Club Obi Wan

greetings folks,

i have been corresponding with tom park at leather soul in regards to a screen accurate version of the 405. he is very keen in getting SA pair done up. from my correspondence with him, it will be a custom run, built to the existing 405 specs but with the correct warm brown colour. an added feature is that it will be leather lined which is a far superior comfort option to the stock boots.

i sent him pictures of the 'blackbird' 405's from the previous thread which was about the right colour reference for the boot and he knew exactly which swatch to pick from his alden sample book.

the price will be $450 for a pair and he can only do a run if there are 10 people willing to participate. we are looking for 9 more

considering that the existing brick coloured 405's are going for $344 and that typical customization fees are $150....the price looks fair from that perspective. the catch is that it would probably be 4 or 5 months.....the last time i checked.

if you wish to get in on a pair, please e-mail tom at tom@leathersoulhawaii.com

correction: tom said the price will probably be $425.....

Sounds interesting, G. Apart from the price, will they be comparable to the ABs?

Less than a $100 mark up from the standard 405's is a great deal...Especially with the leather lining and a Screen Accurate boot color. Count me in G. I'm sure this is the price the Schmidty's pair would have been close to if his wen't through...These are going to be more accurate though. Let's get these done.

satipo,

correct me if i am wrong, but marc went through some serious research in getting the AB aldens done up to his spec. i'm not exactly sure what confirmations he made/received to get to his final design so i can't really say if they are more or less accurate. i would lean on the side of less accurate than the AB aldens in all honesty as Marc even went through the exercise of getting the vintage logo put on inside (if i read the post correctly). also, AB used an uncommon leather sample to spec the construction. imo, however, i find that the AB aldens appear too dark compared to what i see on the screen. in my aging eyes, both the hat and boots should be a lighter hue than the jacket.........then again, none of the AB aldens that i have seen have a good 'indy beating' applied to them so i could be wrong

from what i can see, the colour of the AB's closely resemble the colour of the alden-of-carmel A64's and i find them too dark (as i own a pair)....i wanted a warmer brown, comperable to todd's latest and greatest iteration of his indy boots. i know for a fact that LSH's products are top shelf and mr. tom park stands behind them. i have looked for brown 405's since 2006 and i've always been shot down. i believe this is the most promising venture yet for the price.

tom just told me he is willing to go ahead with this project as long as i try to gather some interested folks by october 1. looks like me and sneakertinker are in so far (hey sneakertinker.......why do you need another pair of 405's anyways..........er......oh.........nevermind.....i just counted the number of boots i have...... ).

anyways folks, if you are interested, let tom know. he'd love to take your orders. they'll probably arrive just in time for christmas........maybe???

Specs from Tom:

I forsee the specs to be:
a medium brown calf (like the picture you sent me)
leather lined
red neoprene brick sole
rubber heel
waxed laces

the picture i sent him was how the blackbird aldens appeared....i thought it had a very nice brown colour to it.

i have proposed the idea that he sources ROUND laces as opposed to the stock alden laces as i've read on the board that the raiders laces were indeed round...tom wants to get as SA as possible....

lemme know if i misread because it's not too late to change; however, he will most likely go with the standard LSH waxed flat laces as those are nice and tough.

i believe he is going ahead with this run so if you are interested, contact LSH to secure a pair

As any competent hiking boot authority will attest, the first thing you do with a new pair of hiking boots is toss out the round laces and replace them with flat laces. Round laces slip a lot easier than flat ones do.