Midas x Skolyx Service boot brown pullup

NOTE: See below for sizing guidance.

This is a collaboration we are extremely proud of. As the first European retailer ever, we can now offer Indonesian handmade workwear boots, this from the reputable brand Midas Bootmaker (the workwear brand of Winson Shoemaker). We're also one of the first retailers in the world who can offer Indonesian handmade boots as RTW, outside of its home country. The price on these, considering the quality and the level of craftsmanship, is simply amazing. We have a limited number of these boots in stock.

These are made in a very durable mid brown pull-up leather which will develop great character over the years. Pull-up leather is aniline dyed and then finished with waxes and oils for excellent resistance and a soft touch, and when stretched it becomes lighter coloured in these areas, which means a natural, lovely character will develop with use. Built on the last Edlyn which is a classic Service boot last with a round toe. The shoes are entirely handmade (apart from the machine stitching of the uppers), they are lasted by hand, hand welted and have a handmade sole stitch, even if they are made with a rubber outsole (!). We also have a higher specification than the regular Midas shoes, where we've chosen real leather for both the heel stiffener and the toe puff, which moulds nicely to the foot and can be reshaped if necessary, made from the same type of veg-tanned shoulder leather as the insoles. The pattern is also made specifically for this collaboration, with fewer rows of stitching than Midas regular service boot version.

The pull-up leather is quite special. It's developed by a friend to the Midas founder, who source local hides and buys his own tanning agents, and then travels to a tannery in Yogyakarta where he rents a few tanning drums and equipment for a short period, and stays there and tans the hides himself. Therefore batches are highly limited, and when they are out of stock it can take time before he can go back to the tannery and produce new leathers.

Indonesia is one of the world's foremost centres of manufacture of workwear boots, a tradition that dates back to when the country was a Dutch colony, but which has evolved and been refined over the decades since the country gained independence in the 1940s. Uniquely, however, they still do everything almost exclusively by hand, not with lasting machines, Goodyear machines and McKay machines for stitching and so on, but with awl, needle, knife, hammer etc. Production is in general very small-scale, Midas / Winson is a small workshop with eight people that only makes about 30 pairs of shoes a month.

These are boots that are made to be worn hard, and will only look better and better with age. Really solidly made in thick leather, both in terms of upper leather and insole leather, which requires some time to break in but then becomes as one with your feet (a good tip for easier break-in is to not use the top eyelets). They have half length gusset tongue to prevent water or snow entering the shoe. Can be re-soled an unlimited number of times, thanks to the hand welted construction.

See more detailed specifications below, and read more detailed information about the shoes and about Midas Bootmaker here.

NOTE: See below for sizing guidance.

Listed below are the full specifications of these shoes, and how they differ from standard Goodyear welted shoes:

- Lasted by hand, using pliers and hand hammered nails. When the upper is pulled over the shoe last, this is done with two different machines on standard Goodyear welted shoes.
- Insole made of thick vegetable tanned shoulder leather where the holdfast for the welt seam is carved out by hand with a sharp knife. On regular welted shoes it's a slightly thinner leather insole with a canvas strip glued to it, to which the welt is stitched.
- The heel stiffeners are made from the same type of leather as the insole, where it's split into thinner pieces and these are then cut and skived by hand to act as stiffeners, which when attached by hand treated with starch-based paste which makes the leather stiff when dry. On regular welted shoes, the heel stiffener is usually made of celastic or leather board (leather dust mixed with glue) that is preformed, in some cases (as on TLB Mallorca Artista) of real leather but often also then preformed.
- Welt stitch sewn by hand, with awl, needle and twisted thread. When the leather strip that runs around the shoe is attached to the upper leather (lining in the case of Veldtschoen) and the insole, the seam on regular welted shoes is sewn with a Goodyear machine.
- Sole stitch sewn by hand. The seam that attaches the welt to the outsole, the one that is removed and remade when you resole the shoes (until the welt becomes too worn and needs to be replaced as well) and which is sewn with a McKay sewing machine on regular welted shoes.
- The bottom filling consists of a cork plate in the front part, instead of the cheaper cork mass usually used. At the waist is a metal shank covered with the same vegetable tanned leather as the insole is made of, otherwise often just cork mass is used here as well.
- The heel is built up layer by layer, and pegged by hand from both the bottom and the inside of the shoe. Almost all factory-made welted shoes use pre-built heels that are put on the shoes in one piece and pegged by machine.

Read even more about how the shoes are made and about Midas Bootmaker, and watch footage of the production, here.

Which shoe care products to use:
If you want to maintain a natural patina, it's recommended to use Saphir Medaille d'Or Crème Nappa conditioner (which is like Bick-4 but without silicone). If you want to keep the original look as much as possible or cover larger marks, use Saphir Medaille d'Or Creme Pommadier shoe cream in a matching colour. For more thorough yet gentle cleaning use Saphir Medaille d'Or Leather Cleanser. We do recommend using cedar wood shoe trees to prevent unnecessary creasing and extend the lifespan of your footwear.

Read more about how to use these products on the respective product pages, or in the shoe care guide linked below.

Basic shoe care:
- Don’t use the same pair for two consecutive days
- Brush / wipe the shoes off after use
- Use shoe trees and shoehorn
- Treat regular leather with shoe cream, treat suede and textile with waterproofing spray
Learn more on these steps in this guide.

Further shoe care info:
Read this thorough guide, which also includes video, on how to clean, nourish and shine leather shoes.