Half way through the year

My year of boot wearing is half over now. I have enjoyed it so far. I thought I would give a bit of a summary of the first 6 months. I have been keeping track of how often I have worn each of my boots, even if I only wore them for a few minutes, such as pulling on a pair of wellies to go into the garden.

My Vans Sk8-Hi have seen the most use. They are a very versatile pair of boots: comfortable, ideal to wear with both long and short trousers, and suitable for both cold/wet and warm/sunny weather. I bought them about 3 years ago in a sale. They were very cheap, under £10, so I couldn't walk away without buying them.

The second most popular boots have been my doc martens. These are also my second oldest boots. I can't remember how long ago I bought them but it must be about 15 years ago or longer. Since I love wearing tall boots, I usually wear these whenever the weather is looking a bit grim.

There was a surprising tie for third place: My gola boxing boots and my Le Chameau green wellies. I occasionally wear the boxing boots in the evening. They spend most of their time under my computer desk so I usually slip them on when I'm working at my computer. My green wellies move around a lot. They sometimes spend a few weeks in the kitchen next to the back door, which means I can easily slip them on when I go to the garden. They can sometimes spend weeks in the boot of the car or in the store room near the front door.

Fifth place was also a tie, this time between my adidas boxing boots and my Levi's red tag 'fake tall converse'. These are boots which I tend to wear exclusively for work. They are very comfortable to wear when I am in the office. They were only a couple of 'points' behind third place.

The other boots, in order, are:

• Black and White Converse. My oldest boots, almost 20 years old.
• Blue Wellies. My newest boots. I still haven't reached the £1 per use mark yet.
• Maroon Converse.
• Black Converse.

Above: pie chart showing how often I have worn each of my boots.

Below: pie chart showing the different types of boots and how often I wore them. Wellies and Doc Martens count as knee length. Mid length include the boxing boots and Levi's boots. Vans and Converse make up the ankle boots. I was pleased to see that most of my boot wearing has been taller boots.

Week 26: more Converse weather

It has been fairly warm again so I mostly wore my Converse boots for work. I wore my adidas boxing boots for one day though.

At the weekend I wore my Vans Sk8-hi and my Gola boxing boots.

Week 25: Wellies Revisited

In the last 7 weeks, I've only had chance to wear my wellies once. I managed to remedy that this week and have had the opportunity to wear both pairs of wellies a couple of times during the week. On one occasion I was in the garden, doing some weeding. I was standing up, tending to some pots and the sun came out. The backs of my legs, in my wellies, started to get quite warm. It was a very pleasant feeling.

It has also been a good week for boxing boots. I wore my adidas boots for work a couple of times and wore my gola boots around the house a few times. When it was a bit warm in the evening, I changed into my shorts and wore my gola boxing boots. I normally wear them with the laces loose so I can easily slip them on and off. Today I laced up all the way. I didn't pull the laces tight so I could feel the boot moving against my ankle. I think that is part of what I love about boots. I think they look great but I also love the feel of them against my leg. If I crouch down and the back of the boot presses against my thigh, then that feels amazing. I really don't know why I enjoy it so much.

How I usually wear my Gola boxing boots - with the laces loose so I can slip them on easily.

Wearing the boots with my 'long shorts'. The laces have been pulled tighter so the boots are a snug fit rather than loose.

I also wore my Levi's boots and my old black and white converse in work. They are both looking a bit old and have a few holes in them so I may have to replace them later in the year. Boots like these do last for ages though so there are probably many more months of wear left in them.

Week 24: Rain and Doc Martens

It's been a week of mostly wearing tall boots. It rained a lot during the week so I wore my doc martens boots most of the time for work. It got warmer towards the end of the week so I wore my tall Levi's boots on friday.

I wore my Vans hi-tops on saturday and my black and white converse hi-tops today.

I also wore my gola boxing boots around the house in the evenings.

Week 23: Mostly Converse Weather

The weather hasn't been consistently during the week but it's been warm enough for me to wear shorts and my Converse hi-tops all week. It's good to have air on my legs and let the world see that I'm wearing boots. I wore my 'classic' black and white hi-tops every day for work.

The weather turned wet at the weekend. I didn't go out on saturday but I wore my gola boxing boots around the house. On sunday I put my Doc Martens on when I went out at lunchtime.

Week 22: Converse Season

The week started with some rain, so I got to wear my Doc Martens. The week ended with some really warm weather, so I spent most of the week wearing my maroon converse, occasionally wearing my Vans hi-tops too. I also wore my gola boxing boots a couple of times.

Week 21: Tall Boots week

It has been a mixed week for both the weather and boot wearing. There have been a few days of rain, so I've had chance to wear my Doc Martens. I had a few hours to myself during the week so put my blue wellies on again and wore them around the house (the other half doesn't agree to welly wearing indoors so I only wear them when she's out).

During less rainy days, I wore my adidas boxing boots and my Levi's hi-tops for work. At home in the evening at at the weekend, I wore my gola boxing boots. So I only wore taller boots this week, and not my normal hi-tops.

Week 20: Hi-tops and DMs

This was going to be another week of hi-tops. I intended to wear my taller boots, starting with my adidas boxing boots and Levi's. The week started off ok but the weather got wetter so I ended up wearing my Vans and DMs because they are a bit more waterproof.

Week 19: More hi-tops

It has been a week of mostly wearing hi-tops. I wore my Vans Sk8-hi most days but wore my original B&W Converse for work one day, and my tall Converse-style Levi's boots a couple of times.

Week 18: Wearing Hi-Tops

It has been a week of wearing hi-tops. I wore my maroon converse during the week (monday-thursday) and my Vans hi-tops on friday. At the weekend I wore my boxing boots and my black&white converse around the house.

Apart from a couple of wet days, the weather is getting warmer so I'll be wearing my converse a lot more often from now on.

Week 17: Tall Boots

This week I have been mostly wearing tall boots. Monday and Tuesday I wore my Doc Martens for work. Wednesday I wore my Adidas boxing boots. Finally Thursday and Friday I wore my tall Levi's boots.

I have had the house to myself a lot this week so I took advantage of that to wear my blue wellies around the house, so they have been getting plenty of use now. 

Last weekend I went for a walk, wearing my Levi's boots, trousers tucked in. Here is the video:

Price of Experience

I read something at the weekend which described how spending money on an experience brings more happiness than spending it on products, even though the experience is fleeting but the product lasts longer. But what happens when the product directly leads to the experience? Since I enjoy wearing wellies, the £20 I spent on the blue wellies last year can be thought of as both money spent on a product and on enjoyable experiences.

Since the new year I've been recording how often I wear each of my various pairs of boots. I've worn the blue wellies a grand total of 10 times this year, which is less than I thought. 7 of those occasions were the week when I had the house to myself. I haven't kept track of how many times I wore them last year but since I bought them in september, I must have worn them around 15 times.

So far that works out at over £1 for each time I've worn them, although the length of time I wore them will have varied from under an hour to almost all day. As soon as I got home from work tonight, I put the wellies on. By the end of tonight I'll have been wearing them for 6 hours.

The  blue wellies aren't as comfortable as my green wellies, but they did cost less than half as much. I might start looking for a new pair of wellies soon, but I should probably try to wear my blue wellies a few more times. I think under £1 per wearing is probably decent value, especially if I think of it as renting the boots.

If I buy a new pair of wellies, I'll look out for a fairly snug fit, rather than a looser 'flappy' pair of boots. With any luck I'll see a pair I like in a sale somewhere.

Week 16: boots at home

I've been trying to wear a selection of different boots while I've been off work this week. I wore both my adidas and gola boxing boots around the house, and my Vans and Converse hi-tops when I went out. I also wore my wellies in the garden. Yesterday I put my Levi's 'Fake Converse X-Hi' on, tucked my trousers in and laced them up all the way, and walked to the shops.

Week 15

A short working week, what with the bank holidays. I wore my adidas boxing boots for work a couple of times, and my Levi's 'fake converse' and my Vans.

Good Friday, had a lazy day and didn't leave the house but wore my Gola boxing boots around the house. Saturday, went out to a Country Show and wore my wellies all day.

Sunday, stayed in again. Wore my old Black and White Converse round the house.

Week 14

I'm a quarter of the way through the year and everything's been going ok so far. The boots which have been getting the most use have been my Vans hi-tops, my doc martens and my green wellies (in that order).

There have been no wellies worn this week - it's been quite warm so I've been wearing normal trainers or hi-tops in the garden. I've not had any digging to do so wellies haven't been needed.

This week, I wore my vans hi-tops a few times for work. I also wore my adidas boxing boots and Levi's Red Tab for work. At home I wore my gola boxing boots and my black and white converse hi-tops. Since it's getting closer to summer, I'll be wearing my converse more often.