Episode#63 Your Boots Will Carry You Nearly 70,000 Miles

We slow down and take boots seriously, from the surprising number of miles your feet cover in a lifetime to the deep history packed into everyday footwear. We trace how function shaped iconic designs, then land on real-world boot picks that hold up for quail hunting, work, and life. 
• why hunting boots are not “just gear” when you’ll walk 67,000 to 70,000 miles in a lifetime 
• how everyday walking miles plus hunting miles add up faster than most hunters expect 
• the 5,500-year-old Armenian leather boot and what its wear marks prove 
• how Mongolian stirrup heels help explain modern cowboy boot design 
• the Duke of Wellington’s redesign and how rubber wellies helped prevent trench foot 
• what we like and don’t like about Justin, Danner, Ariat, Kenetrek, and Cody James boots 
• our personal comfort picks for serious quail hunting versus daily wear 
Help further our work. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift. Visit us online at azquilltoday.com and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest information and updates. Till then, remember to get outside. 

Connect with us: Email us at ryan@azquailtoday.com —we'd love to hear from you! 
Follow us on Instagram at @azquailtoday

Transcript

Welcome, Partners, And A Song

0:07

Welcome to Arizona Quail Today, your go-to podcast for all things quail hunting in Arizona. We're dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of quail hunters. A big thanks to our supporters and proud partners, Arizona Outdoor Adventures, Fathers in the Field, and Marsupial Gear. Thanks for tuning in, and now let's dive in today's program. You keep saying you got something for me. Something you call love, but confess. You've been a messin' where you shouldn't have been a messin'. And now someone else is getting all your best. And that's just what they'll do. One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you. Alright,

Boots As Essential Hunting Gear

1:25

we're back for another episode. Wow. That's one way to kick it off. Start up like that. So what are we talking about today? Welcome back to another episode of Arizona Quail today. Gonna have an awesome time in the studio today. We are going to talk about boots. Boots, boots, boots, boots, boots. Now what's right is right, but you ain't been right. Yeah. These boots are made for walking. There you go. So can't wait. Alright, so here's what we're doing today. We are gonna be looking through boots. We're talking about boots. You know what most guys never think about is your boots when it comes to hunting. You lace them up, you go, and then that's it. But today I want to slow down and I want to actually think about what those boots are doing, where they've been, where they came from, and their wild history behind things strapped to your feet right now. Because there's a lot more story in your boots than you would think. Oh yeah. So you might ask the question, what do you mean? Well, the miles, number one. Let me throw some numbers at you. The average man in the US lives 76 to 77 years old. Now, now kids and teenagers don't walk nearly as much as adults do. So, you know, uh let's focus on the years that really count, like where you're really you're really out there walking quite a bit. Uh, you're doing some serious hiking. So um, and not not even hiking. Let's just talk about walking. That's roughly, let's just say, I'm just gonna count 20 to 77. So I'm gonna count just a you know fifty-seven years of walking of somebody's life, so give or take before 20 or before 77. So I'm just gonna say 57 years of walking. Most men in America cover about 2.5 miles a day. Uh, just walking in regular life, errands, walking, walking the dog, moving around the house, going to work, nothing dramatic. Over 57 years, that adds up to 52,000 miles just from everyday living. Now let's add hunting miles, okay? So hunting miles, here you go. Uh say you hunt five miles per trip. That's really not a ton, but five miles, three times a week. That's that's probably more than most. But, you know, I I put it in there because think about it, like maybe you hunt two times per week in a 20-week season. Um, sometimes three, sometimes one, but you hike far more than just five miles. So I just said for me, you know, five miles three times a week. That's over twenty-week seasons, uh, or twenty-week season, that's three hundred miles a year just from hunting. So do that for 50 years, and the numbers are fifteen thousand miles on your boots. So, here it is. Let's see if I can get a good sound effect for this. Uh here we go. Drum roll, please. And the answer is you're looking at somewhere between sixty seven to seventy thousand miles on your feet in a lifetime. Literally, that is almost three full times around the equator. That means you're walking around the world like three times. That is crazy. That's a lot. So let that let that sink in for a minute. The equator is about twenty five thousand miles, and you're walking around this planet three times before it's all said and done. Your boots are aren't accessories, they are the most hardworking gear you own. Wow, dude, that's a lot. I mean, you you might be thinking, like, I didn't know where we were going in this podcast, and uh I get it. But you know, you know, we I just thought this is important. I mean, if you're really walking that much, like, and that's uh I didn't count jogging or being active, uh, other than hunting 20 weeks out of the year. So I mean, think about it like that. Say, I don't hunt, you know, uh 20 weeks out of the year, three times a week. No, but you're probably a lot more active than the the regular average guy who's just walking per day to work, or not to work, but around work at home and all that. So, dude, you're crossing the world, you're you're traveling around the world on your feet a couple times a year, uh a couple times in your lifetime. So that's pretty impressive.

How Boots Began 5,500 Years Ago

7:32

So the question is, is where did we even get where did boots even come from? Okay. So let's let's go way back. The oldest boots ever found were taking the oldest piece of leather footwear on earth. I'm talking about that, was discovered in 2008. That's not too long ago, in a cave in Armenia. Uh, the Arena One cave to be exact in this shoe is said to be 5,500 years old. Dang, dude. Okay. That's really old. I'm I mean, uh dating back to 3,500 BC. So, wow. Okay. They they think it was uh Moses' boot. I I don't know whose boot it was, but uh no, I'm joking. Uh I don't know. I have no idea, but apparently that's what they got. Uh to put this in perspective, that boot is older than Stonehenge, it's older than the Egyptian pyramids. It's a single piece of leather shaped for the foot, roughly a woman's size, seven by today's measurements. And here's the wild part it was preserved perfectly because it was buried under layers of sheepdung, sheepdung, and sealed like a vacuum for five millennia. Dheepdung saves some history. Thank you, sheep. Uh when they pulled it, they pulled it out, uh, it was fashion. Uh when they pulled it out, it fashion designer Monolo Blanck was one of the most famous shoe designers in the world, looked at it and called it astonishing, astonishingly modern. Uh like the he was stunned. Um it even had compression marks at the heel and the toe. This thing wasn't just some museum piece. Somebody walked in that boot a lot. And uh now jump forward the to the 13th century, Mongolian warriors, Genghis Kong's guys were riding horseback in boots with stacked wooden heels because the the that heel kept their foot from sliding through the stirrup. And I mean, hey, there you have cowboy boot, cowboy boot. I mean, man, that's kind of cool, isn't it? That's like

From Mongols To Cowboy Boots

10:21

oh man. I don't know. I love it. So yeah. Let's see what's this. This is what is this? Cowboy. Uh-oh. It's cowboy, it's kid rock. Uh, we'll just get away from that. How about this? That's a little more classy. Cowboy rides away, George Strait. That's what I'm talking about. So imagine some Mongolian. So imagine some Mongolian warriors. So, are you there? Are you s envisioning the Mongolian warrior just riding around like a cowboy? It's probably listening to some George Strait. I mean, could have been George Jones, but here you got it. You got the Mongolian warriors wearing a masterpiece. They apparently that when they found those boots, they had marks on the heel and the toe because they've been riding them, they've been using them. So you jump forward this to the 13th century, you have the Mongolian Warriors Genghis Khan. Guys are riding horseback and boots, and we're stacked with these wooden seal wooden heels. Uh and here you have modern-day cowboy boots now. So, same reason uh cowboy boots have heels today, the designs functional, horse ready, built for the rider, traveled through Calvary cultures across centuries, continents, Civil War military boots uh brought it to America, and by 1870s the cowboy boot, as we know it, was born. The first store to sell them was Coffeyville, Kansas. Wow. Coffeyville, Kansas. Maybe you've heard of that place. I'm gonna pull that up and see where uh that is. Coffeyville, Kansas. They must have coffee there. Coffee C-O-F-F-E Coffee Coffeville, Kansas. There it is. It's only sixteen hours away from Phoenix. Oh wow. So it's just south of Independence, Kansas. It's looks like northeast of Bartsville. Yeah. Looks like out in the middle of nowhere is what it looks like. Wow. It looks like it's uh just southeast of Wichita, to put it in perspective, so um Yeah. So y you got these boots in Coffeville, Kansas. The first store to sell them in the 1870s was a store in Coffeyville, Kansas. So, um man. Alright.

Wellies, Rubber, And Trench Foot

13:59

Well so now let's talk Wellies. The Duke of Wellington, author uh Wellesley, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Uh, the British general who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 had a shoemaker in London named George Hobby on St. James Street. Wow, this is interesting. Wellington walked in and basically I and basically said, I don't like these boots, fix them. The boots at the time were called Hessians, um, tall half or calf skin military boots with tassels named after the German mercenaries who fought in the American Revolution. Wellington told Hobby to cut the tassels off, lower, uh lower the shaft and make them fit tighter for riding. Oh, okay. So like these big old boots, I can imagine. Simple as that. The Wellington boot was born. So and because of because Wellington was most famous in Britain, a war hero, a fashion icon, general, every gentleman in the country immediately copied him. And by 1840s, Wellingtons were the boots to wear. That's so cool. 1852, an American named uh Hiram Hutchinson licensed Charles Goodyear's New Rubber. Dude, that's so cool. Goodyear's New Rubber um process and started making rubber wellies in France, and World War I sealed the deal, and North British Rubber Company produced over 1.1 million pairs of soldiers slogging through flooded trenches, saved a lot of feet from what they call trench foot. Trench foot. Dang. I've got a friend over there right now, like touring through uh old World War One um and World War II, different uh just sites and just all sorts of cool stuff. Alright, so soldiers came home and they kept wearing them. And the name Wellingtons or just Wellies has just stuck ever since. So wow. Okay, just political cartoons this is kind of a fun fun note. Political cartoonist used Wellington boots and his big nose so much uh that eventually they just drew him as a Wellington boot with a face. Uh the man literally became his footwear. That's an interesting side note. So some political cartoonist used Wellington's boots and used his big nose so much that eventually just drew him as a Wellington boot with a face. That's funny. I'm gonna pull up Wellington boots and just see uh if there's an icon for that. So apparently the guy had a gigantic nose. Wellington uh boots And then I'm gonna do images. They just look like big old Yeah, they just they're big old high boots. A lot of them are high boots. Um it's interesting. Wellington boots icon. There we go. Uh I don't see any nose or political cartoonist drawings. That's interesting. So apparently. Well, that's what happens when you're big and popular. People are gonna make fun of you for something. Okay.

Boot Brands And Buying Lessons

18:19

Well, alright, so now what I want to do is I want to transition and I want to talk to you about the different brands of boots. I know this sounds interesting, but I think I I I I think it's really important because if you you know, like you're gonna walk around the world um in your lifetime. So let's talk about boots that you actually buy. Um Justin boots. That's where I'm gonna start. And I'm I'm literally gonna be I'm where are my Justin boots? Are these Justin boots? No, I don't. Okay, I guess I don't have a pair of Justin boots. I thought I did, but I was wrong. Alright. So I'm not gonna talk about Justin Boots. Well, shoot. I went ahead and prepared for it. I've had a pair of Justin boots, so I'm gonna tell you about them. Um, Justin Boots, 1879, Herman Joseph Justin, 18 years old, five dollars in his pocket. He boards a train from Indiana to Texas with one goal become a bootmaker. He gets a job as an apprentice, a cobbler, convinces a barber named Frank C to loan him 35 bucks. This is back in 1879, with the promise that he'll make the best boots in the world. Jeez. Man, that's all that's a that's a confident young man. He's 18 years old. Um he the first pair he ever sold, uh retanned cowboy boots, cost Frank nine dollars. Uh Justin set up his shop on Chisholm Trail in Spanish Fort, Texas. Cowboys driving cattle would come through, beat up and worn out, and he'd fix their boots. Uh his wife Annie developed a mail order self-measuring kit in the 1890s so cowboys could order custom boots without ever leaving the range. So cool. By 1915 to 36, years after the $5 train ride, uh Justin Boots were selling 36 states and five countries. His daughter ended when the family moved um to Fort Worth. She refused to go. She stayed in Nakona, Texas, and started her own company, Nakona Boots. Wow. One of Justin's biggest competitors from his own daughter. What? Oh my gosh. Justin Industries uh was eventually purchased by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2000. The standard of the West now is owned by the Oracle of Omaha. Oh my goodness. Okay. That's terrible. Well, anyway, he got a lot of money, so I'm sure he's happy. Uh his family's happy. Justin's long gone. Joseph Justin. Gosh, what a cool story. So if you

Danner, Ariat, And Comfort Tech

21:40

get a pair of Justin boots, there you go. That's the backstory. Um I'll tell you about Danner boots, founded in 1932. Yeah, I have a pair I'm looking at. I have I have at least two pairs. I've got a pair of these kind of like I would say, like dress lace up boots. Boots. Uh they're pretty nice. They're honestly not super comfortable. Um they're American made. I like that. I had a pair of hiking boots as well. That um I actually got a pair. Yeah. I got another pair I'm looking at right now. A pair of hiking boots with vibrant soles. Uh pretty lightweight. I picked them up at Poop Barn. Uh they're uh I actually like those better than my dress Danners. Um and then I have another pair of Danners that are super lightweight hiking shoe boot, and they they're pretty good too. So um, but let's talk about Danner. Founded in 1932, Charles Danner. He started in a logging town in Wisconsin and then chased the Pacific Northwest timber boom to Portland, Oregon, in 1936. He made uh Spike sold uh logging boots, that would make sense, so tough uh that the loggers called them shipyard boots. He started selling them for $4 a pair during the Great Depression, and then won a government contract to supply work boots in World War II. He built a bigger factory, and his sons John and Bill took over. And then in 1979, Danner did something nobody had ever done before. They partnered with the W with WL Gore and Associates and built the world's first fully waterproof hiking boat. Wow. Here's Gore, the beginning of Gore. Wow. I know that we have Gore throughout Arizona. I don't know what the history of W L Gore is. I'd be curious. Let's see if I can pull it up real quick. This is probably just this is their company. I wish I knew their history. Let me see if I can just give you brief. Um I'm kind of on a rabbit trail, I know, but I think it's kinda interesting. WL Gore and Associates was founded in 1958 by what? 1958. Wow, okay, wow. Uh Gore in Delaware originally started in their basement company group uh pioneering polyurethane. Uh no, poly I can't even pronounce it. Polytra fluorithane, insulated wires and global materials science giants from waterproof, all this other stuff. Key milestones, 1958, founded January 1st by Bill. They first produced multi-tech something, 1962 cables or something. Bill's son made watershed discovery stretching heated rods, yeah, just doing a bunch of tech stuff. 1976 Gore-Techs came out. That's cool. Yeah. I'm gonna say, where are they from? If you know, that's great for you. Where are they from? I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get this answer very quick, but we'll see. Uh oh well, I guess they were founded in Delaware, uh, where the company is still headquartered. Okay, so yeah, sounds like they started there. So anyway, Danner hooks up with these guys. They partnered together and built the world's first waterproof hiking boot, Danner Light. And the designer had worked alongside a young Yvonne Chunard or something like that, the future founder of Patagonia. Wow, and had also designed the first boots ever made for the North Face in 1975. Wow, cool. So that's one more story. In the 1980s, um, well here's one more. Uh, Danner made a pair of boots for an elephant named Toy Hoya and the Oregon Zoo, size 150, waterproof, waterproof lay uh leather, and those boots actually healed the elephant's cracked feet. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Unmade elephant boots to this day. About 40% of Danner boots are handcrafted from start to finish in their factory in Portland. They're American-made, they still supply boots to the U.S. military. So that is cool. They they still supply boots to the U.S. military. I did not know that. So Danners are not bad boots. So if you are thinking about a boot, I would say, I would say for me, I like their nice dress boot. It's nice. Uh their hiking boot, I thought was pretty unbelievable. I did like that quite a bit. I use that for lightweight hiking and trail hiking and all that stuff. I don't use them. I I could I do use my hiking boots a little bit for quail hunting, but I'll get to the kind of boots that I use uh for that later. So, all right, let's go on to another another boot that I have in my closet, and that is Ariotts. Ariot. And Ariot, 1993. Two women, Beth Cross and Pam Parker from Stanford Business School. Uh they looked at the riding boots world and they asked one question why can't riding boots feel as good as our running shoes? This is the 1990s, so I mean, let me just pull up some 90s jams for a second. And what nineties? Oh yeah. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh my goodness. Oh, this is a good one. You're gonna love this. That's a good one. It gets you going a little bit. I mean, this is what the girls were listening to. You never know. So, okay, 1993, these two women, Beth Cross and Pam Parker, Stanford Business Graduates, are they're runners and they want to have boots that are just as comfortable as the running shoes. I mean, so I mean, that's kind of a big tall order, but they they go for it. So they built one. They used athletic shoe technology, lightweight midsoles, gel cushioning, flexible outsoles, and then put it inside the a Western boot. And first company, they were the first company ever to do that. So how cool how cool is that? Um so they go for it, and um they needed a name. So the name Ariad is actually pronounced like the back half of uh Secretariat. So that's the 1973 Triple Crown Champion Horse, who arguably the greatest race horse ever lived, Secretariat, uh had had a heart nearly three times the size of a normal thoroughbred, and that heart was the inspiration. So uh Beth Cross grew up and uh on a horse farm in Pennsylvania, one of eight kids, she watched she uh she watched Secretariat win the Kentucky Derby on TV in 1973 as a little girl, and that horse stayed with her for 20 years. Um, that that idea and that that storyline in her heart, and she named her boot company after him. So there you can go. You never know. You live in ball just rock and roll, baby. Moving through the 90s, dude. There you go. All right, let's move on to something a little bit different. So now we're talking about another boot company, and this boot company, so well, I guess let me tell you about the Ariots before we move on. So I wear Ariots actually as my riding boots, um, and I do have a pair of dress area boots as well. I have uh a low-cut, uh, like super low-cut cowboy dress ariott boot. And I would say it's it's okay. It's not my favorite, it's not as the most comfortable, so that's kind of funny. Um, but it's nice, and I do like it. It's a nice uh uh, but my cowboy boots are really my Ariotes. I've had several. I've had the work steel toe boot, cowboy, and then I've had the regular, just lightweight cowboy boot that I ride my horse in and mess with my horse, and I do like it. So they're good boots, I'm not gonna lie. Um cool story too. So now you know uh Ariot is the short for secretariat. So um that's that. So let's think about another boot. What kind of boot do you wear uh when you're out riding? Well, this is achy breaky heart. Billy Ray. He made his way back somehow doing a little song with Lil Nas X. So um Kenetrak.

Kenetrek, Cody James, Final Picks

32:36

That's who I'm talking about. That was a terrible introduction for Kenne Track, uh, Billy Ray Cyrus, sorry. Unless Billy Ray, you're listening to this and you want to sponsor Arizona Quail today. Uh I do I did think it was pretty cool that he did the song with Little Nos X. Uh what's that song? I forget. Uh uh, I forget. Um, but anyway. Uh Kennetrak Bozeman Montana, founded in 2005 by Jim Wing, uh, who had spent 18 years designing boots for another company before he was going out of out on his own. And um so these are big boots. And so um these are these are oh, we found it. This is just imagine I've got some big old Kinetracks right here. These are monstrous boots. This is kind of a good introduction for Kinetrack. It's got a rough, rugged sound. That's funny. So there you go. You're like, what? Rap and cowboy music? I know, yeah. It's interesting. At least it sounds good in the truck. Uh so we got Kinetrack founded in Montana 2005, and the reasons this started was his own feet. He he went on a big sheep hunt, and wearing boots that were considered top quality, he started getting tons of blisters, and he, you know, there was like these freakish gashes on his feet, and he didn't decide to sell a pair until 2006. So um he worked on them for some time, but in 2007 the Mountain Extreme dropped, and those are some awesome boots. I don't know if you've seen those or not. I'm holding a pair in my hand right now, and I've had them I've had them for a number of years. I wear them about I can get about a two seasons out of them in quail hunting, and I just wear them for quail hunting. And um I've had them resold once, and they cost a couple hundred bucks to get them resold. They're not cheap, they're pretty expensive, but they're real high. They come up, um, you know, probably uh, I don't know, six to eight inches above your ankle. So the Kindetrack Company is a pretty awesome company. Uh, the first company to build its entire brand identity around being a hunting boot manufacturer, period. And uh to get the right fit, Jim actually flew to Italy uh where boots uh are uh made and designed uh his own custom last, um which is the mold that shapes that the boot. Uh Italian factories had been using the same last, I guess that's a technical term, last for decades. American feet are different. Uh, after building their own last, Kinotrex uh fit rate went from 80% to 96%. And I will say that is interesting because I do believe those boots are so crazy comfortable. I'm not joking you. Like they are it's something special about them. Um, I put them on and I I was in the store and I was like, whoa, those are so comfortable, and I love wearing them. So uh anyway, I just think it's it's a good boot. So um before I leave uh that that uh this topic, uh, I just gotta play a good song. This would be a good a good honor of Kinetrack. So to all you Kinetrak wearers out there, let's go. Alright, that is Charles Wesley Gooden. This guy's good. Charles Wesley Goodwin. Uh Godwin. I'm pronouncing his name all wrong. Uh, but that dude is great. I love that guy. He's uh just a really good country music singer. Okay, so we're moving on to the next boot. The next boot is Cody James. And uh Cody James. This is interesting. Boot Barnes own brand built to honor uh Western heritage. Uh you want a classic cowboy boot style and accessible price, Cody James delivers. And uh they feel broken in the first time you put them on. I I am not gonna lie, these boots are actually my most comfortable boots right from the start. They do feel so good. I've got a uh pair that's like a slip-on cowboy boot. I wear these for dress, like uh I'm a pasta preacher, and so I put them on and I wear them all the time. Uh they're like dress boots, but man, they're comfortable. So anyway, that is about it. So let's just wrap up. So here's where I land personally. My most comfortable boots, as I said, are my Cody James. At first, wear it feels like you've had them for years. I just can't explain it, it just works. And my my Kinotrex are the ones I reach for for all my serious hunting and quail hunts and long days in the backcountry. They are they are tanks, um, they're heavy duty, they're serious, they're built for taking a beating. You you put them on and you're ready for whatever mountain. I love them. The and they're very comfortable. Uh Ariots, they that they just earn their keep. Um because they're just they're good boots. They're they're they are lightweight and they're they're just good boots. Uh Danners made in America. Every time I wear them, I think about that factory of Portland and the craftsmanship that built them, and you know, it's just cool. So so here's the thing 67 to 70,000 miles, that's where your feet are going to carry you. And that's the life ahead of you. And hunting camps and parking lots and back porches, trailheads, front row, front rows, and fence lines and the boots you choose, they do matter, not just for your comfort, but what you strap to you on your feet every morning says something about how you intend to show up that day. So lace up the right pair and go cover some miles. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening in. Help further our work. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift. Visit us online at azquilltoday.com and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest information and updates. Till then, remember to get outside.