I hope you're all up an well? My wife and I got a daughter almost to years ago: Tessa. A WONDERFUL kid! However many things changed in my life since then. Some to the better (she's a cuty) some for the worse (sparetime for checking the forum...). After all the hats won't make themself alone and yes, Stefan and I are still passionated about what we're doing and enjoy working on the hats just as much as always.
Well, I believe that Stefan and I reached a goal worth sharing. Shared happiness is double happiness is what they say, no?
So, what's new?
Gents,
it's hard to describe the feeling Stefan and I had when the brown UPS truck showed up with the new batch of completely revisited AB Raiders boots from Alden...
This has been a long road and the satisfaction of having reached the goal in re-creating THE boots together with the incredible help from Alden and their continous support is just unbelievable!
Some customer pointed out, that our AB Raiders boots would be too dark to be screen accurate, at least compared to most of the scenes in Raiders and while both Stefan and I always considered them to be spot on with some scenes (for example when Indy hands his gun to Belloq after the temple escape), we couldn't deny that the boots are considerable lighter in other scenes. We spoke to Alden and other experts about this and I found some old notes he'd taken years ago when discussing the topic with Errico (erriwan) on the phone. Errico had been interviewing Noel Howard a year or so before he passed away and he told Errico a couple of things on how they distressed the boots for the movie... Interesting reading but some things just didn't make sense. Until just recently.
These are a pair of vintage 405's from the Raiders era in mint condition:
Kyle, I hope it's ok to use your picture, otherwise please let me know.
Ok, so that's one of the colors Alden used back then right? WRONG! And that's were we stumbled. That particular color reminds of SOME batches of a color called Ravello. However, Ravello is a CORDOVAN only! So does that mean, that they used Cordovan boots in Raiders?
No, they were calf / cow. How would you know? - Well, calf / cow hide has a specific way of creasing when being (ab)used. So does Cordovan. And if you look real close at some particular scenes (for example when Indy climbs down the flying wing to have a "conversation" with the mechanic), you'll see that I mean.
Ok, so if this wasn't the color they used back then... then what? To quote Doc Emmet Brown from Back to the Future: "Marty, you have to think four dimensional!!!" Leather does age. Whether you use it or not, it will age from humidity and the change of temperature over the years. Especially over a period of thirty years. It was like someone turned on the light when we finally figured that out. So the boots you see in the picture above are a pair of beautifully aged, naturally patinated 405's from the Raiders era!
What we wanted, is a leather that would age to look like that! After all, that's what they did in Raiders. They aged the boots to a certain degree, distressed them, re-polished them etc. etc. they got an artificial patina and just like the hats and the jackets, there were more than just a single pair of boots (not THAT big a surprise really). So, after looooooooooooong discussions with Alden and other experts, we were given a couple of leather samples from Alden to play with. Raw, unfinished leather. We cut these samples into pieces and numbered them before we distressed them in various ways. In the end we had one leather sample that would gimmick all the various shades of brown seen in Raiders, just depending on how we distressed or polished it (according to my notes). Finally we took the last little sample and forced it to age without distressing it and that blew us out of the water: it looked SPOT on with the picture above!
Gents, we're extremely freakin' proud to present you this:
One is a pair of raw leather boots right out of the box, the other is my own pair on which he forced on thirty years of patina by polishing and cleaning them again and again for... heck... I think Stefan made an entire hat in the meanwhile. You decide where to take them from here!
"Well the laces are different, than on the ones above" - good catch! Now look at the temple tile scene again... See it? These laces are THINNER than on the vintage pair above. Could be due to Ford tied them so tight that there's almost no gap between the left and the right half of the boot. COULD be. We simply don't know (and PLEASE don't bring up the stunt boots from the truck chase scene with the round laces yet another time, that horse has been beatin' to death so many times by now). So we went with some SLIGHTLY thinner but waxed laces this time, to stay s.a. WITHOUT stopping the blood from circulating in or feet.
A HUGE thanks for the TREMENDOUES patient of those of you who pre-ordered. I think that it paid of pretty well.
Yours truly,
Marc
](./images/smilies/Indy_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
(We need a new smiley with money flying out of its wallet).
! Thanks, again! W>
! Ouch! Big chunk of change. May have to think this one through....Do appreciate your feedback and quick response. W>
They could pass for CS boots, but definatley not Raiders. I feel for those who shelled out hard earned money for these, not to mention the excruciating wait time prior to delivery. How these can be seen as THE Raiders boots is mind boggling 
