Featuring innovative Contour Welt technology that allows the boots to flex and bend along with the natural movement of your feet, these rugged safety boots are designed with comfort chiefly in mind. The removable MultiShox insoles help to cushion your feet when out and about all day, while the mesh lining helps regulate the internal temperature. Some reviewers also mentioned that the Wolverine SR Direct-Attach 6″ Work Boots do not need break-in: emerged as the clear winner. They look and feel great, and offer the protection and traction that you need to make it through a full day’s work. If you’re looking for a pair of durable work boots that'll perform day after day, week after week, and month after month, then you’ll be hard-pressed to do better than the Chippewa Steel Logger Boots. Made of heavy-duty leather, these work boots offer all the protection that you need. The steel safety toes are rated at the ASTM standards for impact and compression, and the soles feature electrical hazard protection to keep you safe even in certain dangerous conditions.

To find the best work boots for men, we tested nine of the most popular work boots available. After stress testing and wearing each for multiple days of yard work and in my woodshop, the Chippewa 55025 Hador Steel Toe BootsSafety is what keeps your feet intact. Fit is what keeps you on your feet. Quality, durability, and safety don’t mean anything if your feet slide around inside the boots. Most of the time, boots—especially those with natural material like leather—come out of the box stiff. If you try to wear them for eight or ten hours on day one, you’re going to wind up with blisters and sore feet. It’s well worth taking the time to break in a pair of boots before you start to use them in your regular day-to-day. Above all, you want to walk naturally in your new boots. Anything else is going to drain your energy and leave you with sore legs and feet day after day. Break Them In I’m Jean Levasseur, a former conveyor mechanic, property manager, and hobbyist woodworker, in addition to being a writing instructor at a local university. I come from a family of tool-users—my grandfather was a carpenter, my father owned an excavation company, and my mother was a mechanic. Between growing up working for my family’s businesses and then moving onto my own projects, I’ve used most tools you’ve heard of and quite a few that you haven’t. I spend a lot of time out in the yard maintaining my landscaping or on my feet in my shop woodworking. The Tests

The first step was to break in and assess the comfort and fit of each boot. There are many strategies for breaking in boots, but we went with a tried-and-true method: wearing them. I tried to wear each pair of boots for five days, starting with an hour or two the first day, and then ending with some kind of multi-hour working session either out in the yard or down in the shop. As I wore them, I looked at overall fit, breathability, and support, as well as signs that the durability wasn’t up to snuff, such as leather peeling or stitches pulling. The outstanding safety and control found with this pair do not come at the expense of comfort. By the end of our testing, these were some of my favorite boots. They climb high up the calf, giving plenty of ankle stability without any uncomfortable collar pressure. The arches are high and supportive, reinforced with a steel shank, letting you stay on your feet all day without aches or cramps. To find the best work boots we put each pair of boots through a series of safety and performance tests. The Tester Don’t be afraid to wear band-aids or fabric tape during the breaking-in period in places where it feels like blisters might form. And don’t think that uncomfortable boots will suddenly become comfortable after breaking in. If they’re not at all comfortable in the store, then they won’t be comfortable at home. Stiff boots will loosen up—painful boots probably won’t stop being painful. Our final test was to see how rugged the sole of each boot was. I drove a nail through a piece of wood, and then tried to force that nail by hand through the sole of each pair of boots. Again, we separated each pair of boots into three categories: whether this was easy, intermediate, or difficult to accomplish. Here I was pleasantly surprised at how hard it was to drive the nail through any of the boots by hand. What You Should Know About Buying Work BootsThey are a light enough weight that you don’t feel like every step is a battle like you can with some heavier boots or steel-toed models, but still heavy enough to give you confidence that it would take a punch (or nail) and keep the user safe.” Many reviewers point out that the Wolverine SR Direct-Attach 6″ Work Boots are relatively lightweight: Once we had finished the wearing phase, we put each pair of boots through a series of safety and performance tests. The first was around traction. I built a 45-degree small ramp with asphalt shingles to mimic a 12-pitch roof, which is fairly steep. From there, I tried to stand up on the ramp in each pair of boots. We sorted each pair into one of three categories. Lowest was if I couldn’t actually get enough traction to stand on the ramp without holding on. Second was if I could step up onto the ramp unaided but then slip down a few seconds later. Highest was if I could stand on the ramp and stay put. We were particularly impressed by the traction of the soles. We tested each boot using a shingled dummy roof pitched at 45 degrees and these were one of the only boots that let me stand right up without slipping. I’d feel confident wearing these for any roofing job (with other proper equipment, of course).