A few months ago I ordered a set of Lanona Porter boots through Massdrop. It’s been a tough seventy days, primarily because I was concerned about the idea of making a no-returns order for a pair of boots based on sizing advice on a website. Well, m-m-m-my Lanonas* arrived while I was in California. How are they?
First impressions are all good. My feet are two different sizes as a consequences of my breaking thirteen bones in my right foot back in 1984 or thereabouts, but both of them fit pretty snugly in the size-10 Porters. (For comparison, I wear 10E in most Allen-Edmonds and Alden lasts, and 10.5D in casual shoes.) They’re a little bit too tight for thick boot socks, so I’m wearing Sock Club Herringbones with them at the moment.
The leather is thick and stitched tightly; I rode my CB1100 to work on this 34-degree morning, a practice that always exposes any potential open seams or finishing flaws in a pair of boots, and my feet were as warm after thirty minutes as when I’d started the ride. The considerable thickness of the Doc-Martens-esque sole makes upshifts a bit tricky, but I don’t think Lanona expected anybody to use these boots to ride motorcycles. If you don’t like the thick sole, Lanona will put a conventional leather sole on them, but I am less sanguine about the idea of pairing this relatively chunky and un-contoured boot with a thin sole. My Frye Logans are a better example of what a thin-soled biker boot should look like. It’s better to get the Lanonas with the gum sole, which makes them look really interesting and also — this stuff gets important as you age and damage your knees — really ups the comfort level.
These are very much “street style” boots, aimed at younger, hipper people than your humble author. That’s a good thing. Unless we can get the oft-discussed “Millennials” to buy real American-made shoes, the future of shoe and boot manufacturing in this country will expire when the Boomers do. These are my first pair of Lanonas, but I doubt they’ll be the last.
* yes, that’s a Knack reference
The Knack = best Detroit area rock band fronted by the brother of a noted sleazebag ambulance chaser.
They look nice. Red Wing-esque. That wedge-looking sole looks just like the pair of Red Wing 8880s I just bought.
Enjoy!
Alden boots. Enough said.
After reading your original article I joined the drop and picked up the same configuration as you except I opted for the plain toe. I really like these boots. I have to wear steel-toed boots every day for work so I defaulted to wearing my Red Wing safety boots everyday whether I was working or not. I decided I was tired of lugging around the heavy steel toes all the time so the Lanona buy popped up at a great time. I agree on all points about the workmanship. I’ve been trying to break them in for the past week and they’re getting there. I haven’t tried them on the motorcycle yet. I have a pair of Stylmartin Indians for that task that I really like. Thanks for the heads up. They’ve gotten a lot of compliments.
I’m afraid I’m too much of a fuddy-duddy to get the plain toe, but I think you probably made the best-looking choice. Congratulations!
I also switched to a brown leather lace which I think compliments the welt nicely.
That’s a good idea. I might switch to a non-leather lace, as I don’t like the idea of having the laces come undone and wandering into some moving machinery while I’m riding a motorcycle.