Daniel Day-Lewis’s Favorite Boots Just Got a Killer Upgrade

Nicks Handmade Boots crafts some of the finest footwear in the world. Since 1964, the Spokane-based company has been outfitting hotshot crews, loggers, upland hunters and one very dapper Daniel Day-Lewis.

It’s a well-known fact that the Oscar-winning actor is particular about his wardrobe. He once wore his personal sweater on the cover of W magazine, turning the garment into something of a menswear grail. And legend has it he took a one-year hiatus from acting to study shoemaking in Florence, Italy.

Suffice to say, the guy knows a thing or two about well-made footwear. And it’s the type of intel that has led him to favor the BuilderPro silhouette from Nicks Handmade Boots, which just got a killer upgrade ahead of fall-boot season.

Nicks Handmade Boots

Nicks Handmade Boots Builderpro HD

• $639 at Nicks Handmade Boots

Nicks Handmade Boots BuilderPro HD

Unlike a lot of so-called “work boots,” a pair of BuilderPro boots can be customized to tackle the toughest jobs on the planet. Customers can choose between three different arch profiles, seven leather types, six boot heights (the company recommend 10 inches) and countless other details determined by specific work environments.

What’s more, each boot in a pair comes from the same hide of leather and made using a stitchdown construction — an old-school technique that leads to a stiffer, yet more watertight, boot compared to those that feature a Goodyear welt.

Nicks Handmade Boots

If there’s a single negative thing to say about them, it’s that the break-in period is long and painful — especially if you don’t wear them for 40 hours a week, plus overtime.

However, Nicks may have just addressed that with a new variant called the BuilderPro HD that makes these hardwearing boots a bit more practical.

Nicks Handmade Boots

For starters, the BuilderPro HDs feature an extra piece of leather running up the entire height of the gusset to protect against lace bite, as well as a extended asymmetrical heel counter to relieve pressure on the foot’s cuboid bone.

But the most novel addition of all would be the small, triangular relief cuts just below the first speed hook, which reduce pinch points during the break-in period, Nicks says.

Nicks Handmade Boots

Availability and pricing

Each pair of BuilderPro HD boots can be customized in various leathers from Seidel Tanning in Milwaukee, WI. They start at $639 and come with Nicks’s standard 18- to 35-week lead time — a fraction, of course, of their overall lifespan.

Nicks Handmade Boots

Nicks Handmade Boots Builderpro HD

• $639 at Nicks Handmade Boots

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