Let’s Talk About the Best Red Wing Heritage Boot

Hey friends! There’s something special about the Red Wing 1907s that makes them the best moc toes from Red Wing, and that is the storm welt.

Also, I don’t really like crepe soles, but either way, you can’t beat the smell of leather!

What’s up everyone, it’s Michael.

Happy whatever day it is that you’re reading this!

I hope you are having a relaxing day, I hope it’s not too stressful, and I hope you’re like, “Hey, I’ll just sit here and read an article about a Red Wing 1907 review.”

The 1907s, in my opinion, are Red Wing’s best heritage boots by far.

There are a lot of reasons that we’ll go over in this article, but I just want to say to you that I think you should get the 1907s if you’re looking at a moc toe Red Wing.

Without further ado, we will be talking about sizing and breaking in these boots because they are a beast. A storm welt, or a Norwegian welt, or in this case, sometimes Red Wing says a Norwegian-like welt, so close enough. Then we’ll talk about the actual specific reason the 1907s are the best, coming down in price and quality and all these different things.

Getting the Right Fit: Sizing These Bad Boys

Okay, so first things first: sizing. I usually wear an 8 in boots. I bought an 8 in Red Wings, and they fit perfectly.

The thing to say about Red Wings or really most leather boots, is you want them when you first get them to fit snugly, especially because the leather is going to be super stiff, and they will kind of conform and mold to your feet over time and get more comfortable and softer.

But always go snug, not squished – snug. You are not trying to expand these to your feet; you’re trying to get them to mold to your feet. So snug is good, squished is bad, and the same goes for jeans – never go too small, thinking that they will get bigger.

Let’s Talk Leather: Understanding Nubuck

So before we get into the break-in process, we need to talk about the leather – very quickly. I have the 1907s in copper rough and tough, which is an oil and waxed nubuck leather, and you may be thinking, “Michael, I don’t know what nubuck is.”

Well, that’s fine, I’ll tell you. If you’re familiar with leather, you know one side of it is smooth, and the other side of it is kind of fuzzy and has this little fluffy texture to it.

Nubuck is when you take that smooth side, and you sand it down a little bit – you get nubuck. Suede is when you flip it the other way and you shave down that fluffy side – that is suede. If you don’t shave it at all and you have the fluffy side on the outside, that’s rough out.

Nubuck is tougher than suede, and rough out is basically tougher than everything. So the leather is waxed and oiled to make it tougher and water resistant, which would be good because we’re doing a waterproof test later. I can’t wait for that!

Breaking In These Beast Boots: The Cowboy Method

Okay, so now, before we get into the best and most fascinating part of this article – the welt – we’re just going to go over the break-in process really quickly.

These are some heavy boots, some heavy-a boots. Basically, every person who talks about Red Wing moc toes says, “Yeah, good luck breaking those in, bucko!” You can, if you want to try and speed them up, you can add a little bit of mink oil or some type of conditioner to them and walk in them, but to me, honestly, I have a certain pride in just walking in boots that are really uncomfortable until I get comfortable.

To me, it’s kind of like if I was a cowboy in the South and I saw a horse that I really wanted to ride, but it was wild, and every day, I just kept getting on top of it and getting bucked off until the horse liked me. That’s kind of what it feels like to wear Red Wings and break them in.

I will say, though, that I don’t think I’m good at breaking in boots yet. Denim, on the other hand, I could break a cast in.

Boot Construction 101: Understanding Goodyear Welts

Before we get into why this boot is the best deal and all of that, we need to get into the welt. “Welt, welt, welt, if it isn’t Welt Disney!”

Hello! I just want to preface this by saying my boot knowledge is not anything insane.

So now, if you will grant me the time, I will fumble through explaining to you what a Goodyear welt is and then tell you what a storm welt is.

Okay, so very quickly: when you’re looking at a boot, you have the upper, the insole, and then you have the outsole. So a basic boot without a welt has the upper, then some glue or cement or anything like that, then the insole is glued, and then once that is together, you take the outsole and glue it on as well, and that is a boot. They can’t be resoled, and the cement could come undone, and it could flap.

So to remedy that, instead of using cement to put the outsole on, we can use a stitch and stitch right through the boot, and that would be called a Blake stitch. But it’s not really water resistant at all because threads basically just channel water right into it. So if that stitch goes all the way through the boot and then water comes and touches that thread, you basically have holes in the boot or the shoe.

So then, logically, we have to introduce something that remedies that issue, and that’s called a welt. Let’s get into how Goodyear welt works. So we have our upper, and then we have our insole.

Now, instead of just stopping there and slapping the outsole on, there is now a thin leather strip tracing the outside of the bottom of the boot, and that is horizontally or kind of diagonally stitched to the upper on the inside rim of that leather strip.

So, there is now a little lip on the outside with no stitching around it, and on the inside of that little lip, there is stitching. So then what happens is when you take that outsole and put it against the upper, it comes in contact with the welt.

Now, the outside of that welt, like I said, is a lip, so you stitch down the outside of the welt and connect the outsole to the upper that way.

So, the connection between the insole and the upper is hidden inside the welt. The outside of the welt is holding onto the outsole so that the vulnerable area between the insole and the upper and the outsole is hidden behind the welt, so water and other elements can’t get in as easily.

Now, when you look at a pair of Red Wing 875s, those are Goodyear welted, and Goodyear welts are incredible. They are really durable, they are pretty water resistant, and since now there is that little leather strip which is the welt, you have a little bit of space where you can put cork that will mold to your foot over time, which is what are in Red Wings, or also you put insulation there and keep your feet warmer.

Getting Deep into Storm Welts and Norwegian Construction

Then, though, we have the storm welt – a bit more sophisticated, a bit more how you say ingenuitive. So I’ll say what kind of the popular consensus is that Red Wing is doing, and then I’ll describe a Norwegian welt because I think it’s so cool.

So the boring thing and the popular consensus that I’ve seen, at least on Reddit and some forums, is that the storm welt for Red Wings on these 1907s isn’t that complex, and it’s basically Red Wing stitching another strip of leather onto the welt itself.

So now it’s too thick and more secure, and apparently, that has similar effects as a storm welt or a Norwegian welt; that’s why they say “Norwegian-like” – they could kind of bend the welt up a little bit. I’m not quite sure, but the popular thing that I’ve seen is that it’s just another piece of leather.

Okay, so now here’s the cool thing. This is the Norwegian welt – Yuketen actually has a really good description of what a Norwegian welt is, and they have really cool boots, so I really want a pair from them.

Okay, so picture a boot. For most boots, the upper curves under the insole of the boot and kind of wraps around it. Then, when you take the welt, that part of the upper that’s curved under gets the welt on it around the outside.

So basically, what happens is you have that curve under, you have the welt, and you see a small channel where water can kind of flow in. I’m not saying that it does regularly or anything like that, but the possibility is there – it‘s not perfectly waterproof, is all.

What I read from the Norwegian welt is the upper, instead of only curving in, it sort of folds upon itself and curves back out. It’s more of an S shape than a C shape. We have the upper that curves in, comes back out, and is folded outwards.

So when the welt goes on, a stitch is now there, and it basically takes away that channel. So water will just kind of run off of it like a gutter.

And that’s why when you look at a boot with a Norwegian welt, it looks like there are two pieces of leather – one is kind of bent up and coming out, the other is the regular welt sandwiched down, so you’ll see the double stitching.

Why These Boots Are Actually a Better Deal Than You Think

So the 1907s are ten dollars more expensive than the 875s – theoretically, not really, and this is my TED talk, so get ready. I will prove it to you now.

The 1907s come with Red Wing’s inner leather footbed, which typically you can get separately for $40. These actually serve another function, too – if your feet are sweating throughout the day, you can pull these out at the end of the day, and that will help the rest of the boots dry faster, and you can let the footbeds dry on their own.

As I said before, you get the storm welt, which, you know, is invaluable, and you also get a pair of leather laces thrown in for free with these boots, which are typically $15. All in all, for that extra $10, you get $55 worth of freebies thrown in – technically $45 because you paid an extra $10. But it just seems like a better deal to me.

If you just wanted to get a pair of leather laces, you’re already technically saving five dollars.

The Final Test: How Waterproof Are These Things?

It is time for the best part of this Red Wing 1907 review! We are going to see how waterproof these are. I did not have high hopes for these boots, I will say.

In my head, I was kind of comparing them to Blundstones, which are injection molded, so the leather is actually kind of bound with the rubber of the outsoles, so those do really well. I can stand in water for a very long time and water doesn’t come in. They were going against a big player.

Also, I had to try so hard not to write Redstones at all in this article because, in my head, I was like, “Don’t say Redstones. This isn’t Minecraft!” Am I right?

Okay, here we go – waterproof test results. I started by only going up to the welt, and then the moc toe line, and then fully submerging them.

The right one leaked almost immediately, but the left one took much longer to start leaking. On a few of the stitches – the hole is pretty big, and then the threads are waxed so water doesn’t get through them, but that’s never perfect.

But one of the holes, I feel like, was a little bit bigger, or the waxing wasn’t perfect or something like that, so that was kind of a shame. But I have no doubt if it’s raining or if you’re just walking through grass or mud or anything like that, these boots would hold up fine.

Watch This Review

Wrapping It Up: Final Thoughts

Either way, though, that was Stridewise, that was me, that was Grown & Sewn, that was my Red Wing 1907 review – that is about it. I will see you all soon!

This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.