Men's Leather Chukka Boots - Casual & Dress Boots for Everyday Wear, Office & Outdoor Activities

I've just gotten these boots, inspected them closely, and worn them once. So far, so good.For the price, they're great. At this price, you don't get leather soles and a Goodyear welt, but the rubber/plastic sole looks good. On close inspection, I didn't find any imperfections in the leather (and all parts of the upper ARE real leather). These boots look really, really good.The leather is NOT full-grain leather, however, it's top-grain leather (split) leather. It's been sanded and imprinted. It's not quite as thick as the leather of most boots, which makes it very supple and soft...almost like glove leather. It even looks from a distance softer than most boots, and there is a kind of elegance to that. The toe is reinforced, but isn't as rigid as normal boot toes; I'll be watching to see if it collapses, which would be a bad thing.This leather looks really nice and feels good, but time will tell whether it wears as well in the long run. My initial impression is that this is not a boot for rough wear purely as a matter of the thinness and softness of the leather. These are NOT motorcycle boots. I'd strongly advise keeping this boot well polished with a good wax shoe polish to protect the leather.There are a couple of reports of squeaking while walking. In my pair, that was caused by friction between the tongue and the underside of the throat. Wax shoe polish on both surfaces solved that problem. It was a nice touch that the boot laces (waxed dress laces, another sign that this is not a boot for hard wear) were already laced in the preferred straight-across bar pattern as shown in the pictures.I will see about the durability over time. I won't wear these boots hard, but I'll wear them frequently over the next few months. If this boot appears to fail too quickly, I'll remove some stars.