WESCO-MRLOU-BLK - Wesco® - 10" Horsehide Pull-On "Mister Lou" Engineer Boot - Black
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@Tago-Mago The best thing for me ever, was when I was able to afford Cordovan Leather as it makes the mirror shine so much easier. Starting out with good leather is so much nicer than my military issued boots.
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Before photos above. I have brushed them with vigor and applied the Obenauf's leather oil. They immediately became supple and soft which I did not expect. Drying out now and will see tomorrow or later today if they need another round.
Edit: after photos below. The first photo is of one boot done next to one yet to be oiled. The rest are both oiled and supple.
Still some character showing though but I do already miss what was once there. I had a lot going on with these boots. But I know it's all still there and once the oil evaporates, I'll see it again.
Edit 2: Now that the boots have sat under skylights in the sun, they feel amazing. Buttery soft and smooth, much different than how rigid they once were. I didn't think they could get this soft so I am blown away. Supple is the word for how the leather feels. I can still see the brown shining through too where the black coating has worn off.
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@Oaktavia beautiful work with these.
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Don't neglect that leather sole either. If you have some of the hd obenaufs hit that with a bit too.
Everytime I use obenaufs I find the boots breathe less good for a week and then seem to improve as the leather lightens back to its previous color and get some of its shine back.
Looking good though!
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Thanks guys, now I'm onto my brown CXL pair.
@pechelman I don't have any of that stuff at the moment but I see what you mean.
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@pechelman yes afterwards I went ahead and did, figuring it would do the trick.
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@seawolf I ended up oiling both pairs again but only the bottom parts of them. They both drank up the oil quite a bit and ended up looking nearly the same as they did before treatment. Especially the black pair. I coated them again yesterday and wore the black ones today.
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I’ve barely worn mine over the last year, the instep is really tight. Not sure how much I can expect them to break in
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@nrtphotos In my experience with Wesco engineer boots, that's a feature, not a bug. The boot stays on your foot because of how it fits around your instep. It'll loosen up a bit as you break them in. One thing you can do in the meantime is remove the insole until they're soft enough to not bother your instep any more. Once they're nice and soft, put the insole back in and you should be good to go.
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@seawolf I sure hope they do, they make the top of my foot numb currently with the insert in!
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@nrtphotos That insert is pretty thick. Pull it out and give it a try. Also, you can wear thinner socks. I have faith!
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@nrtphotos You might be able to take them to a cobbler and see if they will stretch them for you. We did it to a pair of my wife’s cowboy boots and it worked out fantastically. Took them a few days to do.
She just went in, told them where her problem areas were, and they were able to stretch them out. They did two days of slowly stretching them, went on the third day to see how much progress was made and to try them on. Decided to do one more day of stretching and they’re just about perfect.
The cobbler took what was a pair of almost unwearable boots and took them to about 90-95% stretched to where my wife just wore them for a week and they were perfect.