RM Williams Boots - Everything You Wanted to Know

[CMT1]

Appreciate it, gentlemen. I love these boots!

 

[pedromvu]

Finally got to wear these again, Gardener full welt, a make I barely see any photos of (apparently it's not even for sale anymore)

It was actually the first RM Williams pair I was interested in, even though I like my suede comfort craftsman, I prefer these for day to day since the shape of the craftsman makes it too formal for me.

 

[Jason Kadushin]

huge fan of RMW but some of their MTO policies are ridiculous and their "we have the leather"...."No we don't have the leather" is super annoying. anyone have experience with the meermin chelsea and want to comment on comparisions? thanks much!

 

[Jykaes]

huge fan of RMW but some of their MTO policies are ridiculous and their "we have the leather"...."No we don't have the leather" is super annoying. anyone have experience with the meermin chelsea and want to comment on comparisions? thanks much!

Yes this completely does my head in, they have this mega expensive bespoke program and the selection of leathers they offer for it are crap. If they have another leather available, even if it's a special order on their website, they won't let you use it bespoke.

I just bought the Cyber Weekend bone suede boots for $500 with matching belt, and I'm going to take them in to get them resoled with a natural sole at a $165 expense just because they refused to do them in a natural sole MTO, but are happy to resole to natural.

I was also considering getting the elastics swapped over too, but it looks like I won't have to... because this was what was sold on the website and in all the Black Friday promos:



And this is what arrived:



I suspect a lot of customers are gonna be unhappy with that, it makes the dark sole look even worse. But it's a good colour match for a natural sole.

 

[midazoslam]

What's really strange is that RM sent me these swatches for the MTO program, and now it looks like bone is one of them?

 

[Crafty Cumbrian]

Yes this completely does my head in, they have this mega expensive bespoke program and the selection of leathers they offer for it are crap. If they have another leather available, even if it's a special order on their website, they won't let you use it bespoke.

I just bought the Cyber Weekend bone suede boots for $500 with matching belt, and I'm going to take them in to get them resoled with a natural sole at a $165 expense just because they refused to do them in a natural sole MTO, but are happy to resole to natural.

I was also considering getting the elastics swapped over too, but it looks like I won't have to... because this was what was sold on the website and in all the Black Friday promos:

View attachment 1301776

And this is what arrived:

View attachment 1301849

I suspect a lot of customers are gonna be unhappy with that, it makes the dark sole look even worse. But it's a good colour match for a natural sole.

Totally affects the aesthetic of the boot and agree the natural sole would complement the boot. Few unhappy patrons this close to Xmas I’m sure.

 

[Jykaes]

Totally affects the aesthetic of the boot and agree the natural sole would complement the boot. Few unhappy patrons this close to Xmas I’m sure.

Yep for sure, although I doubt there will be too many angry about missing Christmas as the boots were meant to be special order 6-8 weeks and the Cyber Weekend deal was 3 weeks ago so they were not really ever intended to be done in time for Christmas. I bought wheat nubuck boots once that had the same estimate and they shipped almost immediately, I think when RM do these sale special models they must start manufacturing them ahead of time and just say special order to give themselves a buffer.

What's really strange is that RM sent me these swatches for the MTO program, and now it looks like bone is one of them?

That IS strange. I was told three weeks ago that bone is not an MTO option. The previous bespoke offerings were totally different, your MTO leather swatches suggests that they have very recently decided to ditch the old program and just offer all their off the shelf finishes in the MTO program now. Which is exactly what they should be doing, don't get me wrong, but they've resisted offering their normal leathers MTO for years so this is a surprise.

I'm going to go into the factory shop tomorrow and see what they say. I will be pushing for a resole at their expense to compensate for their error. However, a resole is normally $165 and elastics are $70 so I am not sure if they will agree to that approach, you never really know with RM. I would prefer not to take a refund as I do like the bone suede and I actually like the bone elastics as well, in certain lights they are an identical colour match. It's just that mismatched almost black sole that totally breaks the look.

As an aside, no pic but I also ordered the matching bone belt (As the $500 deal was for matching set) and also ordered a nero suede belt on its own to match my black suede boots, despite the website warning me the belts could not be sold separately. As expected, nero is just black with a waxy finish applied, which the belt only has on the edges as pictured on the website. The belts are both excellent and are perfect matches, they do both have a seam vertically down the middle for some reason which is a bit strange as none of my other belts have that, but that's a nitpick and I am not that bothered.

 

[Crafty Cumbrian]

Yep for sure, although I doubt there will be too many angry about missing Christmas as the boots were meant to be special order 6-8 weeks and the Cyber Weekend deal was 3 weeks ago so they were not really ever intended to be done in time for Christmas. I bought wheat nubuck boots once that had the same estimate and they shipped almost immediately, I think when RM do these sale special models they must start manufacturing them ahead of time and just say special order to give themselves a buffer.



That IS strange. I was told three weeks ago that bone is not an MTO option. The previous bespoke offerings were totally different, your MTO leather swatches suggests that they have very recently decided to ditch the old program and just offer all their off the shelf finishes in the MTO program now. Which is exactly what they should be doing, don't get me wrong, but they've resisted offering their normal leathers MTO for years so this is a surprise.

I'm going to go into the factory shop tomorrow and see what they say. I will be pushing for a resole at their expense to compensate for their error. However, a resole is normally $165 and elastics are $70 so I am not sure if they will agree to that approach, you never really know with RM. I would prefer not to take a refund as I do like the bone suede and I actually like the bone elastics as well, in certain lights they are an identical colour match. It's just that mismatched almost black sole that totally breaks the look.

As an aside, no pic but I also ordered the matching bone belt (As the $500 deal was for matching set) and also ordered a nero suede belt on its own to match my black suede boots, despite the website warning me the belts could not be sold separately. As expected, nero is just black with a waxy finish applied, which the belt only has on the edges as pictured on the website. The belts are both excellent and are perfect matches, they do both have a seam vertically down the middle for some reason which is a bit strange as none of my other belts have that, but that's a nitpick and I am not that bothered.

Thought was similar to the UK offer which was specifically gift themed and included a matching belt. The implication was a nice gift package.

Agree they must have a certain number pre made and maybe odd (unusual not half!) sizes maybe made to order? The mystique!

 

[midazoslam]

That IS strange. I was told three weeks ago that bone is not an MTO option. The previous bespoke offerings were totally different

This came from one of the US stores but evidently they have phased out the previous MTO array for these options. I sent them the swatches you had posted earlier from the Australian stores and they said only the navy suede was being retained.

Now MTO has those swatches, your choice of elastics (I didn't get to ask which colors are available; I'm curious to find out), your choice of comfort or classic with black/brown/natural upper sole or black/brown upper on leather inner with treaded outersole.

As an aside it appears there is no feasible way to get the comfort inner sole onto a treaded rubber outersole, and I broke down and bought a pair of Gammons.

 

[Jykaes]

This came from one of the US stores but evidently they have phased out the previous MTO array for these options. I sent them the swatches you had posted earlier from the Australian stores and they said only the navy suede was being retained.

Now MTO has those swatches, your choice of elastics (I didn't get to ask which colors are available; I'm curious to find out), your choice of comfort or classic with black/brown/natural upper sole or black/brown upper on leather inner with treaded outersole.

As an aside it appears there is no feasible way to get the comfort inner sole onto a treaded rubber outersole, and I broke down and bought a pair of Gammons.

Hmm they must have rolled the MTO change out in the US first or at least not consistently in Australia.

Elastics they have black, brown, bone (my new pair), taupe (kind of an off brown grey, pretty nice) and then some weird stuff like bright blue and bright red. May have been others, I don't recall.

They should be putting the comfort sole in literally all their boots in my opinion, at least as an option.

 

[monkk]

Anyone finds RW, especially Turnout, giving very limited arch support?

 

[Jykaes]

So I went in person to the store with the boots to discuss and was told that they could not help me in person because it was an online order and that I would need to arrange a repair or refund via e-mail. I've also noticed that the sole is darker than my other brown soles and might actually be black so they have just completely stuffed the pair up.

What is going on over there? First they make the wrong boot, then they won't help in person? Doing my head in...

 

[troika]

Yes this completely does my head in, they have this mega expensive bespoke program and the selection of leathers they offer for it are crap. If they have another leather available, even if it's a special order on their website, they won't let you use it bespoke.

I just bought the Cyber Weekend bone suede boots for $500 with matching belt, and I'm going to take them in to get them resoled with a natural sole at a $165 expense just because they refused to do them in a natural sole MTO, but are happy to resole to natural.

I was also considering getting the elastics swapped over too, but it looks like I won't have to... because this was what was sold on the website and in all the Black Friday promos:

View attachment 1301776

And this is what arrived:

View attachment 1301849

I suspect a lot of customers are gonna be unhappy with that, it makes the dark sole look even worse. But it's a good colour match for a natural sole.

I actually really like the color matched gore...the contrast is what stopped me from buying them, so this is kind of refreshing. Instead of paying to get them resoled, you should try to sand down the edges and cover them with a clear wax. Might just do the trick.

 

[Jykaes]

I actually really like the color matched gore...the contrast is what stopped me from buying them, so this is kind of refreshing. Instead of paying to get them resoled, you should try to sand down the edges and cover them with a clear wax. Might just do the trick.

Yeah I think the matched elastics look great, but clash badly with the black sole. In my opinion they should have offered this boot as beige elastics and a natural sole from the beginning, it's a way more sensible colour combination.

What you've suggested wouldn't work, the sole is not all rubber, it's rubber with a leather welt layer on top. They have dyed the welt black, there is nothing I can do about that, you can't undye it. You could easily sand/polish back the rubber and probably even the heel block but it would look even worse than it does now as the welt will still be black.

RM will probably want to either just refund me, which I don't want because I have been trying to get good beige suede boots from them forever, or replace the beige elastics with brown and the black sole with brown. That was what it was meant to come with. I suggested in my e-mail to just replace the sole with natural and leave the incorrect elastics. That is a good outcome for them as it's less labour, and good outcome for me as it's a combination I would actually prefer.

Seems logical to me but we all know RM's customer service is dicey. I really don't know how they're going to respond, and I think they're on Christmas break as of the end of last week so I probably won't hear from them for a little while, which is fair enough.

 

[troika]

Fwiw, you can absolutely sand down the sole edges. Been done many times by Alden folks, but also this person goes into a lot of depth: https://askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/threads/diy-cobbler-ing-changing-sole-edge-color.112293/