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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Warm ankles, cold toes

I've been wearing my gola boxing boots so far this week. Whenever I wear my Adidas boots I only lace them half-way up but I always wear the gola boots laced all the way up. They are nice and snug around my ankles, keeping them lovely and warm in my cold office.

Boots and shops

Today has been another 'trousers tucked inside boots' day, with a slight emphasis on shopping with boots on display. I started off wearing my adidas boxing boots laced up with trousers tucked inside. I drove to the supermarket, got some petrol, then walked round the shop.

Later on I did a bit of gardening, wearing my Le Chameau wellies. When I got inside I changed into my riding boots.

This afternoon I walked to one of the local shops, about a mile each way, still wearing my riding boots. This is the furthest I've walked wearing them, and the first time I've risked wearing them in public in my street. I decided I didn't care what the neighbours thought - I was going to wear the boots and have them on show.

The left boot rubbed slightly just below knee, where the top of the boot is a bit tight, but otherwise they were ok. It got quite warm while I was out and the boots have softened up really nicely. I think I got at admiring glance from a young lady who looked at the boots and smiled as she walked past, otherwise nobody seemed to notice or care that I was wearing them.

Weighing my Boots

A few weeks ago I had a play on the Wii Fit while wearing my Lonsdale boxing boots. I thought the boots felt very light compared to my skate shoes, so today I decided to weight most of my boots and shoes.

Weights are in grams and are for a pair.

Vans Sk8 hi	1126
B&W Converse	945
Black Converse	880
Maroon Converse	905
Tall Converse	792
Adidas boxing boots	742
Gola boxing boots	732
Lonsdale boxing boots	820
Doc Martens	1742
Blue Wellies	2088
Le Chameau wellies	1958
Riding Boots	2278
Black and Red skate shoes	961
Grey Vans skate shoes	1080

Unsurprisingly the knee length boots were the heaviest. The one thing which surprised me was how heavy the Converse hi-tops were. I expected them to be much lighter than my skate shoes and didn't expect them to be heavier than my boxing boots.

Tall boots week

I've been wearing my tall hi-tops in work this week. On monday and again today, I wore my Gola boxing boots. I wore my Adidas boxing boots and my tall 'fake converse' boots on the other days.

Adidas Boxing Boots

I'm wearing my Adidas Tygun boxing boots today. It's been quite a while since I've worn them. They had got a bit squashed and the ankles weren't standing up straight on their own so I decided to wear them for work, laced up all the way to try to hold the boot ankles straight.

I want some new boots

I have got to the stage where I want a new pair of boots again. Every now and again I get the need for new boots, even though I probably have enough pairs. The last few times this has happened, it's been fairly easy for me to get a new pair.

Last year, when I found out about the Lonsdale Jab boxing boots, it was a few days before I developed an urge to buy them. I just felt that I really needed those boots. I'm glad I bought them because they are amazing to wear.

The year before, I felt the need to buy a new pair of wellies. Although I love my le Chameau boots, I really wanted a pair of black wellies too. I couldn't find black so I ended up with the dark blue wellies instead. I like them, but I would prefer a taller pair.

A few years before, back when I was at university, I wanted a tall pair of boxing boots. I looked around on-line before I bought the Adidas Box Champ. I wore them nearly all the time, until they fell apart.

Now I feel the need for a tall, knee length, snug fitting pair of boots. Riding boots would be great, but they need to have a zip. I don't want anything which takes ages to put on and take off.

The boots I want come from Derby House They are leather, knee length, and have a zip. All I need now is a chance to go and buy them without my girlfriend finding out.

Summary of 2009

Ok, so 2009 is over. I was successful in wearing boots for some part of every day. There were a few days when I nearly went boot-free but I always managed to slip on a pair of boots for at least a few minutes of each day.

The most popular boots were my Vans Sk8-hi (worn for 110 days) and my Doc Martens (worn for 81 days). This is the same way round as after 6 months.

Next in popularity were my Adidas boxing boots (62 days), closely followed by Le Chameau wellies and Gola boxing boots (joint 57 days). At the 6 month point, the order was Gola,Wellies, with Adidas tying with my Levi's tall converse.

Running order after 6 months:

1. Vans Sk8-hi
2. Doc Martens
3. Gola boxing boots
4. Le Chameau wellies
5. (joint) Adidas boxing boots & Levi's boots
6. B&W Converse
7. Blue Wellies
8. Other Converse

After 12 months:

1. Vans Sk8-hi
2. Doc Martens
3. Adidas Boxing boots
4. (joint) Le Chameau Wellies & Gola boxing boots
5. (joint) B&W Converse, Levi's & Lonsdale boxing boots (new entry)
6. Blue Wellies
7. Other Converse

I only bought the Lonsdale boxing boots in October but I wore them at least once every week so they did quite well after only a few weeks.

I wore my different types of boots roughly equally. Low boots includes Vans and Converse. Boxing boots includes my Levi's 'tall converse style' boots. Knee length includes Doc Martens and Wellies.

As expected, I wore low boots mostly in the spring and summer. Knee length boots were mostly worn in autumn and winter, being worn less during summer. I wasn't expecting boxing boots to be mostly an autumn thing.

The numbers vary because I would have worn more than one pair of boots for some days, so each would count towards the total.

After 6 months, my Blue Wellies were my newest pair. They cost £20 and I had worn them fewer than 20 times, which worked out as over £1 per wearing. By the end of 2009, I had worn them 31 times. I actually bought the boots in the autumn of 2008, so I had already worn them a few times before I started keeping count. They are probably down to 50p per wearing by now. They are starting to look a bit battered since I was wearing them when I was painting the house, so I might get around to replacing them sometime this year.

Welly Happy New Year (a day late)

I was hoping to wear my wellies at new year but unfortunately it didn't snow so I didn't get the chance to wear them. Instead, I was wearing my Adidas boxing boots. 2009 ended like it began - wearing boots. I was wearing my Vans Sk8-hi at the stroke of midnight 2008/9 so at least the year started and ended with me wearing boots.

In the next few days I will post a summary of my years boot wearing. I successfully wore boots for every day of 2009.

I might not have been wearing my wellies at the new year but at least I've had a chance to wear them today. I put my Le Chameau boots on when I walked to the shops to buy a newspaper. I'll take them off in a couple of minutes when I go through to the living room to read the paper but since I love wearing wellies, I'll keep them on for a while longer.

I won't be keeping exact record of my boot wearing for 2010 but I'll keep wearing boots as much as possible.

Week 52 (extended week)

Since it will seem a bit strange to have more than 52 weeks in a year, this final week will be a few days longer, to take us up to January 1st. Week 1 was a bit short so this will even out in the end.

I wore my doc martens for the last couple of days in work.

I didn't get any boots for Christmas but I spent Christmas Day wearing my boxing boots so it wasn't too bad.

I wore my green Le Chameau wellies a lot - mainly in the garden. Most of the rest of the time I wore my Vans sk8-hi.

I was wearing my Adidas boxing boots when 2009 ended.

Happy Boxing (boots) Day

I have been wearing my adidas boxing boots for all evening on Christmas day. It is now just past midnight, I am still wearing them, so I would like to wish everyone a Happy Boxing Boots day.

Week 50: no short boots

I had a week of mostly wearing boxing boots. I had 4 days of wearing my Adidas boxing boots, and 2 days of wearing my doc martens. Today I wore my lonsdale boxing boots for a while, and briefly wore my green wellies too.

November Boot Inches

My November boot wearing data gathering is over. I'm not sure what to make of all the numbers I collected. I'll start with a few summaries:

I wore boots for 261 hours, out of a total of 720 hours in the month. I wore lo-tops for only 74 hours, leaving 385 hours when I wore no shoes.

My most-worn boots (in decreasing order):

• Doc Martens (139 hours)
• Adidas/Gola boxing boots (combined total 59¼ hours)
• Vans Sk8-hi (45 hours)
• Lonsdale boxing boots (8½ hours)
• Wellies (6½ hours combined for both pairs)

For my overall calculations, I counted lo-tops as zero and no shoes as -2 inches. This meant if I only wore short boots (eg. Converse or Vans) then I would have to be careful to avoid a negative score. Since I wore my Doc Martens and boxing boots so much, there was no danger of that happening.

My total for the month was: 1414 boot-inch-hours. This was equivalent to wearing Converse hi-tops non-stop for 628.5 hours.

The longest continuous period of boot-wearing was 13 hours, which happened on 2 days. Both occasions involved wearing my Doc Martens. The least amount of boot-wearing was 15 minutes. This was one sunday when I didn't leave the house. I briefly wore my Lonsdale boxing boots while I was using my computer, just to avoid having a boot-free day.

I might try the experiment again in the summer. The final total will be lower since I won't be wearing my Doc Martens as much.

Week 48: More Doc Martens

I've been wearing my Doc Martens a lot again. Wore them in work 4 days, and wore my Adidas boxing boots for one day. At the weekend I mainly wore my Vans. I wore my Lonsdale boxing boots a few times in the evening. I'm wearing them at the moment - trousers tucked inside.

week 45: more Doc Martens

It's getting more like winter so that means wearing my Doc Martens more often. I wore my boxing boots for work most days, wearing my DMs a couple of days and also at the weekend. I have decided to wear my Gola boxing boots more often so I have left them in my office and I change into them when I get to work. They still aren't as comfortable as the Adidas Tygun, despite looking like they are based on the same basic shoe. I'll see if they soften up after I've worn them a bit more.

Week 44: boxing boots and wellies.

On monday I wore my Adidas boxing boots in work, and changed into my Lonsdale boots as soon as I got home. I tucked my trousers into the boots and laced them up all the way. Well, nearly all the way. I didn't lace up the top-most eyelet. Either the laces aren't long enough or my legs are a bit too fat. I can lace them up all the way if I don't tuck my trousers into the boots.

On tuesday morning I put my green wellies on to go into the garden, then changed into my new boxing boots, ready to go to work. When I got home I put my blue (indoor) wellies on and wore them for the rest of the evening. The rest of the week followed a similar pattern - Lonsdale boxing boots during the day and wellies in the evening, occasionally wearing my green wellies if I needed to go into the garden.

At the weekend I alternated between wearing my doc martens, blue wellies and boxing boots around the house - trousers tucked into the boots of course.