He climbed Mount Everest - in his own hand made hiking boots. These are the "Best in the World" Level - footwear.

I don't know if you have ever had them, but getting hand made boots by an expert, to individually fit both of your feet, for special reasons - is a pretty impressive piece of footwear. If you can, make the opportunity to go to an "all machines" sewing machine repair center...... It's really impressive and very clever machinery. It's not only the really clever home stuff, but there are over lockers and all sorts of machines to sew all sorts of things.....

@Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson: best I did was buy churches (in 2014), I still have them and they look as new (because I also take care of them and have them refurbished often). Ofc Church went broke, I mean , not much returning bizz if your regular customers drop by once every 10 (or more) years, yeah I am looking at hand made, here in Europe I have seen shops doing it for 1300 euros (wich is actually pretty cheap considering), ... thinking about it, ...,

@Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson: Church america still exist, this is my shoe (my version in bordeaux red), the store in the UK/Europe is gone, only the American legal entity still exist https://www.church-footwear.co....m/us/en/p/bleached-c

This is exacty my shoe, in English brodeaux red is "burgendy" https://www.church-footwear.co....m/us/en/p/polished-b

Anyway, ... hadmade is the way to go, infact, Its cheaper since it will last... your whole fucking life (like a saddle) if you take good care of it

@Lucifer333: Fuck they are nice...... Real good. Leather does have a finite life, based upon sweat, oil, water, humidity etc., An old hand made boot maker said only to apply Dubbin in super fine amounts, and then to polish them right up, and to only do it every few months or after some weathering... The oils / fats become acidic and rot the leather. I also make my own belts and other leather stuff and the perspiration caused them to go acidic and for bacteria etc., to begin to digest the leather too... They just "rot". There is also a condition called "dry rot" for leather, that affects things like leather bound books - they sort of go powdery and crack and rot too. ALSO absolutely keep LANOLIN off your leather gear, unless it's NEW, HARD and DRY leather and it needs "breaking in" and only use a pea of it for several square feet - it will turn NEW HARD DRY leather into SOFT chewing gum.... To quote my retarded arsehole father, "Those Oxford Shoes are too nice to wear." - I rarely ever actually agree with the idea. But these shoes are really too nice... I mean you can't stick them in a glass case in a museum either.... but have you ever seen Imelda Marcos's shoe collection - absolutely fantastic..... BUT when these despotic shits fled the Filipines, they left all that behind, and the museum, with the power turned off, and no air conditioning, turned into a tropical sweat box with really fucking high humidity and everything went black and mouldy.... Look it up on Google. Imelda Marcos rotting shoe collection

@Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson: I realy thought you could keep leather like forever, but yeah rot, giddemn man, my leather shoes getting hard and cracking, so I am treating them with some oils so they (i hope become more souple and flexible, and dont crack). I am reading more about leather treatment, there needs to be a way to somehow treat leather that it doesnt rot,...., antibiotics? lol, i donno man,.., I just checked out Marcos shoes, yeah the big circle of life, the bacteria had their way with it, sad man...

@Lucifer333: It's partly biology and partly chemisty.... Things that digest leather and things that create chemical reactions within leather.... Unless the leather is new skin, dry and rock hard, absolutely avoid LANOLINE - unless it's perhaps a half a pea of it, in say 20ml of turpentine, and it's used as a very thin fast wipe over... Other wise the leather will turn to chewed up chewing gum.... Leather shoes are there to be used, just use them prudently and follow the manufacturers recommention.

There is also a difference between "Shoe Polish" and the leather version of a facial moisturiser, or fat based water proofing treatments - at the more polarised perspectives... of couse they might blend a bit of one with the other. But the OLD Polish guy who used to make Medal Boots in Fitzroy - he recommended only Dubbin on the motorcycle leather boots he made, and only just enough to apply a fine film over the surfaces, after riding in the rain had washed the grease out..... He said that if you apply it thick and soak the leather, in Dubbin, it rots the leather. Water / Air / Oxygen / + OIL = acid that rots leather.

@Lucifer333: If you get a block of butter wrapped in paper, and leave it in a cool place for several months, the oxygen will pass through the paper and begin to react from the outside to the inside of the butter block. And whenyou slice off the end of the butter block, you can see, "The Ring Of Rancidity". - The faint colour change as the reaction works it's way in. If your going to buy bulk butter for long tems storage, get thestuff wrapped in foil.