These landed on my proverbial desk while I was gone over the summer courtesy of Timberland Abington and Sky of Epiphany. Timberland Abington was probably among the most refreshing concepts from a large brand that was probably hitting a bit of stagnation. Aside from these shoes, they did a great job diversifying their portfolio with lifestyle products that weren’t ugly dress sneaker joints or of course some construction boot derivative.

The Rugged Handsewn shoe came packaged with a nice canvas sling bag and polar fleece blanket(unseen, it was tough to throw it in the frame). Maybe I’m thinking too much but the polar fleece while I’m sure will be supremely warm, didn’t really fit with the heritage/vintage/”whatever you want to call it” theme. I really like the whole Vibram Christy outsole on anything upper… or I did. Not that I’m 100% on the elitist tip, it’s more the desensitization effect. It simple isn’t as exciting or cool as the first batch. Of course not to necessarily fault Timberland Abington, they have been doing a white wedge outsole since the subrand’s onset. There have been some good versions along the way involving a nice robust, off-white outsole. Starting with the eYe JUNYA WATANABE COMME des GARCONS joints last year and the subsequent wave of Tricker’s customs, but now anyone and everybody is doing it. Nothing is immune to the Vibram Christy outsole these days. But I must stay true to a pair of Danner Japan Mountain Light IIs I have, still my favorite boots of all time.

Thanks a lot to Sky and co., the whole package is pretty useful and the bag is good for lugging random stuff around. I must admit the chunkier boat shoe is tougher to pull off in my eyes… oh wait it’s just my pinner calves (I swear it’s cause I have a high calve insertion point! haha).

-Eugene