# Done With Desert Boots



## Trip English (Dec 22, 2008)

For the second time I've bought Desert Boots and have to get rid of them. The stretching is absolutely out of control. They're like loose leather socks now. How do people wear these without developing severe foot bone issues?


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## hardline_42 (Jan 20, 2010)

Trip English said:


> For the second time I've bought Desert Boots and have to get rid of them. The stretching is absolutely out of control. They're like loose leather socks now. How do people wear these without developing severe foot bone issues?


Which desert boots did you get? For me, DBs are truly disposable and I don't even shell out for Clarks anymore. I just get Roamers for $40 a pair and call it a day. If you want a durable suede chukka, you'll have to spring for something a bit more constructed. Rancourt has a nice looking , but I'm not sure if they're any less floppy than a standard DB.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

If you are referring to Clark's Desert Boots, I feel your pain. They don't provide for much bio mechanical support for our feet. However, Alden of Carmel's special make-up of sand suede chukkas with the plantation crepe sole and made on Alden's Plaza last seems the ultimate Desert Boot design to me and it does provide excellent bio mechanical support for your feet!


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## Trip English (Dec 22, 2008)

Just the Clark's beeswax models. Not sure I'm a candidate for this style. I can't wear something that stretches an entire shoe size or more in the first few months of wear.


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## nolan50410 (Dec 5, 2006)

I'm not a fan either, but for different reasons. They seem like chick shoes.


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## Trip English (Dec 22, 2008)

Really? I can't imagine a traditionally feminine chick wearing them.


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## roman totale XVII (Sep 18, 2009)

I've worn Clarks DBs for 30 years. Never had this kind of problem. Maybe they just work for my foot shape and biomechanics and I'm glad that's the case :smile:


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

The Shoemart has a special make-up chukka design in natural toned Chromexcel, with the plantation crepe sole, very similar, but vastly superior to Clark's beeswax Desert Boots. However, I believe this one is made on the Barrie last.


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## Youthful Repp-robate (Sep 26, 2011)

My only set of desert boots are from Old Navy, and though they haven't stretched, they did run something like a size large and a few widths wide. I bought them in an 8, and I have to wear them with thick crew socks. That said, of course, the padding from the socks and the soft soles make them very comfortable -- and of course, paying only $15 was a good thing.

I feel like they don't do anything that brown suede chelsea boots won't do as well -- my current set of winter beaters are brown nubuck chelseas with a lug sole from, of all places, Target. Also about $15, but if _really nice_ shoes were in the cards, I'd spring for a set of English-made ones on some kind of rubber sole. The Rancourt chukkas tempt me, but the leather-soled variant appeals more than the ones with the camp moc sole.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

Sanders make a good desert boot which is lined and won't stretch:

https://www.pediwear.co.uk/sanders/products/3206.php


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

Hardline was probably referring to Rancourt's desert boot with an RLH sole, which I suspect is worlds apart from today's Clarkes:



My Clarkes are ok, but I sized down because I was warned about the stretching. I have another pair that I bought without sizing down, and they quickly became like loose socks. I'm thinking of trading both in when AE does it's next "donate used shoes and get a discount" promotion.


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## godan (Feb 10, 2010)

Like other students around Seattle in the 1960's, I wore Clarks on the rare days it wasn't raining. The modern ones are flimsy junk compared to the originals. At present, I have sturdy, long-lasting desert boots from JM and LLB. The Rancourts posted above look quite nice.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^(ref post #11)
Doesn't AE presently have a "Soles for Souls" promotion going on? I recall receiving an email, promoting such, earlier this week.


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## hardline_42 (Jan 20, 2010)

tocqueville said:


> Hardline was probably referring to Rancourt's desert boot with an RLH sole, which I suspect is worlds apart from today's Clarkes:
> 
> My Clarkes are ok, but I sized down because I was warned about the stretching. I have another pair that I bought without sizing down, and they quickly became like loose socks. I'm thinking of trading both in when AE does it's next "donate used shoes and get a discount" promotion.


I added a hyperlink in my post that led to the Rancourt page, but I suspect everyone automatically ignores hypertext now, thanks to stupid VigLink.


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

Crap, you're right. The sale is on now. Too bad I'm on a spending freeze.


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

hardline_42 said:


> I added a hyperlink in my post that led to the Rancourt page, but I suspect everyone automatically ignores hypertext now, thanks to stupid VigLink.


Yup. I ignore it unless it's obviously intended by the poster. Sigh.


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## Youthful Repp-robate (Sep 26, 2011)

tocqueville said:


> Yup. I ignore it unless it's obviously intended by the poster. Sigh.


I've taken to making whole sentences links, or pasting the actual URL into the post. I'd forgotten about the blake-stitched chukkas from Rancourt -- I was thinking of these () and these ().


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## Patrick06790 (Apr 10, 2005)

I have a pair of Clark's waxy boots, a pair of old LL Bean, and a pair of new LL Bean. I bought them all a half size smaller, knowing what happens. It has worked out fine.

None of them are any good for walking all day on pavement, but for putzing around they are fine.


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## Topsider (Jul 9, 2005)

Trip English said:


> Really? I can't imagine a traditionally feminine chick wearing them.


Ditto that, although apparently some people think a woman in desert boots is dressing "tomboy style" (i.e., dressing like a guy.)

https://tomboystyle.blogspot.com/2011/11/uniform-desert-boots.html


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

All my favorite women were tomboys as girls.


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## eyedoc2180 (Nov 19, 2006)

nolan50410 said:


> I'm not a fan either, but for different reasons. They seem like chick shoes.


With you, but I'd say "emo" rather than "chick." For the record, I don't dislike them, but they just aren't for me.


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## efdll (Sep 11, 2008)

If one recalls their reputation as "brothel creepers", one has to admit that their sock-like quality is ideal for such creeping. However, such activity should be discouraged, if not for political correctness reasons (debasing of women and so on), merely for the preservation of one's health, which could be endangered, terminally even, in such an environment. As for their usefulness in the desert, the closest I've come is the beach, where bare feet or flip-flops are preferable. O'Toole did look good in them as Lawrence, though, with those above-high-water khakis. And Lawrence would have never worn them to creep around a brothel.


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## Himself (Mar 2, 2011)

Desert boots are junky shoes for kids. Get some grown-up shoes, man! 

What you've spent on desert boots over the last 5 years might have paid for some nice Alden Indys, etc.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

efdll said:


> If one recalls their reputation as "brothel creepers", one has to admit that their sock-like quality is ideal for such creeping. However, such activity should be discouraged, if not for political correctness reasons (debasing of women and so on), merely for the preservation of one's health, which could be endangered, terminally even, in such an environment. As for their usefulness in the desert, the closest I've come is the beach, where bare feet or flip-flops are preferable. O'Toole did look good in them as Lawrence, though, with those above-high-water khakis. And Lawrence would have never worn them to creep around a brothel.


Their slightly louche character is, for me, part of their appeal, but you seem almost to be implying that slipping on a pair will have a sort of Mr Hyde effect. So far I have not been aware of my desert boots directing my footsteps in the direction of any loose women, but one never knows.



Himself said:


> Desert boots are junky shoes for kids. Get some grown-up shoes, man!
> 
> What you've spent on desert boots over the last 5 years might have paid for some nice Alden Indys, etc.


Again, part of their charm for me! Let there be a place in every man's wardrobe for a pair.


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## closerlook (Sep 3, 2008)

they don't ... i wore the wallabe for a number of years and developed sever foot problems.


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## cincydavid (May 21, 2012)

All the cool guys in my high school wore desert boots or Wallabees...my parents thought they looked sloppy and I wore Weejuns and LL Bean moccasins, both camp and blucher. This was in the 80s, and while I've always vaguely wanted desert boots, AND Wallabees, I have never owned either of them, and at this point probably never will.


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## Typhoid_Jones (Jan 21, 2012)

I have only ever owned one pair of desert boots. They are J. Crew "McAlistair" brown suede chukkas made in Italy. I bought them at a GW for $4.99 and then had the leather insoles replaced for another $20. I have flexible flat feet and wear them pretty regularly (3+ times a week or so) and have never experienced foot pain or discomfort. In fact they are a pair of my most comfortable shoes. While they aren't as "shapely" as more built up shoes, they fit the bill for day-to-day casual wear.


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## Trip English (Dec 22, 2008)

Somehow I wore wallabees (which are afflicted with the same shapeless ever expanding flop) when I was in high school and it didn't matter. I guess I was more robust in many ways back then. Love the look of them, but I just can't subject my feet to that now.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

efdll said:


> If one recalls their reputation as "brothel creepers",..


Thank you for confirming that this is the style on shoe named such or, in the States, brothel stompers. I'd thought the term to apply to all suede shoes but this makes more sense.


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## SlideGuitarist (Apr 23, 2013)

Tempest said:


> Thank you for confirming that this is the style on shoe named such or, in the States, brothel stompers. I'd thought the term to apply to all suede shoes but this makes more sense.


"Stompers"? You'd have to be pretty secure in your reputation to stomp around a brothel.

Perhaps the idea of the thick crepe sole was taken taken from the chukka; I thought it applied to this sort of shoe: . Hey, friends, these are "made in England"!

The first time I heard this expression was in a traditional British song:


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## Brio1 (May 13, 2010)

^

Romper Stomper :


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## Duvel (Mar 16, 2014)

I'm wearing my dark brown suede Clarks Originals today. I think they work well with my blazer and olive chinos. I mainly wear them in the fall, and they've held up well over the past few years. But I do think of COs are fairly disposable. Once the sole starts wearing down much, they get replaced. Just an option to keep in the shoe rotation.


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