Hello all! Today I'm going to give a brief review of the suede knee-high boots offered by The Celtic Croft, and show some photos of modifications that can be done to the soles if you plan to use them for hiking.

The boots are actually made by Minnetonka Moccasins, and this particular model is the "Hard Sole, Hi-Boot" variant without the fringe option. I was initially interested in their soft-sole variant, but I was told that was no longer offered by the company. So, I did some modifications that gave me a sort of compromise between the two while providing other benefits. I'll elaborate on that in a minute, but first I'll give a brief overview of the boots.

Overview

They are indeed a suede leather which is thick, but supple. If you've ever seen, felt, or worn a leather welding jacket, then you know exactly what this leather is like. This is a great choice of leather for these boots, as it is a very rugged and durable leather; they will last you a very long time through a lot of hard use in any kind of natural environment. The laces are thin strips of cheap leather which means they're cheap to replace if/when they need to be. The tongue is stitched to the boot from its base to the very top, which provides nice insulation from the cold and a little more protection from the wet, in addition to creating a nice barrier between you and unwanted bugs (Lyme-diseased ticks are rampant here in Pennsylvania). If the boots become too hot, you can just simply unlace the top few holes and roll the top of the boots down, much the same way you would roll a pants leg up. Its construction is very solid with plenty of double-stitching. It has a soft insole which I don't recommend removing, as it covers and protects some of the inner stitching and construction from being worn against. The outer soles are approximately 1/4" thick with an additional 1/4" heel; I believe they are natural rubber. The soles are completely smooth, with no grooves, siping, or tread to provide any amount of grip on anything other than dry, hard surfaces. Great for urban environments, not-so-great for natural environments. There is a simple solution to this though, which I will now elaborate on.

Modifying For Outdoor Use

Disclaimer: Modify at your own risk. Using a cutting instrument in an irresponsible way may result in injury. Always cut away from yourself and others. If you mess up, you can't return them and you're stuck with them.

All you'll need for this is a decently sharp knife or razor cutter (I used a $20 sgian dubh I bought from Sportkilt.com for everything), common sense, and some patience. This is the first time I've ever done modifications to any kind of footwear, so it goes without saying that there's nothing complicated or difficult about this.

Before I did anything, I removed the heels because I don't like heels on my footwear (no photos of this part). Its easy to do this; just look at the heels and you'll see the fine line where they're glued on. Take your knife or razor and carefully trace along this line. You don't have to cut deep, you just want to create a slight separation between the heel and the main body of the sole. Once this is done, start cutting and separating the heel from the sole at the front of the heel (flat edge of the heel closest to the center of the boot). Use the main sole a reference to make sure you're cutting flush along the sole; you don't want to cut into the main sole or the heel, you just want to separate them where they're glued together. Continue doing this until you have enough of a lip under the heel to grab with your fingers. Apply a little elbow grease and rip the heel off.

Tread On Me


Top: Sole after the initial cuts. Bottom: Finished sole.

Now, let's get a grip on this sole, literally. This is even easier than removing the heels. You're going to create roughly 11 initial cuts across the width of the sole (seen at top of above photo). It doesn't have to be an exact number, and you can just eyeball the spaces between the cuts. Closer cuts increase flexibility while broadly-spaced cuts keep rigidity. Make sure the knife is at a 90-degree angle to the sole when you cut, and only cut about halfway into the sole.

Now, you could probably leave them like this and have at least a little better traction, but I recommend doing the second half of this process to make this worth your while. What you're going to do now is create a parallel line to each cut. These will serve as guidelines for your final cuts. When you do this, make sure the guideline runs on the side closest to the center of the boot. The reason why is because these will be cut at a 45-degree angle to each initial cut. Doing this will give each groove a good edge to bite down with. The front will bite when ascending a hill, and the back will bite when descending.


Creating the guideline for the final cut. Note that the guideline is on the side closest to the center of the boot, and angled toward the initial cut.

Your guidelines will keep your knife going where you want it to. They don't have to be deep, just enough so you can see what you're doing when you make your final cuts. You'll want the tip of your knife pointed at the bottom of the initial cuts. If you're not sure what I mean, keep reading and it will make sense after it's done. After your guideline is made, you can now make your final cut. With your blade penetrating from the guideline down into the bottom of your initial cut, you're going to slice from one end to the other.


Creating the final cut.

The blade will glide along the guideline as you filet the strip of rubber between the two cuts. Once you've made your final cut, you should be able to slide your blade under the strip of rubber and lift it up. It'll peel right off the sole.


Removing the strip of rubber.


Strip removed.


Showing the angles of the two cuts.

And that's it! Do this for each of your cuts and you'll have nice, grippy moccasin boots. I do want to mention that I wore these with wool blend hose when hiking last weekend at sub-freezing temperatures and I was incredibly comfortable. I could have easily been comfortable at 10F-15F temps in these. I highly recommend them.

Cheers,
-Jake