Spending time in my Converse

I have decided to retire by riding boots for a while. I mentioned last month that I was getting a bit fed up with them but after wearing them for a few more days I fell in love with them again. My reason for retiring them this time is that they have been squeaking a lot when I walk and it has been annoying me quite a bit. They are still lovely comfortable boots to wear around the house but they are much less comfortable for walking in now.

Yesterday I was wearing my knee length Converse xx-hi and I found that they were starting to rub my leg a bit so I switched to my shorter grey Converse x-hi and I've been wearing those again today. I think for the next few weeks I'll be concentrating on my x-hi because I've been neglecting them a bit in favour of knee length boots.

Wearing my tall converse

I started this morning wearing my knee length converse xx-hi but after a couple of hours I changed into my black and white converse x-hi. I looked down at them and thought they looked a bit different. I had to compare them side by side before I noticed that the xx-hi had black stitching and the x-hi had white stitching. I already knew that the soles were different - the xx-hi appears to be made of several pieces whereas the x-hi is 'all-in-one'.

What actually surprised me was that I found myself enjoying wearing the shorter x-hi more than the knee length xx-hi. I'm not sure whether it's because they might be a bit more comfortable but I should probably get over my preconception that taller is always better. Taller boots might look better but they aren't always better to wear.

My xx-hi viewed from above (sorry for the blurry photo)

The sole of the xx-hi, made from different sections

The x-hi viewed from above, with the white stitching.

The sole of the x-hi, made from a single piece of rubber

Apparently the difference in the sole depends on where the shoes were made. Any made in china have the multi-part sole but but ones made elsewhere have the all in one sole, although my grey x-hi claim to be made in china but have the all in one sole too.

Distracted by boots

I am supposed to be working but since I have the office to myself I have been wearing my boots with the trousers tucked inside. Yesterday it was the turn of my Lonsdale boxing boots. I just love the look of these boots when they're worn that way. The tall padded shaft just looks so right. The trouble is I found myself looking at my boots instead of working. I would sit with my legs either side of the chair so I could look down at the backs of the boots.

Today I fancied wearing something a bit taller so I'm in my knee length Converse XX-Hi. I don't think these look as good as the boxing boots (not from behind anyway) but since they are much taller I love them anyway. They do look great from the front when you can see all the laces.

October Boot Wearing

During October I decided to keep track of which boots I wore and for how long. I tried to wear boots as much as possible, and wear taller boots whenever I could. I did my usual 'inch-hours' measurements where I took lo-tops as the zero-point and multiplied the height of the boot with how long I wore them for. If taller boots are better than shorter boots, then the higher the inch-hours score the better.

I managed to wear most of my boots, from my normal converse hi-tops, all the way up to my riding boots. I wore boots for a total of 272 hours, and lo-tops for only 43 hours. The boots I wore the longest were:
Converse XX-Hi: 87 hours (worn on 14 days out of 31. I even slept in these boots one night, which I enjoyed doing.)
Lonsdale Boxing boots: 58 hours (worn on 11 days)
Converse Hi-tops: 54 hours (worn on 8 days)
Adidas Boxing boots and Riding boots: both worn for 22 hours each.

I also wore my wellies on 15 days during the month, mainly in the garden, but managed to wear them for a total of 12 hours.

My total tally was 2,800 inch-hours if I ignored any times when I didn't wear anything. If I counted nothing as -2 inches, then the total was 1,940 inch-hours, which was equivalent to wearing Converse hi-tops for 864 hours, or 36 days straight. This was also equivalent to wearing my wellies for 139 hours, or  5.8 days.

By subtracting time spend wearing no shoes, I have to wear boots for a minimum length of time to avoid being in negative inch-hours. Since normal Converse are just over 2 inches taller than lo-tops, I need to wear them for just under 12 hours per day to break even. Alternatively I need to wear my wellies for only 3 hours a day to break even.

October Boots Survey

I have the results of the boot-wearing survey for October. As usual, boot heights are divided into low (ankle height) to top (knee length). The results are similar to previous ones where women wear more boots than men. I think all of the high and knee-length male results are from me wearing my lonsdale boxing boots and my knee length converse xx-hi, otherwise most of the male boot-wearing is short boots.


       none    low    mid    high   top
Male   84.54%  14.01% 0.48%  0.48%  0.48% (of 414 people)
Female 58.42%  17.11% 15.00% 3.68%  5.79% (of 380 people)

Male:
Female:

Blogging in my Riding Boots

Well last week I said I was getting a bit fed up with my riding boots but I have been wearing them again today and I have decided that I still love them and want to wear them more often. I have been looking on-line for a replacement pair and I have found a couple of pairs which look good but they are both around £100 so I think I'll keep my current pair for now.

I have decided that I want to make sure that I always have a pair of riding boots so that whenever the need takes me, I can put them on and admire the snug leg-hugging fit.

Riding Boot Fatigue

I am starting to get a bit fed up with my riding boots. I love wearing them and especially enjoy the snug feel of the boots below my knees and the look of the shaft of the boot, and the fairly stiff leg-hugging nature of them. Sadly they are too much of a struggle to put on and take off. They also aren't very comfortable for walking in, even short distances around the house.

I have been wearing them occasionally in the last week and I feel that I really could do with a better pair. I can't really justify replacing them though, since I only recently bought my extra tall Converse XX-Hi. I expect after this week the riding boots will go back into storage for another few months before I start to get the urge to wear them again.

More pictures of my knee length Converse XX-Hi

Here are some photos of my wearing my knee length Converse boots around the office, with my trousers tucked inside. I had originally laced the boots up without having my trousers tucked in, so they are a bit snug when worn this way.

I plan on wearing them nearly every day this month, although when I'm in work I will be wearing them inside my trousers so they look like 'normal' hi-tops. I am going to do another boot-wearing survey later this month, as well as another 'boot-inch-hours' tallys.

I have been wearing the boots every day so far this week and each morning when I pull them on and zip them up, I am amazed by how tall they are and how happy I am to finally have a pair.

This final photo shows just how tall the boots are and how close they fit to my knee.

Converse Heights

I still can't really believe that I own a pair of the knee length Converse XX-Hi. I have been wanting a pair for years, ever since I first found out about them. I was curious how they compared to my other pairs of Converse so I prepared a chart:

The blue column is the height in inches from the ground. The red column is the height above a normal shoe or low-top trainer. The XX-Hi converse are higher than I was expecting. I realised they would be taller than any of my boxing boots but I think they are taller than my Doc Martens. I will need to compare them when I get back home.

Edit:
I am home now, after wearing the converse all day. For the record, the Converse XX-hi are taller than my DMs and only about 1/2 inch shorter than my green wellies! I also weighted them and they are 1146g for the pair, compared to 940-970 for the x-hi.

New Converse XX-Hi

So finally I managed to get hold of a pair of the knee length Converse XX-Hi. They are really difficult to track down in large sizes but I was lucky enough to find somewhere selling them. They took a few minutes to lace up but they have a zip down the back which makes them faster to take off and put back on. Even with the zip I need to loosen the laces slightly.

After lacing them up I went out for a walk and when I found somewhere secluded I undid the zip and tucked my trousers inside.

The boots are impressively tall, reaching a couple of inches below the back of my knee. They are surprisingly warm on my leg - I have only been wearing them for about an hour this morning and I can feel my calf muscles start to get warm. It happens to be a very warm day so that might also have something to do with it.

Weighing my Converse

Last year I weighed all of my different pairs of boots. This was before I bought my tall converse hi-tops. I was surprised at how heavy my short converse hi-tops were (around 800-900g, a similar weight to my much taller boxing boots).

For the record, my new tall converse weights (in grams) are:

Grey Converse x-hi	973
B&W Converse x-hi	942

My new Black and White converse are almost exactly the same weight as my old pair of 'original' black and white hi-tops, despite them being much taller. This might be because my original pair are quite old since my newer 'short' hi-tops are much lighter, closer to 900g.

Some more photos of my new Converse

My new black and white Converse x-hi boots, with the trousers tucked in, as God intended.

Converse Close-ups

Yesterday was a nice varied boot-wearing day. I started off wearing my riding boots then wore a succession of black and white hi-top boots, starting with my lonsdale boxing boots, my new Converse hi-tops, my adidas boxing boots and finally tonight I wore my old pair of converse hi-tops. In the middle of all that I briefly wore my wellies when I went into the garden.

I am back in work now and wearing my new tall  Converse hi-tops, laced all the way to the top of course.

These are the hi-tops folded down, showing the star pattern on the inner lining. I quite like the star pattern but since I prefer tall boots I will be wearing them 'up' more often. I will only wear them folded down if I am wearing shorts.

This is a close-up of the ankle patch. It is a printed disk which appears to be sewn onto the inner lining of the boot. It appears to be positioned slightly too high though because with the top folded down and fixed using the studs, the top of the patch sticks slightly over the top of the boot.

The ankle patch on the outside of the boot isn't as good - it is just a plain printed disk which appears to be glued to the side. It is a pity this is lower quality to the other disk since this is the one which will be visible most of the time while I'm wearing them.

My latest pair of Converse Hi-tops

This morning I received my newest pair of Converse knee-hi boots. On the outside they are the classic black and white but the inside is black and white stars. I will post more photos in a few days time but here is a quick view of them.

Too warm for boxing boots

It was very warm today. I was wearing my tall Lonsdale boxing boots laced all the way up. At break time I was sitting outside with a cup of coffee and my legs started to get too warm. We were sitting in direct sunlight at the time. It might be time to switch to my tall Converse hi-top boots instead.
As soon as I got home tonight I changed into my shorts but kept the boxing boots on. It has cooled down a bit so my legs aren't too warm any more and wearing the shorts means I can keep looking at the boots while I'm wearing them.

Boot survey part 3

It's time for another week-long boot wearing survey. This time the weather was cold but mostly dry.

Of 277 men, only 19% were wearing boots, but 52% of 250 women were in boots.

	Shoes	Ankle boot	Above the ankle	Calf length	Knee Length
Male	81.2%	15.26%	0.7%	2.2%	0.7%
Female	47.6%	18.0%	16.0%	8.8%	9.6%

Compared to the last survey, which was in december and it had been snowing, there were fewer people wearing boots. I was wearing my tall boxing boots, which will have accounted for nearly all of the calf-length male boot-wearing.

Men:

Women:

Some more photos of my new Converse hi-tops

I have decided to wear my new Converse knee-hi boots today. I tucked my trousers into the boots to take these photos because they look better that way - you see the full height of the boot and the Converse All Star badge, which is above the ankle on these boots.
The photo above also shows my old Adidas Tygun boxing boots which I've had for nearly 10 years now.

Blue Wellies again

I had chance to wear my blue wellies this morning. I haven't worn these since the summer. I'm going to wear them around the house this morning until I go to work, when I'll change into my Lonsdale boxing boots, which I haven't worn for a while either.

I didn't realise I bought the Lonsdale boots back in 2009. I thought I only bought them last year. I had also forgotten how much I enjoy wearing my blue wellies. They might be shorter than my green wellies and don't fit my leg as snugly but they are a bit stiffer so they press against my leg more, which is what I really like about wellies.

New Converse

My new Converse Knee-Hi boots have arrived.  Despite the name, they are not actually knee high but they are the X-Hi boot, which are about 9.5 inches from ground to top, the same height as my Levi's 'fake converse'.
Here are a couple of photos of them:

I bought them from Schuh, in the sale. Normally I would have chosen a darker coloured boot but they only had the grey available in the extra-tall. They seem reasonably comfortable so far. I'll obviously have to wear them a bit more to 'break them in' and get used to them.

Boxing Boots Week

I have been wearing my boxing boots for work during the last few weeks. I have been mainly wearing my gola boots because although I bought them years ago I don't wear them very often and they haven't had chance to soften up properly. I am sure they are starting to get more comfortable.
I decided to wear my adidas boxing boots today. I bought these nearly 10 years ago and they are very close to falling apart, which would be a great shame because I really love wearing them. They don't feel quite as comfortable as they used to, as part of the inner lining is starting to wear away. When the time comes to throw them away, it will be a sad occasion but I still have plenty of other pairs of boots to wear.