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thedenimdentist · 2 years

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Xbxs Boots Factory jodhpurs: unboxing and initial impressions

Introduction to Xbxs Boots Factory

In recent history, the phrase “Made in China” isn’t typically associated with high quality products or craftsmanship. On the contrary, it more likely has triggered images of overcrowded sweat shops producing cheaply-made products in mass quantities. However, I believe the tides are beginning to shift—or at least within the boot community). Recently I’ve been noticing multiple brands and boot makers gaining recognition on social media (particularly Instagram) for producing beautiful, high quality work out of China. One such brand that has so to speak "paved the way” for China-based boot makers would be Flame Panda, who came onto the scene a few years ago and continues to produce some of the best quality boots in the world. Since then, a few more Chinese boot makers has caught my eye, enough for me to purchase boots to see if they really are as great as they appear to be on Instagram. This leads us to the brand of focus for today: Xbxs Boots Factory, which appears to be producing beautifully-patterned boots with amazingly high quality finishing, yet is still relatively unknown on a global scale.

Xbxs Boots Factory was founded in 2008, operating as a professional handmade boots factory out of Dongguan, China. Initially operating as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) producing outsourced footwear for European and American brands, Xbxs branched off as an independent brand in 2012 to produce higher end boots of their own. Over the past ten years, the team at Xbxs has grown to a team of twenty skilled craftsmen, manufacturing footwear for mainly local China-based customers. Finally in early 2021, Xbxs created its Instagram profile (@xbxs_boots_factory), opening itself up to international orders. The man behind the Instagram is Luo Jun, who is responsible for posting product photos, responding to DM inquiries, and taking overseas orders. He primarily speaks Mandarin, but his English is actually quite proficient and is super easy to communicate with. At the time of this review, the current MTO lead time is about six weeks, though I doubt it will remain that short for long.

What Xbxs has to offer

Browsing through the Xbxs Instagram feed, it appears that a fair number of the boot models offered by Xbxs are replicas of (or are very similar to) other popular models belonging to other brands, such as Viberg and Clinch. However, while the patterns may not be the most original, Xbxs uses these designs and takes the execution and finishing to a-whole-nother level.

All the boots they produce seem to have extremely high quality clicking, stitch cleanliness, finishing, etc. Any aspect of boot production you can think of, Xbxs seems to go above and beyond the QC of the other brands on the market—including some the brands that the boots may have been modeled after.

Above is a pair of Xbxs boots belonging to Peter (@boot_gazer), which is very reminiscent of the George boots by Clinch. Based on the photos, the construction quality, pattern, last design, and clicking all appear superb. If I was told these were actual Clinch George boots, I would probably believe it. It was photos like these (and speaking to @boot_gazer and @tichoblancoshoes) on Instagram that convinced me that this relatively small, unknown brand could deliver the level of quality I’ve come to expect in my boots.

My ordering process and experience

I reached out to Xbxs via Instagram with a few questions about their offerings, sizing, leathers, and last options. Luo Jun was very quick to respond, answering all my questions (to the best of his ability, given the language barrier), and I ended up placing my order pretty soon after. I’ve provided all the details pertaining to my order below.

Order specifications:

Model: Jodhpur

Last: 008 (which is an E width)

Size: 46

Leather: TPR black horsebutt from Maryam Tannery

Upper stitching: black

Welt stitching: black

Toe construction: unstructured

Construction: 270 single row flat welt

Edge finish: black

Sole/heel: black Dr. Sole half sole and heel

Heel: Cuban

Price, wait time, and shipping:

Price: $999 shipped (via PayPal)

Quoted wait time: shipped within 5 weeks

Actual wait time: 19 days (about 2.5 weeks), shipped on the 20th day

Currier: UPS

Shipping time: 9 days (exactly 4 weeks from day of payment)

Unboxing experience

The unboxing experience created by Xbxs is definitely one of the best I’ve experienced, compared to all the other boots I’ve had delivered. They package arrived with an outer plastic wrapping, which is pretty standard.

Beneath the wrapping, I was happy to see that Xbxs double boxes their boots, as to protect the actual boot box from damage during transit. The outer box is even customized with the Xbxs logo, which is pretty neat.

The actual boot box is a textured black with white branding, and appears to be quite high quality. While it’s not the heaviest weighted material I’ve encountered, in combination with the outer box, it was sturdy enough to protect the boots during transit and can now sit pretty on a shelf in my garage.

Each boot came wrapped in plastic, which were then wrapped in individual thick black canvas drawstring boot bags. I have yet to use any of the boot bags I’ve received along with my boots, but it does show that the brand is going the extra mile when their boot bags feel high quality.

Initial thoughts

“Holy crapolli.” Those were literally the first words out of my mouth after pulling these boots out of the boot bags. I swear, the level of construction and finishing on these jodhpur boots has to be some of the best I’ve ever seen, second only to my White Klouds.

Being completely honest, I’ve wanted Clinch boots for quite a while now. However, their jodhpur boots only seem to be offered on their CN or CN-wide lasts, which are definitely too narrow for my bunion-plagued feet. Thus, when I saw that Xbxs was producing a jodhpur extremely reminiscent of the Clinch jodhpur I’ve wanted for so long but could never fit, built on what was described as an E width last, I had to pull the trigger…and they did not disappoint.

While I’m not quite sure of the material quality that went into the construction of these boots, I must admit that I honestly believe the level of finishing on these boots may even surpass that of the original jodhpurs produced by Clinch. The stitch density is quite high and uniform, and I haven’t found a single stitch out of place. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

One of the more obvious features of the Xbxs jodhpurs that differ from the Clinch version are the buckles. Above, you can see that Xbxs utilizes brass roller-buckles that are rounded/cylindrical in form, while the buckles used on Clinch jodhpurs are matte silver and more are slightly more flat in form. I find this difference fairly negligible, as brass still looks very nice with the black leather. Also, the Xbxs buckles are simple and clean in design, and are much better than some of the weird, lumpy buckles used by some other brands coming out of Asia.

Above are photos of Clinch jodhpurs that were listed on the Pancho and Lefty website. These are built on the CN last with matte silver buckles.

All the upper stitching is so clean and uniform.

The welt stitching is equally as perfect. The single row of stitching is quite uniform with high stitch density, and the fact that it’s been painted over black allows it to wrap subtly and cleanly around the anterior 270-degrees of the welt.

An extra detail that I noticed is that the welt stitching visible on the outsole of the boots is extremely clean as well. On most of my other boots, no matter how clean the top portion of the welt stitching may be, the stitching on the outsole always seems to be a little less uniform. Admittedly, the cleanliness of the bottom welt stitching has no effect on the construction quality of a boot, but I’m still extremely impressed by the level of stitch precision coming out of Xbxs boots factory.

So straight. So uniform. Also note how the thread is left white over the Dr. Sole half sole but is painted black along with the exposed leather between the half sole and heel. This detail (along with the five brass tacks along the edge of the midsole) create a very simple and clean sole unit that I can’t help but stare at.

In general, I prefer my shoes and boots to have 270-degree welt construction, as it allows the welt shelf around the heel to keep a more slim and sleek profile. To no surprise, Xbxs used this opportunity to create as tight of a welt shelf as possible. As you can see in the photos below, the welt shelf on this pair of jodhpurs is nearly nonexistent, pulling in so tightly that I'm surprised there was no visible damage to the black Maryam leather upper.

Last but definitely not least, one of the most impressive features of these boots that immediately caught my eye right out of the box was the level of shine on the midsole. I mean, just look at ’em!

So. Shiny. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of my camera and flash in the heels. The midsoles feel super smooth and glossy to the touch, giving the entire boot a very premium look and feel. These are probably the closest I’ve seen to the midsole mirror shine offered by Goto-San of White Kloud. I’d say these are still obviously a bit less perfectly mirror-like, as you can still see some texture and the divisions between the individual stacked leather layers, but that is being extremely, extremely nitpicky.

Here you can see just how perfect the mirror shine was on my White Kloud boots when they were new.

In contrast, here again are the soles of the Clinch jodhpurs off the Pancho and Lefty website. These midsoles have a fairly even matte finish, with a bit of roughness around the edges on the outer left boot. Don’t get me wrong, the level of finishing on these Clinch jodhpurs is still extremely good–better than 99% of boots out on the market, probably. Nevertheless, I feel that the level of heel shine on these Xbxs jodhpurs is a sign of the time and attention to detail taken by Xbxs boots factory in the construction of their boots. So, while I have never owned any Clinch boots personally, I can't help but think that the build quality and craftsmanship of the boots coming out of Xbxs may very likely already be at the level of these more well-established brands they may be replicating...including Clinch. (Blasphemous?)

Leather quality and clicking

I chose to build these jodhpur boots using black horsebutt TPR from Maryam Tannery per the recommendation of Xbxs. This is a vegtan leather with an aniline finish, which is then given a final coating of TPR (or “Thermoplastic Polyurethane Resin”) before leaving the factory. This TPR finish gives the leather a glossy, polished finish reminiscent of shell cordovan. Over time this TPR coating will break in and fade away with wear, but it does give the boot a nice pretty shine right out the box.

When it comes to leather selection, I usually take the recommendations of the boot maker into high consideration. This is because every individual boot maker has unique experiences working with leather, and has developed their own preferences as to what leathers they enjoy working. I figure that a boot maker will produce the best quality work when they are dealing with leathers and materials that they have a lot of experience and actually enjoy working with, so if I want the highest quality boot possible, it only really makes sense to pick a leather that they personally recommend.

In this case, Luo Jun says that they believe horsebutt from Maryam tannery is best for achieving beautiful smooth rolls with tight grain, and prefer adding a final TPR finish to the leather themselves before packaging them for shipment, which gives the boot that high gloss shine. While the horsebutt used on my boots was black directly from the tannery, Xbxs also enjoys building a boot with a natural horsebutt to start, then applying leather dyes to achieve the desired color before adding the final TPR finish. Whichever upper leather you may desire, just ask Luo Jun via DM what is available and what he recommends, and I have no doubt they will do an amazing job.

Sizing and fit

While discussing fit and sizing with Xbxs via Instagram DMs, I asked Luo Jun offered wider sizes for the 008 last. For those that may be unaware, I have large bunions on the lateral sides of my feet, causing most standard width boots/shoes to cause me pretty severe discomfort. Whether it be due to his own personal preference or they actually don’t allow wide sizing altogether, Luo Jun turned down my request for a wider width, saying that it would disrupt the overall balance and aesthetic of the boot. Rather, he recommended I size up from my typical size 45EE (on Benzein’s kapak last) to a size 46 on Xbxs’ 008 last. He explained that the 008 last is by nature an E width, and he believed bumping up a size in length would provide the added width required for my bunions without sacrificing the overall shape of the boot.

For reference, I’ve listed my relative sizing for other boot/shoe brands below:

Red Wing Iron Rangers: 10EE

Truman (P-79 last): 11.5EE

Onderhoud (vulture last): 45E

Benzein (kapak last): 45E

Flame Panda (206 last): 45.5 E

New Balance 990: 12.5EEEE (extra-wide)

After the initial unboxing, I admit that I thought the boots looked too long. However, after actually trying them on and walking around a bit, I believe Luo Jun was absolutely correct in his size suggestion. The width does seem to be a bit snug but not uncomfortable by any means, so I expect any extra rubbing on my bunions will probably dissipate as the boots break in. Also, despite sizing up by a full size, I don’t actually feel like the boots are too big in length. Any extra bit of length at the front of the boot provides enough vertical clearance so that my toes don't feel cramped by the lower profile of the last. Overall, I believe Xbxs nailed the fit on these jodhpurs boots, and would recommend that anyone interested in purchasing a pair but are unsure about sizing to reach out to Luo Jun and his team via Instagram for sizing advice. They seem to know what they’re doing.

Although still very new, you can already see where the rolls are going to form. The grain is incredibly tight on all areas of the boot. I’ve always been envious of all those Clinch boots with incredibly tight grain and buttery rolls, so I’m looking forward to hopefully developing some buttery boot rolls of my own.

Styling these jodhpur boots

There are jodhpur boots, and then there are Clinch jodhpur boots. In general, jodhpur boots are a bit polarizing. They are often on the more sleek side, worn by more “modern menswear” enthusiasts under some slim-fit ripped jeans or suit pants. These Xbxs/Clinch-style jodhpurs are slightly different, as they sorta toe the line between rugged and formal, while not quite falling into either category. The more robust leather, welt stitching, and Cuban heel make these a bit more rugged than dress shoes and more dressy jodhpurs, while their slim last and silhouette make them a bit more sleek and streamline than your average “rugged workwear” boots.

It’s for this exact reason that I really wanted a pair of Clinch jodhpurs, and ultimately picked up this pair from Xbxs. I believe they fit my current overall style and aesthetic perfectly. While I do enjoy the well-made, rugged aspect of amekaji workwear where faded denim and beaten up boots are king, I’m not particularly drawn to the whole lumberjack, double ultra heavy denim look. At the same time, I don’t see myself as one of those “modern menswear” guys either, wearing slim fit trousers, constantly worrying about keeping all my clothes/shoes looking brand new, and brushing and polishing my shoes after every wear. That leaves me floating somewhere in between rugged and refined...exactly where I think these Xbxs jodhpurs fall as well. In my opinion, these Xbxs jodhpurs are super versatile. They can be integrated into both rugged and refined outfits, and anywhere in between.

Take this fit for example. Here, I’ve paired these jodhpurs with some straight cut denim with a 10″ leg opening. While the overall fit has more of an amekaji workwear vibe, the slimmer silhouette of the jodhpurs provide a refreshing bit of contrast against the wider pant legs, which is makes the overall outfit more interesting to look at than if I had just worn some chunky old work boots. This is actually how Minoru (the man behind Clinch) styles his jodhpur boots, and I’m here for it.

At a glance, the laceless front facing of these jodhpurs could easily be mistaken for a black pair of engineer boots (such as my black horsebutt Role Club engineers). However, the neck of these jodhpurs are significantly slimmer than the shaft of my engineers, which breaks up the wide chunky bottom fit.

Can we take a second to appreciate that heel shine…

…and the never ending buttery rolls covering the entirety of these boots??! I seriously can’t stop staring at them.

In comparison, here are the jodhpur boots utilized in an outfit with a more tailored, sophisticated vibe. The minimal, laceless front facing of the jodhpur is very clean, and its slimmer neck/shaft fits seamlessly beneath the slimmer leg opening of these pleated wool trousers, much like any other dress boot would. For reference, these Informale easy trousers have a leg opening of about 8″, though they give off the illusion of being much slimmer due to the pressed crease down the front of the leg.

I may have cuffed my trousers a little too high in these photos, but you get the idea. I do admit, all the rolls in the vamp do create a ceiling in how much these jodhpur boots can be dressed up. However, I personally really like how they look paired with both relaxed and tailored outfits, and I fully intend to wear these boots in all sorts of social settings.

Final thoughts

If you’re unable to tell already, I am pretty stoked with these jodhpur boots from Xbxs Boots Factory. I realize that without having had the time to really wear the boots and break them in, my insight on how the boot fits and ages is very shortsighted. However, based on my initial visual inspection, the hand feel, and the couple times I tried-on and styled them, I have very high hopes for these boots. The stitch density and cleanliness are extremely uniform and cleanly executed, and the clicking (ohhhh the clicking) is definitely definitely definitely up there with some of the best in the industry. There’s not much else for me to say, as the photos speak for themselves.

I should probably try to include some cons or negative aspects I’ve encountered regarding these boots or the ordering process, but honestly none come to mind. The price (though costly, still about half the cost of a Clinch jodhpur), production time (4 weeks from payment to delivery), and quality are all extremely difficult to beat.

Well, I guess there is one thing...one pretty significant thing: how much weight do you place on originality and intellectual property? While the pattern and execution of these Xbxs jodhpur boots may be top-notch, there is no getting around the fact that they are extremely reminiscent of the jodhpur boots offered by Clinch, possibly to the point where they could even be considered knock-offs. (If an imitation is at the same level of quality, or maybe even better than the original, can it still be considered a “knock-off”?) Is it ethically wrong to support a brand that may be impinging on the creative intellectual property of another brand? For me personally, this is a very cloudy and difficult question to answer. Would I have liked to own an actual pair of jodhpur boots from Clinch? Yes. But there is no way my wide, bunion-stricken feet would ever fit into either of the Clinch lasts (CN-S or CN-wide). So does that exclude me from ever owning a pair of Clinch jodhpurs, or anything that even resembles it? Or if another brand (such as Xbxs) offers a similarly designed boot that will actually fit my foot, am I allowed to purchase and wear them under the assumption that the original version was not an option? I honestly don’t know if there is a correct answer...so I choose not to think about it and simply take these Xbxs jodhpurs for what they are: a beautifully designed boot made with some of the highest quality construction and materials in the market today.

To clarify, I am by no means pigeonholing Xbxs as merely a carbon-copying, replica-producing boot assembly line with zero creative intellect of their own. If you scroll through their Instagram feed, you can see that they do offer multiple other boot and shoe models that (as far as I know) are unique to the Xbxs brand. (Some of which I think are really nice, and have actually considered purchasing as well.) It just so happens that in addition to these original boot models, they also offer extremely high-end replica boots designed after patterns already made popular by other brands. Is it Xbxs’ fault that their high-end replica models have caught the eye of casual boot enthusiasts and brought Xbxs Boots Factory into the spotlight on a global scale? Not at all. However, one must now wonder what that implies for Xbxs as a brand, if their most popular models are merely replicas and not their original designs. Moving forward, I think Xbxs should focus on improving their brand-exclusive boot patterns, with the goal of creating a collection of beautiful, well-designed signature Xbxs boot models that they could become known for. That would really put them on the map. It would establish Xbxs Boots Factory as a brand able to stand alone on their own intellectual property and products, rather than riding the coat tails of already beloved and established boot patterns from other companies. If they manage to do that, it would definitely solidify them as a force to be reckoned with in the casual boot community on a global scale, placing them in the company of other top tier boot makers like Flame Panda, Role Club, Kreosote, and...Clinch.

(All that being said, I still love these replica jodhpur boots, and am quite thankful that they make this Clinch-esque pattern accessible to wide-footed customers like myself who would otherwise never be able to wear such a beautifully designed boot. lol)

Anyway, enough philosophical boot rambling for the day. But let me know your thoughts! Whether it be about these boots, or the violation of creative intellectual property and ethics of it all, I’m curious as to what you all think. Regardless, I’m quite happy with these jodhpurs from Xbxs and will likely purchase more boots from them in the future. I do plan on publishing a follow-up review for these at some point, so I can better discuss how these boots break in and develop after some wear. But until then, thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to reach out via Instagram (@thedenimdentist).

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