Been a very long time since I've posted anything (Great to be back by the way)...
Decided I'd throw my hat in the mix here as it were and offer up a little bit of extra information.
This is what I've been able to rundown over the years from Alden connections I've been lucky enough to make. A little bit of a long read so please forgive me...
First thing is, as most of you know, Harrison Ford was the person responsible for bringing the Alden 405 Boot into the costume. He'd been wearing the model since his day's working in carpentry (1973 ish...or there about), and purchased his first pair from good o' Fritz at the now defunct Frederick's Shoes (RIP Fritz). Fritz suggested the shoes to Harrison when he entered the shop looking for something to alive his back pain during his long work days. The original costume called for Indy to wear moc toe Re Boots. Harrison suggested the 405's since they were period accurate and he loved their comfort as he'd already been wearing them for years prior...The rest as they say is history.
As such, though we've never gotten full confirmation, it's understood that the boots that Harrison himself wore during the filming were his personal pair that he'd had for a fair amount of time prior to filming. All the pairs worn by stunt doubles etc...were purchased from Fritz over at Frederick's. Best time frame for the "hero", or the boots being worn by Harrison, was dated to the early 70's range while all the doubles boots would have been dated to the latter end of the decade. A couple pairs of the boots purchased for the doubles work would have surely been NOS (New Old Stock) but the majority of them would have been brand new as they were literally made following the large order placed through Frederick's.
Through a ton of leg work from a great many people (Mostly Marc) the original "Dark Brown" calfskin leather was discovered to be what was used on the boots worn by Harrison during the filming of Raiders. I've been able to determine that the "Hero" boots have the same color leather used on the current AB Boots, duck lining / leather tongue lining, color matched welt, and white stitching...Basically picture the AB Boots with white stitching on the moc toe. It could also be noted that the duck lining / leather tongue lining combo ended with this era boot. Every subsequent variation of the standard 405 used the full duck lining until the release of the 403, and 404 models.
The thing you have to remember is that, until recently with the release of the 404 and 403 models, Alden listed every color that the 405 was produced in as "Brown" no matter what type of dying the leather received at the Horween Leather Factory. This leather was always calfskin...This is what's made the exact specs hard to pin down over the years. Essentially as long as the color of the leather could be described as "Brown" and the leather type was calf then that's what got used. The understanding that I have on the subject breaks the colors down to this order...
...AB type brown color (Pre 70's to early 70's...Would have been worn by Harrison during the filming of Raider's)
...Lighter brown color (Mid to late 70's - the same type shown on the amazing boot that was posted in this thread)
...A red tinted "brick" brown color (Late, late, late 70's to mid 80's...Boots would likely have been worn by stunt doubles for Raider's)
...A flat brown color (Mid 80's through mid 90's...Color shown to be worn in Crusade)
...Back to the red tinted "brick" brown color (Mid 90's through early 00's...Essentially the same color used on the 405's of today)
...The infamous "Pumpkin Orange" color. A color Alden still uses today listed as "Burnished Tan" (Early 00's). These are the most interesting to me because they prove better than anything else that Alden really didn't care as to what color the leather used on the boots was as long as it fit into the loosely defined "brown" description. This was described as a small "hiccup" on the part of Alden, but was par for the course as far as their inconsistent coloring goes. The only difference in this "hiccup" and all the others I listed, is that it happened during the Internet age and all us geeks could get together and discuss things such as this. Alden clearly hadn't accounted for the following the 405 would garner over the years following this, and the result of our (Read: Indy super fans) consistent disdain for a boot that wasn't screen accurate. The constant questioning they got regarding this urged them to give us what we now call the 403 and 404 models.
...Back to the red tinted "brick" brown color to current...Of course today you have the 403, and 404 to pick from but we're focusing on the 405 after all
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Right about now you might be asking yourself "What about the boots used in Temple"...For all intents and purposes these were the same boots that Harrison wore for the filming of Raiders. Not the same generation or anything but the same boots.
Now, all that being said, we will likely never pin down the exact color used during filming simply because there are too many variables to consider...The biggest of which being what, if any, leather treatment and artificial aging the boots got prior to filming. This can be said for all the films in fact as it's common place for wardrobe to be altered to fit a certain look. Point in fact is that the boots used for Crystal Skull (Worn by Harrison at least) were left overs from the filming of Crusade that were artificially aged prior to Harrison putting them on. I myself took a pair of the brick color 405's back in early 08' and with the use of Pecards leather dressing (Thank you Michaelson) and a hair dryer managed to create a pair that looked identical, save for the full leather lining, to the current 403's.
Of course now a day's there are literally hundreds of versions of "Indy" boots that have been produced by Alden...Limited Editions, Store Exclusives, Custom made one off's, Cordovan Leather, Chrome Excel Leather, Calfskin Leather etc...Back in the day's following the initial discovery of what type of boots were worn for the films the only thing that Indy fans had to pick from was the standard 405's and whatever color leather Alden wanted to use for them. Now our options are endless...
In case you all can't tell the "Indy" boot is my favorite piece of gear. As such, at one point, I owned a total of seven pairs of various incarnations and designs...Just about covering every occasion I could think of that would require me to have shoes on my feet. At any rate I've dwindled my collection down to just these three pairs...
The AB's, the standard "brick" 405's, and the custom pair of "pumpkin orange" 405's I had made through Alden back in 2009...All duck lined (save for the leather tongue lining of the AB's) as that is what I prefer.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1374/5 ... 681641.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1374/5 ... 681642.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1374/5 ... 681645.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1374/5 ... 681647.jpg
Don't even get me started on laces and socks
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