I will note that the leather on the Thursday boot is slightly thinner than the Red Wing, but we’re talking about a difference of 0.2 millimeters here, which won’t really make a difference as far as durability is concerned. (Learn more about the different ways of tanning boot leather here.)Īgain, it’s considerably easier to dress up this vibrant, lustrous leather than the more matte Iron Rangers. It comes from Tier 1 United States cattle and it’s very similar to Horween’s Chromexcel®, which is combination tanned with vegetable and chrome. The Captain is available in a variety of leathers, including a few from Horween Leather Company, but the flagship boot is made with the company’s own Thursday Chrome leather out of the LeFarc tannery. Here, it adds a lot to the boots’ rugged, outdoorsy feel, though a potential downside is that it’s quite matte and doesn’t shine easily - again, it’s hard to dress up an Iron Ranger. It’s hard to scratch or damage and it can go a long time without treatment. It’s a very hardy, full grain, oil tanned leather, and generally I think oil tanned leather is underrated. (If you want to avoid that mistake, use this neatsfoot oil instead.)Īnd, honestly, these boots don’t really need much conditioning. My boots are a lot darker than you might expect Amber Harness to look, and that’s because I made the mistake of conditioning them with Obenauf’s, which shifted the color dramatically. One of the coolest things about Red Wing is the fact that they tan their own leather at their tannery, SB Foot Tanning Co, which produces about 6 million linear feet of (mostly oil tanned) leather per year. Overall, no one can argue with the fact that these are two completely different aesthetics: the Iron Ranger is a true, chunky workboot and the Captain is more a more versatile hybrid that’s easy to dress up and dress down, particularly given its dressier leather. These are fully leather lined boots, with handsome combination-tanned leather and a studded rubber outsole which looks very flat from the side while still having a good grip. I think it succeeds, and it makes for a boot that’s far more versatile than the beefy Iron Ranger. It makes sense: the Captain, like many of Thursday’s boots, is intended to be a hybrid work/dress boot. The Captain is much lighter and sleeker than the Red Wings. The leather is thick and oil tanned, and the sole is a Vibram mini lug, attached to the upper with a 270-degree Goodyear welt.Ĭaptain on the left, Iron Ranger on the right. The boot is pretty ubiquitous, and this is often the first boot a guy spends money on, although you’ll find plenty of people who don’t like it because they think the toecap is too clownish. (It’s a true toecap, by the way: made with two layers of leather.) I t’s firmly a casual boot, particularly with its shiny nickel eyelets part and signature round, bulbous toecap. The appeal of this boot really comes from its timelessness as part of Red Wing’s Heritage line, very little has changed about the about the Iron Ranger in the last few decades.
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