All Iron Boots are fully handmade by our bootmaker Kai and 5 teammates together in a small studio at Guangzhou. They are built in handwelt or hand stitchdown, with channelled insole construction, which are stronger and last longer than normal Goodyear welted shoes/boots made by machines. Each pair is 100% hand welted, hand last, hand bottomed, and also hand-sewn outsole stitch.

About Østmo Boots

Østmo Boots came to be in 2015, when 1986–born Norwegian Lars Jensen woke up one day with a wish to brush the dust off of Norwegian and Scandinavian footwear heritage. Although Lars himself is completely self-taught, the Østmo name is carried over from his paternal great-grandfather, Karl Johan Østmo, which was the shoemaker and cobbler in Lars’ home village Åsa in Ringerike, Norway during the early-to-mid 1900s. In fact, it was due to the discovery of Karl Johan’s old tools, lasts and half-finished projects while digging through a shed that Lars decided to try his own hand at the bootmaking craft.

Through Østmo, Lars has revived several boot, shoe designs that were last seen in production during the 1960s, with unique twists that pair well with contemporary aesthetics. Most notable is the Type I pattern, with its unique feature colloquially known as the “ankle swoopty”, which stands out among the crowd of other derby boot patterns.

About Østmo X Iron Boots

The Iron Boots X Østmo collaboration comes as a result of Lars’ wish to make his creations more widely available than what a single craftsperson can provide, while adhering to an unyielding level of material quality, craftsmanship and attention to detail.

What's Inside?

OK, let's cut boots in half!

Stitchdown Construction

Handwelt Construction - Welt Fudging

Handwelt Construction - Plain Welt

Hand dyed and patinated Horween Pioneer Hatchgrain, a.k.a Horween’s interpretation of the infamous Russian reindeer leather that was recovered only a few years ago, after spending its life on the seafloor in a sunken ship since 1786. Our master bootmaker Kai has been fortunate enough to handle the original recovered leather up close, and so we decided to treat our Horween hides a little differently for a better approximation to the original leather.

This process starts with stripping off the top dye of the leather, before dying it again by hand. It is then polished with a darker wax finish, which sinks into the crevices of the hatchgrain pattern. The result is a deep, lustrous finish with a distinct antique look.

Sole Options

Current lead time is around 5 months (orders from Mar. - Oct.)

Due to Lunar New Year holiday break and end of year surge, orders from Nov. - Feb. can take around 6, or even 9 months to finish.

FYI, lead time is just an estimate, which means the actual lead time can be shorter or longer. We don't accept cancel / refund for MTO orders, even it takes longer than the estimated lead time. But if you have already waited more than the estimated lead time, you can reach out to us. We will investigate what has happened, and try everything we can to make things right.

Unfortunately it's just the natural of how customized stuff is made in a small workshop. If that's a deal breaker, you can take a look of our Ready To Wear collection instead.

All Made To Order (MTO) items can NOT returnable / refundable, including GMTO orders, Ostmo X Iron Boots orders, Lil Monster orders with customized size. Unfortunately, we cannot accept returns on sale items or gift cards.

For GMTO / Østmo X Iron Boots Drop, orders will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. We will close this out before this leather run out. After they are closed, we generally don't take those orders again. 

7 days cooling off period
If you have ordered a MTO/ GMTO / Østmo X Iron Boots Drop item, you have 7 days after placing the order to change the configuration. You will be responsible for the additional cost on certain configurations. Your order will be locked 7 days after you placed the order, meaning no changes is allowed after that, because your order is put through our production pipeline.