Birsel Black Engineer Boots - Shinki Teacore
So Benzein has fairly recently changed their name to Brisel Black, and if you guys remember, I ordered Benzein Boots for my Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome back in October. I have worn them for 6 months, and I think I can give you my honest opinion now.
These Brisel Black engineer boots are made of Shinki Hikaku’s teacore leather, vibram outsoles and double leather outsoles. Before I deep dive into explaining more about the boots, I want to just show you how they look.
These Brisel Black Enginners look absolutely stunning. The leather showed wonderful black colour and the construction of the boots are incredible and stable. If you look at the photo, you are able to see the core of the teacore pretty well. It probably requires more wear before it goes more brown and shows proper patina. I will talk more about the leather in a bit.
Brisel Black Engineer Boots Sizing
The last used to make these are Parang last. Parang means knife in Indonesian and I would say they do resemble some kind of a knife. TBH I am not 100% sure of their reasoning behind how they name their lasts.
The size of these are 11.5E. that’s in US sizing and also it’s a wider width. The fit on these are phenomenal. I am sized between 11 and 11.5 in brannock device and also width is between D and E. But I don’t think the sizing is too big. My toes rests not too close or too far from the tip of the shoes, which is supposed to be like, and the width is comfortable that my feet aren’t over the stitches on the side. To be honest it’s one of the best fitting last that I had before.
As you do with most of the engineer boots, you will experience some of heel slippage with these. That is inevitable in my opinion and I think many of you will agree. As they are broken in now, which was a hell of a process, now there is less heel slippage and fits much better to my feet.
Brisel Black Shinki Hikaku Teacore Leather
Honest, what a leather this is. Shinki Hikaku’s leather is amazing. I would argue it’s one of the best tanneries in the world. The colour is beautiful and black, leather is very durable and also very scratch proof as well.
I honestly have nothing else to say about the leather that Brisel Black has picked.
Brisel Black Engineer Upper build
I have purchased another engineer boots after this dome, and one thing I have noticed is that Brisel Black makes their strap very long. I am not complaining and I actually love it.
These engineers have smaller opening compare to my Wesco Engineer boots. I will try to make a comparison video and possibly a blog article too.
There are two nickel buckles. All the stitching is very dense and white coloured.
Overall, super impressed by the upper design and construction. The Brisel Black Engineer boots are made with stitchdown construction method. There are double rows of stitching holding the upper and the outsole.
Brisel Black Engineer Break-in
I think I have explained all the great things about these boots. I want to address some of the downsides that I have experienced with these.
The double outsoles on these turned out to be very stiff and was a pain to break them in. It took up to 4 months and I almost gave up the competition because of that. I got some pain on my big toe due to the excess bending of very stiff leather and I promised to myself that I would get them re-soled into different more flexible outsoles after the competition.
(Now that they are broken in, I may just keep them how they are)
I think that’s how much I would say about these, if you have further questions, please let me know in the Youtube comment section I will answer as much as I can 🙂
Thank you all, can’t wait for next Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome
