Audaces fortuna iuvat: A Note about the Brass Shoe Company's Clinch Hi-Liner Boots

When you wear Clinch’s Hi-Liner boots you feel like a spy or a secret agent or a Dune Fremen.

 

When I first saw these boots espying the website of the redoubtable Standard & Strange it took me more than a minute to grasp their genius, not just their beauty, exquisite craftsmanship, and undisguised audacity.

 

Then it occurred to me.  (Please forgive me for being so slow.  And, duh…)  The majority of the boot would be hidden beneath your trousers.  Since I don’t favor much taper in my pants, they’d not only fit comfortably given their 13.8” from heel to top, but no one would notice I was wearing boots nearly to my knees.  Inconspicuous elegance achieved.

 

Another particularly satisfying feature would be getting them on: quite a snug fit, a gentle but very firm push, and then the sublime sound: donk, you're in and it’s on to that slow lace.  (If you can love these boots, you won’t mind spending 10 minutes getting them on, not including the extra time you spend lacing slowly.) 

 

Like a true lineman’s boot, the Clinch wraps around your calf so unlike, say, an engineer where the boot can shape itself and the pant, these squeeze to your calves like true love.  The shape of the six eyelets and six speed hooks insures that you can adjust the fit to suit your instep and create a comfortable feel---the last eyelet lets you cinch at the top.

 

I haven’t had to adjust once during the day, even as my feet ordinarily swell some (umm, we all do).  The leather and the lacing naturally adjust.  Last week, some 8 hours in, I still felt like an old Fremen riding a sandworm across the deserts of Dune: I was in a spice trance and the worm-like boots did all the work, effortlessly.

I prefer an over-the-calf sock that’s the length of the boot for that extra comfort, much like I would use wearing engineers.  I’ve worn the Hi-Liners with the BSC x Olde Homesteader long hose socks but prefer an even lighter, no cushion design (from Darn Tough).  The boot itself doesn’t require more cushion from your socks.  Also, I just wouldn’t like that skin on boot feel with shorter socks.  At just shy of 14” these boots offer me plenty of room at the top---not the slightest sensation that the boot cuts into the back of the knee.  (FTR, I’m 5’10” on a tall day.)

 

The vegetable-tanned Latigo leather from Wickett & Craig is dreamy soft and will undoubtedly bend and crease with wear to shape to your own feet.  These boots have the real potential to will become a second skin.  (Our pal David renown over there on YouTube and SDP will soon have a full report as he is “Doming” his thunder pair.  ßIf you caught that reference, you’re as domed duned doomed as I am when it comes to boot obsession.)  So unlike the sort of lineman that one might use, you know, to climb line poles, these boots don’t offer a body armor feel or look.

 

Truth to tell they are more lascivious than that, even carnal.  Great boots often make you feel grounded and cozy at the same time but these, these are downright venereal, dangerously more satisfying than anything else I have ever worn.

 

It wouldn’t do to compare the Clinch design to, say, Wesco’s 14”Highliner © because the Clinch Hi-Liners just aren't a heavy work design.  Those Wescos, they are the real deal if you are looking for the hardware.  These are not that.  But all of this prurience does not however make the Clinch Hi-Liner feel dainty or light.  Rather, what lies hidden beneath your pants feels rather more elegant and august.  Your secret is safe.  You know you can pull this off.

 

What does show 0f the boot when you take a seat and your pant leg slides up maintains some of the original work wear look.  But the cut of the boot and its leather offers a sumptuous, more graceful stance.  Particularly noteworthy is the cupped heal structure that curves in as it rises to the back of the ankle.  It’s there across the top of the waist that the boot will wrinkle and drape without losing its shape as it forms a line over the top of the instep and towards the rear.  Voilá.  It is at once both requisitely slouchy and completely coherent. 

 

The soft round unstructured toe is going to fold and crease quickly to represent your foot and it’s there you’ll know if you’ve achieved the most desired fit outcome.  I have a rather average size 10D on the Brannock device though with some damage to my right foot I often favor a wider fit.

 

The Clinch CN-S (classic narrow second) last is correctly described as snug, rather narrow with a low instep but for me the perfect solution was Brannock +.05, a US10.5 (Clinch 11h).  That half size larger gave me just the right amount of extra room but not too long.  The top creases are showing up right where I want them and the boot most certainly doesn’t feel too big.

 

If you have any more volume than a smallish average D, this CN-S last will likely not fit at all, even with a sizing up strategy---I would wait for the CN-wide that will fit E widths (more akin the regular D).  But somehow for me, even with my damaged, slightly wider right foot, I feel great---likely because I don’t have a big instep, spread, or a more than average volume.  To get this fit right you would ideally go for an in-store fitting but I found the advice from Standard & Strange typically brilliant, honest, detailed---so I was quite confident to size up .5 and have a go.  It has worked out perfectly.

 

The soles feel solid but not too stiff and not at all clunky.  For such a big boot the Hi-Liner makes you feel light on your feet, very unlike say Indys or Viberg 2030s, which I very much like.  (Those boots feel heavier and ground you deeply.)  But this is different: very secure, very grounded, and wrapping around the foot, heel, and all the way up the calf.  I feel like I could walk all day and the Hi-Liners will go unnoticed.

More might be said of the leather’s potential for patina but that is best left for a later update.  I would only add that Standard & Strange’s detailed description, fit advice, and measurements all match up to my tape precisely.  Their leather description is also good reading regarding color evolution.  My boots are still very greenish black (and vice-versa).

 

With the BS x Clinch Transcontinental boot incoming next year to S&S, both taller than the Hi-Liner and with two top leather clasps, it’s going to be a bit more challenging to effect that Spy vs. Spy concealment underneath yer jeans look.  I am wondering if they will fit at all underneath a wide leg denim.  (I’m counting on that ‘cause…)  I don’t think I have the nads to wear breeches with the Transcontinentals.  I think it’s worth the challenge.

With all Clinch boots it is well to be reminded audaces fortuna iuvat, fortune does indeed favor the brave---or so they will make you feel.   Your audacity will invoke enough courage to somehow know you'll step through the world feeling like you got The Lucky.  Laced up nearly to your knees.