Work boots as casual wear

[VZ743]

Hi
I am very interested in the Red Wings 875, I like them a lot. However, these are "work boots" and I am a student. I want to use this shoe as my daily, casual footwear. How far can I go with this? Is it unappropriate to wear these boots as a daily casual shoe?

 

[ter1413]

I see people wearing them all the time and they are not construction workers.

 

[aDrummingDude]

Work type boots can look very nice casually as long as they aren't beat to hell when the rest of your outfit is very put together. I'd probably stay away from pairing them with blazers, or anything tailored for that matter, and instead treat them as more "street wear," to be worn with jeans, untucked shirts, ect.

Dress boots are a different story.

 

[emidyl]

I wear my black Iron Rangers with my wool pants all the time. But they aren't beat up and I don't use them for actual "work" per se.
Yours will be fine with some nice jeans/casual clothes, just not beat up.

 

[GeneralW]

I see people wearing them all the time and they are not construction workers.

In fact, actual construction workers don't wear Red Wings or any boot that isn't steel toed.

 

[BrooksLauren77]

It's fine.

 

[chogall]



In fact, actual construction workers don't wear Red Wings or any boot that isn't steel toed.

Pretty sure Redwing and Wolverine both have large selection of OSHA boots.

 

[dddrees]

I do it all the time

Wolverine 1k
Alden Indy
Redwing Beckmans
Viberg Service Boots

 

[Neo1]

I wear my Redwing Beckmans all the time. I thought the Beckmans and Iron Rangers looked a little bit better as casual wear. I tried on the 875 but just didn't like it, but that's just my opinion. The large majority of people I know who wear Red Wing "work" boots as casual wear do wear the 875s, so that shows you what I know.

By the way, those "construction worker" red wing boots are junk made in china - the heritage line (NOT made for actual construction work) are the good ones made in the usa.

One more thing - as much as I love my Red Wings as casual wear, I do find them super heavy and wouldn't wear them if the weather was on the warmer side.

 

[Neo1]

Wanted to mention this, just FYI - the break-in for the Red Wings was pretty brutal. Anyone who says I just wore them and they fit right out of the box is lying, they don't really own them and don't know what they are talking about. I have a hard time finding shoes that fit. I measure 7.5D and the Red Wings all run long. I bought a 7D plus an orthotic insert, and together I knew the fit was good. The boots are extremely stiff. Being as impatient as I am, I wore them almost all summer long, with the heaviest wigwam socks I could find, and walked during lunch time at work like 5 days a week for like 2-3 miles a day. In the process of doing that, I got bruises like crazy and rubbed my big toes and pinky toes raw. I would say the boots became tolerable by week 4. By week 8, they were awesome, better than any pair of sneakers. I did come across the engineer's boot in 7D finally after looking for a long time, but thinking back about that awful break-in lead me to reconsider and not purchase them. I have heard the 875s are a little easier, but not sure. Iron Ranger is so similar to the Beckman that is probably pretty rough too. Also remember that the Iron Ranger has the eyelets, so you don't have to keep lacing and unlacing over and over again. The waxed laces on the Beckman's broke immediately - I replaced them a few times but eventually switched to parachute cord, which is strong but constantly comes undone.

One more thing - love reading in the AE appreciation thread all the compliments people get - I own 8 pairs of AE and have gotten NONE, zip, nada. Not a single compliment on any AEs. But I get compliments on my Beckmans all the time

 

[dddrees]

Wanted to mention this, just FYI - the break-in for the Red Wings was pretty brutal. Anyone who says I just wore them and they fit right out of the box is lying, they don't really own them and don't know what they are talking about. I have a hard time finding shoes that fit. I measure 7.5D and the Red Wings all run long. I bought a 7D plus an orthotic insert, and together I knew the fit was good. The boots are extremely stiff. Being as impatient as I am, I wore them almost all summer long, with the heaviest wigwam socks I could find, and walked during lunch time at work like 5 days a week for like 2-3 miles a day. In the process of doing that, I got bruises like crazy and rubbed my big toes and pinky toes raw. I would say the boots became tolerable by week 4. By week 8, they were awesome, better than any pair of sneakers. I did come across the engineer's boot in 7D finally after looking for a long time, but thinking back about that awful break-in lead me to reconsider and not purchase them. I have heard the 875s are a little easier, but not sure. Iron Ranger is so similar to the Beckman that is probably pretty rough too. Also remember that the Iron Ranger has the eyelets, so you don't have to keep lacing and unlacing over and over again. The waxed laces on the Beckman's broke immediately - I replaced them a few times but eventually switched to parachute cord, which is strong but constantly comes undone.

One more thing - love reading in the AE appreciation thread all the compliments people get - I own 8 pairs of AE and have gotten NONE, zip, nada. Not a single compliment on any AEs. But I get compliments on my Beckmans all the time

I didn't have that bad of a time. However I wore them for a short periods in the house first, and then when I eventually started wearing them for longer periods I was sitting down mostly and not walking much. I still went thru some pain of breaking them but not much. It helps a lot if you take sometime and don't force it too much.

I purchased some leather rawhide laces and I never used the laces that initially came with the boots. No issues here.

I think it really helped that I read some of the comments and suggestions in the Redwing thread in the SWD portion of the forum and comments off and lessons learned from other users of these boots.

 

[Neo1]

Yeah.....that wouldn't work for me. I have no patience for that kind of thing. If a shoe required you to wear them for like an hour in the house without doing any walking, I would pass. No offense, I just wouldn't put up with that.

I was considering the rawhide laces. Just with the price of the boots themselves plus the inserts, I felt it was kind of over the top. But good to know, the parachute cord is driving me nuts. Maybe I'll still get them.

Did not read the other users comments on the Red Wings before I bought them. But from the Op's initial post, I doubt a student would want to invest in a pair of boots that he would have to wear sparingly in the house before actually using them. Doesn't sound too practical.

 

[dddrees]

Yeah.....that wouldn't work for me. I have no patience for that kind of thing. If a shoe required you to wear them for like an hour in the house without doing any walking, I would pass. No offense, I just wouldn't put up with that.

I was considering the rawhide laces. Just with the price of the boots themselves plus the inserts, I felt it was kind of over the top. But good to know, the parachute cord is driving me nuts. Maybe I'll still get them.

Did not read the other users comments on the Red Wings before I bought them. But from the Op's initial post, I doubt a student would want to invest in a pair of boots that he would have to wear sparingly in the house before actually using them. Doesn't sound too practical.

I didn't say this method was for everybody, just that there are many ways to skin a cat. For me it worked, personally I'd rather not have to endure that much pain.

 

[Neo1]

Absolutely - no problem. Glad to hear things worked out for you. Always good to hear someone else's opinion - just trying to provide my two cents in case it helps. Too many times I read these cell phone texted "These shoes were great" or "I wore these shoes through water and the soles separated, can I return them" so I try to post factual information to help out wherever I can. That was my personal experience - if I had taken it a little slower, I'm sure things would have been different.

 

[dddrees]

Absolutely - no problem. Glad to hear things worked out for you. Always good to hear someone else's opinion - just trying to provide my two cents in case it helps. Too many times I read these cell phone texted "These shoes were great" or "I wore these shoes through water and the soles separated, can I return them" so I try to post factual information to help out wherever I can. That was my personal experience - if I had taken it a little slower, I'm sure things would have been different.

No worries, in fact I find it usually takes a few posts from people who are willing to take the time before you can have a good discussion and get the complete story. That's not really any different than when your talking to someone in person. Sometimes you have to be willing to spend a bit of time and get thru the initial back and forth before you can start to understand where someone is coming from.

I can certainly understand why some people wouldn't want to wait a few weeks like I did before wearing these boots a whole day. I know I wore them in house a number of days for only an hour at a time before I thought it was time to move to the next stage. I also understand most who wear them wouldn't have the luxury of having a desk job and being able to sit most of the day when wearing them for the first time. But I'm sure glad I did, because I agree these boots could be murder to break in initially. I'm just glad this wasn't my experience, but to do so I had to be pretty patient in doing so. I still experienced some discomfort just not nearly to the degree that most do.