Lonsdale Boxing Boots in the countryside.

It was another warm day so I tucked my trousers into my Lonsdale boxing boots and went for a walk.
Last year I swapped the laces from my knee length Converse so at the moment the Converse have black laces and the Lonsdale boots have white laces.

These boots aren't very comfortable if I do a lot of walking but they're fine for sitting around in work. They're not as convenient as the Converse since they don't have a zip - they take longer to put on, especially if I want to lace them all the way up.

A Variety of boots

I finally got around to throwing out my riding boots a couple of weeks ago so I've been wearing my country boots a lot instead. Last week I went out for a walk in the countryside wearing them. I put them on before I left the house and drove out wearing them, keeping them on until I was back home again. Now they are a bit muddy, I haven't been wearing them around the house any more.
I have decided to keep my knee length converse clean and wear them around the house so that's what I've been doing recently, wearing them nearly every day with my trousers tucked inside.
I have been wearing my Lonsdale boxing boots a lot when I've left the house, unless I've been going into the garden when I've been wearing my wellies. I love wearing wellies and I wish they were a more acceptable fashion statement for men. When I was in the town centre this morning (wearing my boxing boots of course) there was a woman wearing a pair of black hunter wellies. Although it was a slightly chilly day it was completely dry and wellies were a bit overkill but of course nobody gave her a second glance (apart from me who turned to watch her walk past). It really isn't fair.

I love my new boots

I have been wearing them most of the time, nearly every day for the last couple of weeks. Only changing to a different pair when I went outside. I'd normally wear my wellies in the garden or a pair of boxing boots if I went out anywhere, such as to the shops.

I love the look of the boots, with the buckle on the side and the zip up the back. I love the feeling of the boots on my leg just below my knee.

Black and White Laces

A couple of weeks ago I decided to see what my knee length Converse boots looked like with black laces instead of the white ones they came with. The easiest way of doing this was to swap the laces with the black ones which came with my Lonsdale boxing boots. The laces from the Lonsdale boots aren't as long as the Converse ones so I can't lace my Converse all the way up to the knee but I think I like them this way.

I put the white laces from the Converse onto my Lonsdale boots and I think they work well too.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Boot survey part 2

After the recent snow and cold weather I have repeated the boot survey.
From a total of 470 people, (male 228, female 242),  30.56% of men were wearing boots and 78.51% of women wore boots. These are both increases over last month.

	Shoes	Ankle boot	Above the ankle	Calf length	Knee Length
Male	60.44%	23.96%	3.13%	2.08%	1.39%
Female	21.49%	21.90%	32.64%	14.05%	9.92%

Men:

Women:

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.

Boot Wearing Survey

I decided to do a week-long survey of boot-wearing. This survey was conducted in and around where I work, which is in a mostly pedestrianised area. I made a note of how many people I saw while I was walking around, mainly walking between the car park and my office, and whether they were wearing shoes/trainers, ankle boots, above the ankle, calf length or knee length boots.

In total I observed 1048 people, 536 male and 512 female. 

Only 19.03% of males were wearing  boots, while 58.01% of females were wearing boots.

	Shoes	Ankle boot	Above the ankle	Calf length	Knee Length
Male	80.97%	16.23%	1.87%	0.75%	0.19%
Female	41.99%	19.14%	23.24%	11.52%	4.10%

I wasn't surprised to record that women wore more boots than men. There was only 1 recorded man wearing knee length boots and that was a builder wearing wellies. I included myself in the tally, so my 20-eye doc martens and my boxing boots helped to boost the above-the-ankle and calf length count. In fact all but one of the male calf length boots were me - the other was a motorcyclist.

In the charts below, non=shoes/trainers, low=ankle boot, mid=above the ankle, high=calf length boot and top=knee length boot.

Women:

Men:

I might conduct the survey again in the summer and see how the results change.

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.

Riding Boots again

I've been wearing my riding boots again today. I've been thinking about them a lot and have missed the feeling of wearing a snug boot around my knee.
I put the boots on earlier this evening and I'd forgotten quite how snug they are. It's a very warm day again so I don't think I will be wearing them overnight again.

At the start of June, I mentioned that I was going to measure my boot-inch-hours for the month. I was too busy and only managed to record the details for the first half of the month. The days between the 9th and the 17th were exceptional because they included me wearing my riding boots a lot, including one day where I wore them non-stop for 24 hours. This gives a daily score of 372 boot-inch-hours. I wore my DMs or lonsdale boxing boots in work so every day was well over 100 boot-inch-hours.

The following week was probably more representative. I mostly wore my converse hi-tops, so the days scored 20-30. I wore my adidas boxing boots in work one day, which scored 50.

The scores are (inches above the ankle x hours worn) - (time not wearing boots x 2). The '2' comes from the ankle to sole of foot distance, so this sets a minimum wearing time to avoid getting a negative score.