Boot Expenses and Musings

Quotes have been coming in for some of the boot components, and frankly, it is quite daunting. By my estimates, start to finish, for me to get a VERY CLOSE to 100% screen accurate boot, it will run me over 5,000 bucks.

And while I am dedicated to making this project good, I'm not THAT dedicated. If there was a chance I could see some return on that money, like if I could copy the boots and crank them out cheap and sell them, it might be interesting. But that's what it's going to cost to make ONE pair of size 11 shoes. I could probably sell castings of the soles that I make, but those two pieces are going to comprise about 3,500 bucks of the overall cost.

With that said, I am on the verge of abandoning my current approach. Now don't get me wrong: if other opportunities present themselves in the future, I will pursue them. But I am going to OFFICIALLY abandon my current avenues of pursuit at this time.

Now, if I get a copy of a matching pair of soles that I can play around with, this may all change.

But for now, I'm going to modify my approach as follows:

I'm going to hire someone to make the boots, but not use embossed leather for the Micro-S's. They will build them without the soles. Once I get the boots, I will sculpt a sole onto them, mold it, cast it, then attach it to the boot. For the Micro-S pattern on the boots, I am thinking of getting a stencil plotter cut that I will then use to paint on Micro-S's in a color darker than the leather. it won't be embossed, but the Micro S pattern will be there.

I was considering having the S's laser etched onto the leather, but seeing as how the results will be almost identical to my stencil idea, I think I will skip that.

I MAY pursue separately a much more inexpensive option, which I discussed here earlier. I could just buy a pair of CA Boots, modify them a little, paint them, build new soles, and call it a day. That would be the most inexpensive solution, with the total cost probably being about 300 bucks. They may not be terribly accurate, but I believe that the casual viewer will not know any better. And, don't get me wrong, they will still look REALLY nice. I think I can do a good job on them. They just won't be AS trick as the ones I could have made offshore.

Still, my current plan is to have someone make them, and I will take it from there.