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.

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:

More Sheepskin Boots

These are more boots to add to my list of pairs I'd really love to own. I think they look great, and since I love knee length boots, these would be fantastic. They cost £114 in my size, which is a bit pricey but not too bad.

They are available from here: http://www.kiwi-sheepskins.com/detail.asp?product_id=FW039

Details from their website:

Top fully folded down:(can be partially folded down for some extra height) 13.5 and 16in. (34 and 40.5cm)
Top unfolded at full height: 16.5 to 19.5in. (42 to 49.5cm)
By contrast, the sheepskin boots from Celtic Sheepskin (which cost £145) are 43cm tall. I assume these are heights from the ground. When I measured my leg, while wearing my skate shoes, it was approximately 47cm from ground to the back of my knee.

This is another view of the Celtic Sheepskin boots, taken from their website. They just look so warm and comfortable. I would really love a pair of each of these boots.

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.

Levi's Hi-tops

My Levi's extra-tall converse style boots are definitely getting closer to being thrown out. I wore them for work today because it was dry and sunny when I left the house. It rained during the day so the pavements were wet when I left. The sole has started to crack so water got in while I was walking. Since I enjoy wearing them I am going to keep them for as long as possible, but I'll only wear them when it's definitely going to be dry.

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.

Doc Martens weather

The weather is a bit grim today so I put my doc martens on this morning. I haven't worn them for ages (according to this blog, sometime in June). They were a bit dusty so I had to give them a brief clean before I laced them up.
It's a pleasant feeling, sitting at my desk in work, with the tall boots gently pressing on the back of my leg.

Another fun boot day

This morning I went for a walk in the countryside. I decided to put my wellies on, which was a good idea because it had rained a lot in the week and the ground was quite muddy.
When I got home I changed into my riding boots. I haven't worn these for a few months and had been looking forward to wearing them again. I was still wearing my jeans and the boots were a very snug fit, quite difficult to pull on. I really should remember to wear thinner trousers with these boots. I first noticed this back in May when I bought 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.

Waking up in boots

I slept in my riding boots again last night. I was wearing them in the evening but was enjoying them so much I thought I would sleep in them one more time.

When I bought the boots, I had no idea how much better than wellies they would be. Each of my knee length rubber boots has different advantages and disadvantages so I think I still need to keep all 3 pairs. I was originally going to throw away my old pair of blue wellies because they aren't as comfortable as my others but I have decided to keep them.

My green wellies are the best all-round pair. They are the most comfortable for walking in and are my main general purpose pair. My blue wellies are slightly too big so they aren't very good for walking. Their best feature is actually their loose fit. I can simply step into them, making them the quickest pair to put on and take off. Although I prefer a boot which fits snugly around the leg, it is actually good to have a pair which can be changed into quickly and easily.

My riding boots are the best for sitting around the house. They aren't great for walking - the foot is a bit too long and they rub when I walk, but that doesn't matter if I'm wearing them watching tv. What I really love about them is the snug fit around the leg and the height. When my leg is straight, the boots seem to stop about an inch below my knee but when I bend my knee the boot gently presses into the back of the knee, which is a really pleasant feeling - it is a wonderful constant reminder that I am wearing knee length boots.

8 days a week of boots

For the past week, including today the past 8 days, I've only been wearing tall boots. Most of my time has been spent wearing knee length boots - either my riding boots, wellies or Doc Martens. The shortest boots I've been wearing have been my Lonsdale boxing boots.

I have been sleeping in my boots quite a lot recently. Last saturday I decided to wear my new riding boots for the whole day. I put them on friday evening and slept in them overnight, then wore them for all of saturday. I took them off at midnight.

I have been wearing my Doc Martens in work if it's been raining, otherwise I've been wearing my boxing boots. Every evening I changed into my riding boots when I got home. I like wearing riding boots - I think the close fitting shaft of the boot looks great as it reaches up towards the knee. When I'm watching TV or reading a book, I find myself looking at the boots and enjoying the way they fit.

On thursday night I slept in my riding boots again. When I woke up on friday morning I changed into my boxing boots to go to work. I wore my wellies for a while before changing into my riding boots for the evening. When I went to bed I changed into my boxing boots and slept in those.

It is now the 2nd saturday of this 8 day week of tall boots. I plan to wear my boxing boots for most of the day - the weather looks like it might be warm so boxing boots and shorts might be good to wear. I intend to change into my riding boots this evening and sleep in them for one last time before I return to my more normal boot wearing routine.

Shopping in my wellies 2

It was raining when I got home so I decided to put my wellies on to go out to the shops. As usual, I was the only person in wellies, despite the heavy rain.
When I got back home I changed into my riding boots. Either I've got one leg fatter than the other, or one boot is smaller around the calf, because one boot is tighter than the other.

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.