It’s probably not news to you that boat shoes are enjoying a moment. Like Red Wing boots and waxed canvas jackets, the 2010s-era staple is back, along with a wave of sundry nautical classics. Worried lacing up a pair will mark you as a sailor—or, worse yet, a washed Millennial? Don’t be: these Timberland boat shoes have weathered significantly worse than mere stolen valor accusations, and they happen to be the perfect gateway (or, uh, marina) to the genre.
If that name doesn’t ring any bells, it might be because it’s new: as long as we can remember, Timberland itself was calling the silhouette the Three-Eye lug sole shoe, until the brand wisened up and rechristened it to meet the rising nautical-style tide. Smart move—with its handsewn moccasin-style upper and 360-eyelet lacing system, the newly-dubbed boat shoe looks like exactly that. Except, that is, for its beefy lug sole, a savvy addition that takes the silhouette from preppy to damn-near-punk in the time it takes for you to clock it. You can still rock a pair with chinos and a polo, but that telltale sole means they’ll take just as well to baggy jeans and a hoodie, or cargo pants and a windbreaker.
The result is a context-agnostic boat shoe as versatile as your favorite loafer, with impressive cross-archetype appeal. (We’ve seen granola-noshing outdoorsmen wear ‘em with just as much panache as SSENSE-addled fashion geeks.) The leather is premium-grade thick, but soft enough to wear straight out of the box without stressing the condition of your feet. The added set of eyelets brings the vamp a smidge higher than those of its daintier counterparts, and looks especially incredible with slouchy camp socks. And those telltale lug soles are ready for both choppy water and rocky terrain—plus extremely hard fits.
In other words, Timberland boat shoes are boat shoes for the anti-boat shoes guy. The do-it-all loafer that’s not really a loafer. The chameleonic lace-up that feels designed for sneaking into yacht clubs you don’t belong to just to guzzle the free booze and caviar before dipping to the next spot. And at $150 a pop, you won’t find yourself swimming in debt when you splash out on a pair.
Read the full article here
