August 26, 2006
New Boots from R.M. Willaims
Those of you that know me or have seen me talk at a conference, might have noticed over the years that I am always wearing a pair of black boots. The R.M. Williams boots I buy have a great life span and I normally get about one and a half to two years of everyday wear out of them, and with the price being around $250 I figure that I get pretty good value out of them.
Well...my last pair of boots have lasted me close to two years but during this week the sole started to get a bit worn so it was time for a shopping trip today. I wandered over to the R.M. Williams store located in the Shot Tower at Melbourne Central and bought a new pair.
Now...I'm not too adventurous with my boot purchases as I have been wearing R.M. Williams Black Bushmans with Cuban heels since about 1986...but...I did have a close look at their "President" high sided boots which are made from cattle, crocodile and emu hide, are handmade to order...and cost around $8,400...thats a little bit to much for a pair of boots in my book, but they were STUNNING. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a picture of them anywhere (I'm still looking though) but I did manage to find a nice shot of the Bushman boots that I buy.
The Reginald Murray Williams, or RM as he was known, (Wikipedia entry) story goes back to 1932 and is a great example of Australian history and involves not only RM himself but people like "Dollar Mick" (who taught R.M how to work leather) and "Sir Sidney Kidman" (an Australian pastoralist who at one time owned 3% of the Australian continent - which is an area larger than the entire British Isles).
I have no interest in the company in any way other than the fact that I have been buying boots from them for over 20 years, so don't take this as some sort of paid plug, but if you are Australian or visit Australia at any time in your life, you really should buy something from an R.M Williams store...it really is part of the history of our great country.
They even have an online store where you can but boots, mens, womens and kids clothing, belts, boot care material, saddlery items (if you happen to own a horse) and a whole range of accessories, to make it easy for you :)
Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic at August 26, 2006 4:38 PM
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Hey Mick, have you ever considered re-soling some of your older boots? The RM factory does a great job. They can do all sorts of things. I used to have a pair of Chestnut boots with a cuban heel (which was a custom order at the time back in the 90s - and still might be), and I recently had them resoled and the heel taken down to what I think they call a block heel... sort of halfway between a cuban and a standard heel. Anyway, something to think about...
Posted by: Rob Irwin at September 1, 2006 2:14 PMI normally keep two pairs runnig at the one time to let the leather breath...except for the past two years that is...but when i picked up the new boots I also left the old ones with them to get a re-sole...should have them back in about two weeks :)
Posted by: Mick (SplaTT) Stanic at September 2, 2006 1:49 PM