Adequate, but sizing, price and (lack of) polish leaves me unimpressed
Size of "The Boss Boot Tree" Purchased: Large (advertised as fitting shoe sizes 9-10.5)
My Brannock Device size: (US) 10.5d
Boot make/last I bought them for use with:
Meermin Riu last UK size 9.5e (US size 10.5d; EU size 43.5)
Meermin Hiro last UK size9.5e (US size 10.5d; EU size 43.5)
For reference, the Rui last fits TTS for US 'regular' width shoes possibly leaning a hair toward the wider side allowing for a slightly thicker sock, whereas the Hiro last seems to fit on the narrow side of the US "regular" width especially nearer the toes. I explain this so you can understand why the boot trees seem to fit one pair of my boots better than the other as described below in the "fit" section:
Fit: 3/5
I find the fit ok, but not perfect. To be fair, my shoe size is on the upper-most end of the range given for the Larges I bought, and while they do fit ok, they do not quite put pressure on the vamp of the pair of boots in the Rui last. I believe this is because the way the toes of the trees spread depends on there being pressure placed behind the heel and in front of the toe of the shoe tree (the shorter the length allowed between the heel and toe (shorter the shoe it's placed in), the more the tree spreads and vice-versa). Since my size 10.5 shoes are on the upper end of this spectrum, it would stand to reason that less pressure is applied to the sides by the tree's toes than other shoe trees I've used. Due to this I had actually considered returning them and purchasing the next size up, however I'm concerned that with my shoes being smaller than what the next size up is intended for, the added pressure this mechanism might create could end up putting more pressure on the sides than it should and end up acting as a shoe stretcher instead of simply filling them nicely like a normal show tree, so between this concern and the cost of return shipping I decided to not bother.
I should also note that while they do not fit my Rui last very well, the trees do fit the boots I have in the Hiro last (narrower) a bit better, so if your boots are on the narrow side of US "regular" width shoes then I doubt you'll have the problems I did with the one pair of boots. -But if you wear "wide' (US E; UK G) shoes then I'd definitely suggest sizing up if your shoe size is also at the top of the boot tree's size range.
A final nitpick I have with these boot trees is they also have less length in the cedar toe sections than other shoe trees I've owned and since the heel section ends right about at the middle of the arch of my boot, this leaves a solid 2-3 inches of my boot (including some of the vamp) with no support at all. This may not be an issue for you at all, but I have noticed a bit more creasing in this area than when I was using other shoe trees (though obviously these Boot trees have been better about lessening the creasing I had been getting around the ankles so the trade-off may be worth it for you). Ultimately, I think a lot of my issue with the sizing of these trees comes down to my shoe size being on the top end of these tree's size range since these boot trees were designed for a range of sizes instead of just a single one or two. I think if these trees were made so they would fit a range of maybe only 2 shoe sizes instead of 3 it would go a way toward lessening issues similar to mine.
Build Quality: 5/5
The trees seem durable thus far (have only used them for a few weeks, but no sign of them giving out, and the fact that the design expands into the shoe with a simple but elegant mechanism should mean less that can fail compared to some shoe trees I've seen that opt to use 4 and more springs, etc to put pressure on the toe sections).
I was also happy that the trees still had a very fresh cedar scent to them and did not seem to have been sitting on a hot warehouse shelf for years, so bonus points for that small detail I suppose.
Finish: 1/5
Finish was very disappointing for this price point. I ordered 2 pair and exactly half (2/4) of the trees came with rough edges and some splintering in multiple places that would have damaged the inside lining of my boots had I not noticed these flaws before using them. Since the trees are made of wood, it was a fix-able thing (though 1 of the 2 with issues did have a spot that took a a fair bit of time for me to sand it smooth) and at the end of the day, when you're asking for me to pay double what a very similar shoe tree would cost, I would expect these to come sanded smooth just like said cheapo shoe tree from elsewhere would (More on the value below).
Value: 2/5
These are overpriced, and despite having a suspicion of this going in (as of spring 2019 I've only seen one other company making cedar *boot* trees and those were selling at an absurd $80 per pair) so while, yes, at $50 this is the cheaper of the two, when looking at the amount of material used and the lack of attention to detail paid to half of the finished products I received, the $25 cheepo cedar shoe trees I picked up through an online bookstore a few months before finding these Woodlore boot trees look like they should be very comparable as far as cost to produce, yet the bargain shoe trees only cost half the price (likely because there is more competition in that market). I appreciate that this product meets a need that most of the market is ignoring, but it still irks me to pay double the price for what feels like an extremely similar amount of wood and metal hardware simply cut to different dimensions -and not even properly sanded to top it off.
Overall: 3/5
These will do, and since there are very few other options at the moment for cedar shoe trees that also will support the higher ankle on 6" boots, they may well be the best in that specific role, *but* if other manufacturers start actively competing in this specific product line Woodlore will need to up its game either by lowering prices on these and/or making some small but needed improvements on how these were made (and certainly will need to step up their standards for attention to simple details like making sure there are no sharp/splintered edges in products being shipped out).
As it stands I'm not ruling out ever buying more of these as my boot collection increases, but I'm also not sure if I will either -especially if more competitors come onto the scene.
-That said, If you get lucky and these get put on sale in the $30-$35 range these would certainly be worth getting for the simple fact that there aren't a lot of other options at present if you want a boot tree.
