Frye Bowery Lace Up Vintage-Style 6 ¼” Leather Boots for Men Review

I first bought size 12 because I usually wear leather shoes in 12 and sneakers in 13. And I had a 3 month period to break in around the house and office while I decided to keep them.The 12 were a tight fit and I could not wear anything but a very lightweight wool sock or dress sock. And the toe box were narrow. I did everything to break them in. But I could not overcome the narrow and tight toe box and stiff leather. Some days they felt comfortable but most days not so. And after taking them off my foot would feel like it had been in a vise.So I exchanged them for a size 13. Though I just wasn’t sure I should have continued with this type of shoe. I loved the look and they appeared quality made and I have had a lot of good experience with Frye boots in the past.When I received the 13 and tried them on I felt immediately comfortable and nearly broken in because the leather wasn’t as stiff as the 12 and the toe box was not as narrow. I broke them in over a period of one week and noticed the leather a much softer around the ankle area. And I was able to wear a medium weight and a heavier weight wool sock as well as a light weight wool sock depending on the kind of arch support I chose. I would wear a full length standard arch support with the lightweight sock or a half size arch support with the middleweight sock (provided to me by my foot doctor). No arch support with the heavy sock. Though I don’t normally wear a heavy weight sock.This tells me that fit in this particular shoe could be hit or miss. If available, I would recommend trying this shoe with Amazon Prime Wardrobe. Perhaps try on a shoe that is the same size you wear normally in a leather shoe. And then try your sneaker size.I believe my foot size is 12 1/2. And I believe this particular shoe in 13 is actually 12 1/2. My other Frye boots that I own are 12. When I matched this 13 up against my Frye boots in 12 (I held up the left foot of one boot up against the right foot of the other boot), they both matched up the same. So what I’m saying is......All my other Frye boots seem to run 1/2 size larger. But this particular boot seems to run 1/2 smaller.

I love the boots, more just want to say, listen to the reviews that say size down. I normally wear between 9 and 9.5. I went 9.5 figuring I might wear thicker socks. They were way too big. Retuned them, which went perfectly great, for an 8.5. They fit great and could probably get away with a thicker sock still. Beyond that, well made, thicker leather, will take a bit to break in but that’s part of paying up for a well made leather product.

It’s an amazing boot. I absolutely love them. I started way too large, returned and got 1 whole size smaller. I think it’s possible I could have gone down another half size, but decided to stay where I landed and they are perfect with some smart wool socks.

The boot appeared to be high quality, but I had to return them. I ordered size 10.5, which is the size I wear in all other shoes, sneaks, etc. That size in this boot was way too large for my foot. I would have exchanged for a size 10, but the sale price was no longer available a week later when I returned the boots. Unfortunate.

I'll start with things I like about the boot. I own at least 5 other pairs of Frye's and I would say that these are perhaps the most attractive and well made of any of them. I think that quality control at Frye has slipped somewhat over the last few years but this pair that I received was near perfect both inside and out. But I will say that I had to order a second pair in the same size because the first pair had unusual grain patterns in the leather, which I returned. For the bad. Like another reviewer stated here, the boots are significantly oversized. I normally take a 9.5 and ordered a 9 and these feel a bit to roomy in the toe area. I am now going to try an 8.5 before I make any final decisions.

Beautiful, classy, and shockingly comfortable out of the box. Wear them with pants down and you've got a pair of rugged, business ready derbys, or roll your pants up for some very classy high quality leather combat boots. I would note that I'm generally a 12 and even sometimes wear 13s, but had to return initially for a pair of 11s. A whole size down fits comfortably and even has a bit of room, so keep that in mind. Also, the cognac is darker than expected, more of a true brown, but gorgeous and high quality nonetheless.

I typically wear 11, ordered 10.5 after reading reviews that they run big. I think 10.5 was still slightly big. I could've gone with 10.The reason for my 1 star. The cost of these shoes is bananas so I expected a lot! What I got was after 15 mins of walking in these shoes was blisters and bloodied socks. 2 large bandages later i'm back to wearing my sneakers and not happy about these shoes. I expected a lot more given the $

I had been excited to buy these shoes for literally years, most of the reviews that I read talked about the amazing quality, the authentic look and simply the cool factor. This was not my experience. When my boots arrived, I found that the leather was incredibly stiff and uncomfortable to put on. While this is of course expected with any new boot, these were far stiffer than many others I have purchased, and I doubt any amount of 'wear in' would make them comfortable. On top of that I was extremely displeased with what Frye considered 'cognac' I received a DARK brown boot that is labelled as cognac, yet after reaching out to Frye customer support was told this is normal. While all leather products will have a degree of variation, the boot I received I would never describe as cognac. Overall a very disappointing purchase that will be returned.