Red Wings Iron Ranger boots?

Red Wing recommends either mink oil or their boot oil for the amber harness leather on their website. I use the boot oil. I have a couple of RW shops near my home, and I'll just run over and have them replace the laces and oil them for me while I way - no charge. I do that Spring and Fall. Nearly 3 years in, and the boot leather is very soft and pliable, and my are feet nice and dry.

Well I got them oiled up at a local shop, longer laces and grabbed boot oil. Also grabbed the red wing water proofing bottle with applicator

After Reading these 25 pages I am going to break down and get me a pair.

Good choice sir I love them. I went down a full size

I took my boots into the local RW shop to be oiled, and had them replace the standard laces with the type that come in the Beckmans. These are way better than those imposable to stay tied cord laces for the Iron Rangers.

The laces in my Beckmans are great, I just wish the were 3 cm longer. Good trade Commander.

These are my every day boots. I wear them 90% of the time because they're black and I don't feel that guilty about scuffing them up in the garage, etc... I've been wearing them for two years now and they are still in good shape. I've stripped them down to a gray color with leather deglazer and re-dyed them black once. I kind of wish I never did that, but they look fine. They lost the white contrasting stitching color when I foolishly had a Red Wing store guy 'polish them up for free.' Mine also lost the contrasting brown color at the welt from general dirt/oil I've encountered while working in the garage. That said, they're still going strong.

I have two other 'expensive' pair of boots (Thorogood 685 horse hide and Red Wing 213 moc toe) and I end up wearing my Iron Rangers 90% of the time because they fit me the best. The Thorogood boots are probably 'nicer' but get too hot on my feet. The 213 don't fit my foot as well and I want to keep them nice looking so I never wear them other than to my day job or if I'm going out on the town. The Iron Ranger boots weigh less as well and feel more like shoes than boots.

My Iron Rangers are pretty much anti-bling at this point. The left one has a continual silver tinge across the top from my motorcycle shifter. Nobody ever comments that they look nice. But they are holding up fine. They'll still clean up nicely with a horsehair brush and some Cadillac leather conditioner/cleaner. But nobody comments about them like if you're wearing moc toe boots with cristy soles (because they just don't stand out as anything but black cap toe boots.)

And that's fine for me because I just don't care on a day to day basis. My love of boots like this stems from a pair of no-name thrift store boots probably from the 1940s that I wore when I was a kid. They were just like my Iron Rangers with hard neoprene cork soles.


(what the general public sees everyday)

These are what they looked like in April '14 when I was bored one night and photographed them

Excellent photos 7uxe. If you're interested in getting back that contrast stitching you can try hitting it with nail polish remover or something more "fancy" like Saphir Reno-Mat. It should strip off any polish that the dude from the store. Those usually don't strip dye, but since you redyed them it might be worth trying an inconspicuous spot just to be sure.

Also, I've never heard of an RW store actually polishing the shoes. They're supposed to just oil them, as per RW's leather care instructions.

The store here mostly deals with people buying work boots for their job as opposed to us city boys coming in looking at their Heritage line so they already treat me like a second class citizen when I'm in there. But this guy was mostly just trying to be nice and I'm pretty sure he took them to a spinning brush loaded up with black shoe polish. They came out with a shine (new, they are a flat black color.) I'm over being sad though. The stitching on the sides did turn back to white when I used deglazer on them, but I just died the whole caps black several times to get them back to looking nice. There's no need to keep them looking new. I used to think boots looked best the day you got them, but I almost feel cheesy wearing boots that look too new with squared off soles and whatnot.

Now that I look back at a day one photo, I just realized the cap didn't have white stitching! So disregard my previous statement

Ok, I've been through every page of this thread and scoured the interweb looking at Iron Rangers, I'm thinking a pair of Brouges are in order in the spring. I think they are a fantastic boot and them being able to be resolved and go again is a big plus!

i wear a 13 US in Docs, anyone else wear that in a Doc and also have a pair of I.R.'s? If so, what size I.R. Do you wear?

Can't reiterate about getting a set of over boots with the IR's for the icy days fellas, took a nasty spill stepping into my car last week, bruised the daylights out of my shin too on the bottom of my car door In too much of a hurry to get my over boots on, thought it'd be ok, guess not lol, I went back and put the darn rubber boots on at the insistence of my wife

Haha, yeah, all three pairs of boots I wear have those cork neoprene soles with no tread. You can fall on your butt walking across grass with frost on it, let alone ice and snow. I just creep around everywhere and prepare for having to do the cartoon dance if I step on something slick. BUT it's way easier to shed snow and mud from them so you don't track it into the house or into your car as much. Vibram waffle soles pick up everything.

4ever3 said:

Ok, I've been through every page of this thread and scoured the interweb looking at Iron Rangers, I'm thinking a pair of Brouges are in order in the spring. I think they are a fantastic boot and them being able to be resolved and go again is a big plus!

i wear a 13 US in Docs, anyone else wear that in a Doc and also have a pair of I.R.'s? If so, what size I.R. Do you wear?

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Where do you live, Jeremy? There may be a Red Wing store close enough that you can go at least try them on there, even if you intend to buy online. That was my plan last year, but the customer service at RW was just so exceptional that I walked out with the pair I wanted under my arm.

jlanger said:

Can't reiterate about getting a set of over boots with the IR's for the icy days fellas, took a nasty spill stepping into my car last week, bruised the daylights out of my shin too on the bottom of my car door In too much of a hurry to get my over boots on, thought it'd be ok, guess not lol, I went back and put the darn rubber boots on at the insistence of my wife

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I solved that problem by moving to San Diego.

I bought a pair of the amber iron rangers about two months ago and i'm still breaking them in aha. They're nice boots, i love them. I couldn't believe it when i was ordering a pair of 9.5D when i'm usually a 10.5/11. I wish i had of been able to get an E though, as they are a bit too narrow but no one in Australia had the E sizes. I'm heading to Europe for two and a half months, thats why i bought em' although i'm a little worried about the grip on snow/ice.

I look forward to wearing them for the rest of my life though. It's amazing when you see pictures of them where guys have had them for 20-30 years, had them resoled a bunch of times and they're still going strong.

Dang, wish I would have thought of that!

Theres a store 18 miles from me in Tulsa, thanks Dude!

4ever3 said:

i wear a 13 US in Docs, anyone else wear that in a Doc and also have a pair of I.R.'s? If so, what size I.R. Do you wear?

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I usually wear a US13/UK12 and went with a size 12 in the IRs. The size 13 docs have a wider toe box than the rangers, so the Red Wings felt tight initially but I had no problems breaking them in and they fit perfectly now.

Commander Quan said:

I took my boots into the local RW shop to be oiled, and had them replace the standard laces with the type that come in the Beckmans. These are way better than those imposable to stay tied cord laces for the Iron Rangers.

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Keep in mind the Beckman laces tend to break fairly quickly - I'm already on my fifth set of laces (I've had the boots for two years).

Thanks Derrik!

WesternModern said:

Keep in mind the Beckman laces tend to break fairly quickly - I'm already on my fifth set of laces (I've had the boots for two years).

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Good thing they're free