RM Williams may be a favourite of politicians and lawyers, but a boot expert has shared some harsh criticism about the iconic Australian brand’s quality, price and durability.

It turns out, the iconic boot may not be as premium as it once was.

Weston Kay, a leatherworker who runs the Rose Anvil YouTube account, took his usual methods of testing boots to the RM Williams Comfort Craftsman, which retail for $649 in Australia.

“This boot is a national treasure to Australians, but I’ve heard some rumblings that the quality has dropped off a cliff in recent years,” he told his 960,000 followers in a 15-minute review uploaded last week.

“For a $600 boot, you’d hope it’d be good enough quality to justify the money and back the brand name that has been around for nearly a century.”

Rough cut

After cutting apart the boot and examining it from top to bottom, Kay said the heel design in the boot may be “the biggest crime we’ve seen in a $600 boot”.

“The one part that may be the toughest part to fix in a boot, they make out of the cheapest material,” he said.

“I thought it was going to be pretty decent but not as good as you might want.

“But this is not good, not good at all.”

Rich history

RM Williams is based in suburban Adelaide and employs about 900 Australians, building a reputation as a home-grown success story.

The company, started in 1932 to make work boots, has instead found its niche as a luxury brand.

Anecdotally, people have complained about the quality of RM Williams boots since the takeover by Andrew Forrest in 2020 for $190 million.

The brand also has a long association with Australian actor Hugh Jackman.

The Hollywood star held a 5 per cent stake in the business until it was bought out by Forrest – though Jackman stayed on as a brand ambassador.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has also purchased other Australian brands like Akubra hats. Photo: AAP

Drop in quality?

Kay said that when compared to an older pair of RM Williams boots, the range’s Comfort Craftsman is built “like a $200 pair of boots”.

“It doesn’t have any leather in the construction, it is fibre board, synthetic shank, more fibre board — it does have a cork filling — but for $600, how are you getting a $600 price range,” he said.

“The welt is at least real, but the fake leather is crazy to me.”

He said that compared to the older boots, the leather was far thinner, less durable and more like “sneaker leather”.

“You see sneaker leather anywhere from one-millimetre [thick] to 1.5 millimetres, while the previous version was 1.7 millimetres. So they have gone with a thinner leather,” Kay said.

“We ran the puncture test. The old pair punctured through at 67 pounds (30 kilograms). The new punctured through at 53 pounds (24 kilograms).”

The New Daily contacted RM Williams for comment and received a response following the story’s publication.

In a statement, the company said that the boot’s heel is made “of several layers of leather stack combined with leather board”.

“This leather board is made from recycled leather which is lighter weight creating a boot which isn’t too heavy and cumbersome and lives up to its Comfort name,” RM Williams said.

“This leather board also means that during the manufacturing process in our Adelaide workshop, the heels can be sanded and shaped to fit the heel shape of the boot that will be attached.”

Design

Other reviewers, even positive ones, have highlighted the same discrepancy in price, value and quality of make of the Comfort Craftsman boot.

Kay also criticised the design of the Comfort Craftsman boot because of a foam patch in the heel that is not secured in any way beyond the tape.

“You just have this really cheap, really fragile and flaky foam at the heel that isn’t glued in,” he said.

“You can’t really take it out without leaving a big chunk of foam and if you do remove it you are just standing on top of that foam.”

RM Williams said that the foam insole makes the boot “softer and more comfortable for everyday wear”.

“This instant comfort was implemented in the bootmaking process in 2006 and has contributed to the boot becoming a best seller ever since,” the company said.

“In contrast, a traditional leather insole board is used on our leather-soled Craftsmen boots and can take longer to break in.”