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thedenimdentist · 4 years

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Role Club Underdogs: Ordering Process, Unboxing & First Impression

Introduction

Brian Truong (@brianthebootmaker) is a boot maker based in Los Angeles, CA. He works out of a shop with his teacher, where he works resoling and building custom boots. Over the years, Brian has created a catalog of several styles of boots and shoes, most of which can be seen on his Instagram. He is most widely known for his iconic engineer boot (which I have already placed an order for).

In order for Brian to build you a pair of custom made to measure boots, he requires a set of measurements for each foot. Ideally, Brian takes these measurements of your feet himself (for those lucky enough to live nearby or are willing to travel to his shop). For everyone else, Brian allows you to submit your own foot measurements using a guide available on his website.

Ordering Experience

Living in California, I was lucky enough to be able to stop by Brian’s shop to be personally measured. During my visit, I was wearing my Java Waxed Flesh Trumans. Just by looking at the way these boots were creased and broken in, Brian could immediately tell that these boots were too large for my feet. I explained that I have to size up in all boots in order to accommodate my full length orthotic inserts. When I told him that leaving out the orthotic was not an option, Brian said he could wrap a pair of my memory foam orthotics in vegtan leather, and use this in place of his standard leather insole. By doing so, he would be able to size my boots appropriately rather than leave room to accommodate both my foot plus the additional insert.

(Above is the orthotic Brian wrapped in leather and used for my insole. I purchased these off Amazon and mailed them to his shop after my visit.)

After a few discussions with Brian (both in person and via Instagram afterward), we settled on the following Underdog design:

Leather: natural Essex vegtan leather

Upper stitching: white

Hardware: Brass eyelets/speed hooks (5/2/1)

Last: 100 last

Toe: unstructured

Outsole: white cork half sole and heels

Heel style: low woodsman

Edge finish: raw/natural

Custom orthotic-leather hybrid insole

(Left: A mock-up I created on Photoshop of what I was looking for, using photos off Brian’s Instagram. Right: The photo taken by Brian of my actual Underdogs. Not bad!)

For my Underdogs, I was debating between Brian’s 2307 and 100 last, but ultimately decided to get the 100 last (mostly due to my affinity for slimmer profile boots). For a more in-depth summary of all the lasts/toe shapes Role Club toe has available, I will link you to Brian’s YouTube video.

If I had to describe my interactions with Brian, I would say they were...concise. He is a man of few words, always getting straight to the point with fairly short responses. I feel like my level of excitement when I visited his shop may have been a little over the top for Brian’s more soft-spoken personality, but I still found the whole experience quite enjoyable. He’s a nice guy who is passionate about his craft, and it was cool to be able to meet and support him.

Price, Lead Time, & Shipping

The cost to reserve a pair of Role Clubs is $200, regardless of which model boot/shoe you are ordering. I made this deposit during my visit to Brian’s Los Angeles shop on 8/21/2019, reserving me a pair of boots he estimated would be completed in April 2020. After months of waiting, I received an email from Brian on 4/27/2020 stating that my boots were completed. I paid the remaining balance for the boots ($880 + $35 domestic shipping), my boots were shipped on 4/30/2020, and they arrived on 5/3/2020. In total, I waited about 8.5 months for this pair.

Unboxing

The boots arrived fairly quickly (a day earlier than expected). Upon arrival, there was nothing overly extravagant with the packaging. The Role Club box seems fairly sturdy. It’s a nice white box with vibrant blue print. A nice touch is the information on the side of the box containing my name and details of the boot.

Within the box, the boots were packaged individually within clear plastic bags. Clean, standard, basic. No frills, greeting cards, extra padding/card stock dividers, or spare laces (like some of the other MTO boots I’ve received). Nevertheless, this packaging was enough to adequately protect the boots during transit, as I could not find any scratches or damage to either boot.

Top View & Toe Shape

Surprisingly, the 100 last didn’t result in as slim of a toe box as I had expected. This may just be due to how Brian had to adjust the last based on the measurements of my wide bunions? Comparing them to some of my other boots, I would say my 100 last toe shape is similar to, but slightly less angular than the Truman P-79 last and drastically rounder than my Onderhouds.

If anyone is interested, I’ve also written reviews for both of these boots: my Java Waxed Flesh boots by Truman Boot Company and my Onderhoud Handmade derbies in Badalassi cognac.

Design & Pattern

Front view. Pretty standard service boot.

The inside neck of the left boot (above) is embossed with Brian’s Role Club logo. These boots are unstructured, so I’m excited to see how the toe box collapses with wear.

The outside neck of the right boot (above) shows the outline stitching for a Role Club fabric tag visible from inside the boot. Brian mentioned in one of his YouTube videos that he does this intentionally, as the white thread will pop more and more as the leather darkens.

I really like the stitch design of the heel stay and counter. I’ve always liked the look of triple stitching, and the wavy loop stitching going up the vertical strip is very tight and clean; beautiful!

Sole & Heel

It seems (based on Brian’s Instagram feed) that most of his natural Essex boots are finished using his Role Club natural cork half sole and heels. While this look is very clean, I personally found it a little too monochromatic and uniform. Thus, I decided to go for something a little more unique and chose his white cork half sole and heels. While the white is a little more flashy, I think it adds the perfect amount of contrast to break up the natural leather and raw edge finish of the midsole. It may not be for everyone, but I like it, and I figured I could alway resole the boots with a different color in the future (like brown or black) after the upper leather darkens with wear.

As for the heel shape, I decided to go with Brian’s “low woodsman.” At the time I placed my order, I did not have any experience with anything other than low block heels. Brian’s full woodsman heel would’ve been a huge jump out of my comfort zone, and honestly felt a little daunting. The low woodsman heel seemed like a safe middle ground and a nice stepping stone toward a more substantial curved heel. (Since placing this order, I’ve had experience with several other boots with woodsman heels, and may choose to get Brian’s full woodsman on my next pair of engineers.)

Of all the woodsman heels I’ve seen online, I think Brian’s style is probably one of my favorites. The angulation and curvature of the heel are more subtle than a lot of others (like on my Onderhoud derbies), and they’re finished very tightly to the upper, leaving a very slim and minimal welt around the heel of the boot. The stacked leather and soles are all nicely polished and smooth to the touch.

Stitching & Finishing

After thorough inspection, I’ve found the stitching on both the uppers to be some of the cleanest work I’ve seen on a pair of boots. The stitch density is all uniform and tight, with all stitch lines parallel and evenly spaced. I didn’t find a single stitch out of place or loose/hanging threads.

Here is a detailed photo of Brian’s embossed logo on the left inner ankle. The logo design is clean and simple, and it’s placement is discrete and will be hidden majority of the time beneath my pant leg. I personally really like it, and I look forward to seeing how it patinas.

If you look closely, you can see that the sewing needle may have sightly punctured the leather beyond the boundary of the tag (above the top left corner). I don’t have any issues with it, and I would hardly count this as a “stitching error.”

Look how symmetric, parallel, and evenly spaced all the stitching is, even along the curved heel strip. Not sure how difficult this is to do, but I’m impressed.

Below I’ve provided an excessive amount of photos of the welt stitching. Overall, very clean, tight, and uniform. I’ve grown to really like when each individual welt stitch is slightly angled, which can mildly be seen on these Role Clubs.

Here I’ve compared the single welt stitching of these Role Clubs to the Veldtschoen double welt stitching of my Onderhouds. I would say that the actual stitch length between the two is fairly similar, but the Onderhoud stitches may be pulled tighter, resulting in slightly larger stitch holes and spacing between the stitches. The angulation in the Onderhoud stitching is also slightly more pronounced, which I do like, but both of these look awesome.

Below I’ve placed my Trumans with stitchdown construction alongside my Role Clubs and Onderhouds for reference. I’ll let the photo speak for itself. (Although, I will acknowledge that stitching over a toe cap may be difficult and could be to blame for some of the stitchdown inconsistencies, but that’s beside the point.)

Now I don’t mean to bash on Truman here, as I believe the structural integrity of all three of these boots are solid. That being said, you can definitely see a difference in the cleanliness and precision of the welt stitching of the Role Clubs and Onderhouds in comparison to the Trumans. However, the Trumans are also a fraction of the price ($480 vs. $1080), so I would expect the finishing on these Role Clubs to be a step above.

When it comes to buying premium boots, at a certain point the law of diminishing returns really comes into play. In other words, once you hit a certain price threshold, you’re going to get a quality-made, functioning, long-lasting boot (assuming you’re buying from a legitimate, well-known boot brand). As price continues to increase, you’re no longer paying for a higher-functioning boot, as much as you’re paying for the attention to detail and craftsmanship with which the boot was made. This can manifest in visible qualities (such as the cleanliness of the stitching, sole polishing, and overall finishing of a boot), as well as details below the surface (like 360-degree hand sewn welting the uppers to the insoles, or making all your thread by hand (*cough* Goto-San of White Kloud *cough*). If this attention to detail and appreciation for the craft are qualities you appreciate in your boots, then these higher-end boots may be worth their higher price point. If not, it’s all good. To each their own.

Lol sorry. End rant.

Above, you can see a couple spots where the welt stitches aren’t perfectly aligned. Extremely, extremely minor, and the closest thing I could find to an “inconsistency” in stitching on the entire boot (the upper included), which is quite impressive.

A couple little rough dents along the edge of the welt here on the outside of the left boot. Doesn’t bother me, I can’t see it when I’m wearing the boots, and will probably disappear quickly during the break-in process.

All the stitching on the soles is very clean, with the outer stitching being a little more dense than the inner row. If you look closely, both the half soles fall slightly short of the pencil guide lines. Again, this will fade away once broken in. It’s also on the bottom of the boot, essentially invisible during wear. Zero issues.

Sizing, Fit, & Comfort

According to the box, my size is a 29 1/2 (whatever that means). All I know is, these boots were custom made by Brian based on the measurements he took of my feet, so they should fit like a glove (boot?)—and they absolutely do.

In my hand, these feel like a sturdy boot and have a good amount of weight to them. They felt comparable to my Java Waxed Flesh Trumans, which are a rugged tank of a boot. As soon as I slid them on, I could tell these boots were definitely custom made for me. Up until now, I’ve had boots that were “wide enough” for my bunions, and were a size large enough to accommodate both my feet and the full length orthotic insoles. Never have I been able to comfortably put on a properly sized pair of boots without my orthotics—until now.

I just want to take a second to spotlight the magic that Brian worked with this insole. TMI: The main reason I need to use these memory foam insoles is because the balls of my feet are terribly bony, to the point where I can’t even stand on hard floors barefoot without wincing in pain. Thus, I can barely even stand on the hard leather insoles typically found in boots without added cushioning.

As I mentioned earlier, I mailed Brian a pair of these memory foam orthotic insoles. If you look closer at the orthotics, you’ll see that they come with a contoured top surface with a plastic skeleton supporting the arch and heel cup. Brian managed to remove the plastic cup and all of the contour, and then stitched leather over the top. This created built-in flat leather insole with the cushion in the forefoot that I need! I’m absolutely mind blown. Brian is a magician. (I apologize if I’ve dwelled too long on this topic, but this is a big deal to me...and this is my review, so sorry not sorry.)

Compared to the rest of my boot collection, these Role Clubs probably have the chunkiest toe shape. However, once these were on-foot, they didn’t look or feel chunky at all. The tongues are thinner compared to the rest of the uppers, making them a little floppy and tend to fold when tying the boots. Luckily they’re gusseted, which helps keep them in place. Overall the upper leather is already fairly soft and supple, so I don’t foresee too terrible of a break in period.

Conclusion

Overall, I am extremely happy with how these Role Club Underdogs turned out. Keep in mind that I was inspecting these boots with my 100mm macro lens, so all the irregularities I pointed out are actually very tiny and essentially unnoticeable in social settings. These are my first pair of natural vegtan boots, so I can’t wait to start breaking them in and seeing how this leather patinas.

These Underdogs, as well as all other Role Club boots, may cost a little more than the average stock boots from other reputable brands. However, but I believe the customizability offered by Brian, as well as his build quality and pristine finishing, makes it worth the premium price. Would I order from Brian again in the future? Yes, and I already have. I placed a second $200 deposit last October 2019 for a pair of his classic engineers, which are due to be completed in November 2020. From what I’ve heard, Brian’s waitlist has already extended well into 2022 (at least June), so if you’re thinking about picking up a pair for yourself, I’d recommend jumping on that quick.

I still plan on writing a follow-up review on these gorgeous Underdog boots, where I will be able to expand upon the fit, break-in, and patina of this natural vegtan leather. But until then, HAGS and TTYL.

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