Name: Kern
Brand: YG
SKU: BRBL1903x090
Price: 245.0 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

Lightweight boot for heavy duty work. Floating on clouds, however long your day goes.

360° Goodyear Welt

100 day Worry-Free Warranty

Low stock - 1 item left
Ready to ship February 13, 2022

Free shipping in domestic US

• Size Out of Stock? Grab a Gift Card to lock-in the Black Friday sale price, and then sign-up below to be notified when your size is back-in-stock!

$245.00

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Holiday Sales Notes:
• Due to high demand, please allow a few extra days for your order to ship.

Free Shipping in domestic USA
• Orders ship out by the next business day
• Holiday Sales Note: Due to high demand, please allow a few extra days for your order to ship.
• See non-domestic shipping info here

Free Returns & Exchanges
• 100 days to Return or Exchange
• We cover the cost of shipping the item back to us too, so there's no stress involved.

Read our full returns policy here

OVERVIEW

"I prefer the boots over tennis shoes hands down." - Wilcox Wearer

Say goodbye to aching arches, heels and knees. We have no time for long break-in periods, hefty price tags and boots that fall apart in less than a year. We only make boots that:

are built to last a lifetime
support your feet & back
are fairly priced

To see you through the next 10 years of adventures, we use the very best materials (hello full-grain leather) and methods to craft every pair of Wilcox boots. More importantly, the support from each pair's CloudCush™️ Comfort system means your feet (and body) will also be up for all the shenanigans.

And there will be many. With the Fairfax, you'll be ready to head off-road at a moments notice, but the brogue detail will let you walk into a board room in the afternoon if you decide to come back to the city.

Give 'em a go, because there's NO RISKS with the 100 Day Worry-Free Warranty. We'll ship them to you for FREE (in the US) so you can knock 'em around and if you don't fall in love, just ship them back to us (for FREE) and we'll make sure you're squared away with an exchange or store credit!

CONSTRUCTION

BUILT TO LAST A LIFETIME
These are not your average boots. Every pair is built with our 4 layer CloudCush™️ Comfort system on the inside:

Read more about what this means for your feet here.

The top layer is a removable insole so you can easily adapt your pair to fit orthotics, custom insoles, heel lifts or inserts.

The outside of the boots are made of full-grain cow leather (the toughest kind of leather to last through the years). The inside is lined with soft buttery calfskin from heel-to-toe.

The Kern has a high performance foam wedge outsole made in partnership with world-famous XL EXTRALIGHT®. The sole is adhered beneath a veg-tanned leather midsole to allow long-term use & easy resoling by your local cobbler thanks to each pair's 360° Goodyear Welt construction.

Have the odd mark and scuff on your boots? Don't worry this tells you the leather on your boots is top quality and adds to their character. However, if you want that fresh-out-of-the-box look follow our boot care instructions here.

SIZING

The Kern Boot fits True-to-Size in length & width for most feet, with a slightly more narrow toe shape than our other lasts.

Size guide: Order the size you most commonly wear in US-sized sneakers.

Between sizes? Choose the larger size.
• For Example: If some of your sneakers are 9 and some are 9.5, order a 9.5 in our boots.

Width: E - All our boots are an E width. This means a little more breathing room than standard shoe width (D).

Wide Foot? Most people with EE width find our boots fit them well if they either (a) go up a half size, (b) replace our standard insole with a thinner insole for more room, or (c) do both.
• You can do the same thing (a) or (b) if you prefer a roomier toe box or like to wear thicker socks. Either way gives you a little more wiggle room around your toes.
• Regardless of the insole you go with, our industry-leading PORON® foam footbed is still at the base of it all to provide premium shock absorption and quick rebound.

Whole sizes: 8 - 13
Half sizes: 8.5 - 11.5

Beware of these boots

Beware of these boots because they’re made for more than walking and you’ll probably end up with two pairs just like I did. Comfort, craftsmanship and style are a 10/10. Money well spent!

Very comfortable

I really like this boot and it is very comfortable. It fits true to size. I have very skinny feet so I have to lace them up fairly tightly. My only suggestion would be to put some padding on the tongue of the shoe. However, I can wear them all day in jeans or dress pants.

6 pair

Can you tell I love these boots. My first Shiloh's have been re-soled twice and the patina is the best. I put them on more times a month than all the other's combined. The Kern's are a great comfortable casual city hiker for me, and go great with jeans or shorts. My newer Shiloh's and my Fairfax are great for the boot look and are substantial for a scooter ride.
If you only buy one pair or all, just do it you will be happy.

The Kern keeps getting better!

I recently bought my second pair of Kern boots because of the ridiculous Black Friday sale. I bought my previous pair about a year ago, and I've seriously worn them most days. They've seen all four seasons now and have held up beautifully but I cannot be without these boots so I had to get another pair just in case!

Even though I'd worn them all that time I felt like my slightly wider than average feet (albeit women's feet) could use even a smidge of a larger size. So for my second pair I ordered a half size larger. I'm glad I did because they do fit even better! In my first review for these I went over how I felt the slight almond shaped toe factors into the width of the toe box. With my second pair that bit of extra room really helped. (But my first pair will still be put to use and won't be going anywear!) In men's/unisex sneakers and boots I've most often worn a size 9.5 (Vans, Keen) but I do own some 10s (Hoka One One, Birkenstock) so it can be a little bit confusing and I should probably have thought harder about this with my first pair. (In women's sneakers I always wear a regular width 11, which is a 9.5 in men's, but always get a wide width in dress shoes.) My first pair of the Wilcox "Kern" were a size 10, so this time around I got a size 10.5. To sum this up, I'd say get the size you always/mostly wear. But if you're split down the middle on sizes like me, and especially if your feet are wide, definitely go a half size up.

Another reason I'm glad I ordered another pair (all black again, because it's killer looking) is because there were some little tweaks to the boot that made it even better! But from what I've seen, Wilcox is pretty responsive and actually takes in customer commentary. The heel counter on my new boots now has a rougher, unfinished leather that helps lock your heel into place better. Previously it was smooth leather throughout the inside of the boot. There's also a bit of padding above that counter to form to your ankle better, and both additions would probably help break in the boots that much easier. (Although these are a breeze to break in!) I can't remember what the laces on my first pair looked like but I feel like the laces on the new pair are possibly different. The laces on my first pair broke after maybe 6 months so it'd be cool if the new ones are stronger. But that's an easy fix if they were to break.

Not just for guys!

In my search for a sturdy comfortable pair of boots, I ran across Wilcox, and read a lot of the glowing reviews from earnest and no doubt amazing guys. I am Not a Guy[tm], but I too find the Kern absolutely perfect. They are amazingly comfortable, yet light. They are large, yet don't make me look like I'm wearing clown shoes. And the brown/white combination is stylish with just about any outfit. I highly recommend Wilcox, therefore, for other boot-wearing members of the LGBTQ+ community!

Bought these for my boyfriend

He loves them. He can dress them up or down. I know they’ll last forever. So well made .

Great Boot

Well made and comfortable will keep purchasing from this manufacturer.

Very Stylish and Comfortable

I love these boots everybody comments on them and wants to know where I bought them.

If you're on the fence, buy them.

The most comfortable boots I've ever had. They seem very well made. I am a maintenance guy walking around all day climbing ladders etc. I dont even take these off when I come home all the other boot I've owned couldn't wait to take them off. I will order another pair in a week or so.

1 2 3

HOW TO STYLE

The Kern is our lightest boot, so they're up for long days on the street in the shop, or hell - even on the dance floor.

Pair 'em with a denim jacket and some black jeans to hit the streets. Throw them on with a corduroy shirt and head to the mountains.

They'll work with whatever you're working with.

WHAT'S INSIDE

We cut a Kern boot in half to peak inside its light & fluffy guts

WATCH NOW

CLOUDCUSH™️ COMFORT

Layer 1: Natural cork base layer that creates an imprint of the wearer's foot. The cork slowly forms to your foot over time, and increases the comfort of the pair every wear.

Layer 2: CELTEC® shaped shank that provides stability to the boot, and helps with arch support.

Layer 3: Anti-microbial PORON® foam footbed which makes the boots feel soft right from the first wear and provides premium shock absorption and quick rebound from sunrise to sunset.

Layer 4: Removable OrthoBoost™️ foam insole to provide all-day support and give your feet a soft cradling feel (that would please most podiatrists).

🔨 TOUGH & SOFT ☁️

BUILT TO TAKE A BEATING...
AND FLOAT ON CLOUDS WHILE DOING IT.

Shoe Construction

The heritage constructed Kern boot features a 360° Goodyear Welt with an XL Extralight PU wedge sole on moon juice steroids.

The full-grain leather uppers and calfskin lining make it incredibly durable yet comfortable enough to wear all day.

GOODYEAR WELT

The welt is a strip of leather about an inch wide that connects the upper leather to the midsole. Its outer edge cam be seen around the edge of the boot.

This is the tell-tale sign of the highest tier of shoemaking that allows boots to be easily resoled and fully rebuilt, allowing them to last for years to come

XL EXTRALIGHT® SOLES

XL EXTRALIGHT® soles are more comfortable, lighter, stronger and better performing than similar foam wedge soles with the same mechanical properties. Weighing 3x less than other materials, they are light, flexible and a natural shock absorber, for stress-free foot and back comfort.

FULL-GRAIN UPPERS

This means the leather used on our boots has not been sanded, buffed, or treated in anyway to remove natural imperfections. Sanding or buffing removes the layer of skin below the hair, but this is the strongest and most durable part of the hide - so you don't want to lose it.

This leather shows characteristics of the hide it came from, and only gets better with age.