leather soles. The results were beyond my imagination. The soles held their own in the slush, and the toes were unreal. Beyond that, the clicking on this pair was unique: the left foot had some of the characteristic creasing over the toe box, but the right toe box had more flex to it and a touch less burnishing on the surface. Neither creased like I expected. Instead, about six weeks in, the rolls started coming, and they just kept at it all the way through. The defining moment was in November: Filling my tires one day I saw a dimple on the right toe as I knelt there. A portent of things to come. In Jan, disaster struck: after a rowdy snow walk, I kicked slush off and caught my right toe on concrete, hard. The sole tore from the soaked midsole, and I had to re-glue. Smooth sailing from there, clear to dome base. #mensboots #grantstone #leatherpatina #stitchdownpatinathunderdome #leatherpatina