JK Boots Climber Review: I Tried These Heavy Duty Work Boots

I recently made a video of the best American boot brands and the one comment that kept coming up over and over again was: where’s JK Boots?

I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard of JK when I made the video. 

But I certainly knew about them after I read through the comments. 

So I figured I had to give these guys a try. Since they’re mainly focused on work boots and wildland firefighting boots, I decided to give their Climber a try. 

As a professional boot reviewer, I spend most of my time at my desk and not climbing trees or scouring the wildlands for fires. But I still have some insight on how these boots are made and how they stack up against the competition.

So here’s what I thought.

JK Boots Climber Overview

I picked up the Climber from JK because it’s quite similar to their “bread and butter” Superduty boots, only the climber has an extra panel of roughout leather along the medial side of the foot for greater durability when climbing trees or pole spires.

And I got a safety toe (ASTM rated composite) as well. I gotta say, these things feel like absolute tanks on my feet. It’s great. 

The Climber is a 10” boot with brass hardware and an all-leather stitchdown build. It’s a textbook example of a great Pacific Northwest work boot.

You can also go custom with this style of boot if you’d like. You can choose between a 6” and an 18” height for the boot (18” is almost up to your knee). And if you get a 10” boot or higher, you can also add a knife sheath.   

Things to Consider Before Buying

JK has about a 2-3 month wait time for their fully custom orders, which you can expedite to one month for an added cost. 

That might sound like a long time, but that’s basically the Amazon Prime of Pacific Northwest boots. 

For wildland firefighters and anyone working a trade that’s super tough on boots, I’m going to be honest: I just don’t have the ability to test these types of boots to the degree where I can really say how durable they are. The most rugged I get is some hiking and camping every once in a while. 

But from what I can tell, JK Boots are right up there with the most durable boots in the world. I discuss this a bit more below, but the midsole is 8mm thick. That’s very thick for a midsole, and it’s not going to break down any time soon.

My Hands-On Review

First Impression

I’ve never seen a midsole with an 8mm thickness. You could shoot these things with a bazooka and that midsole would still be intact. 

The signature look of a JK Boot is the roughout bottom and the smooth leather upper. The roughout bottom keeps the boots protected from scratches and abrasion on the job. A scratch on a roughout is also a lot less noticeable than smooth leather.

I opted for the Redwood color with a nice copper roughout leather and a brown smooth leather. But you can also get grey, black, brown, or even customize the colors of your boots. 

One thing to note is that with the non-steel safety toe, you can see the safety toe bulging the leather out a bit. You might not mind that—and it may be a necessary element depending on your use-case.

Leather Quality and Care

The leather is 8oz oil tanned leather from the Seidel Tanning Co in Milwaukee, which is where pretty much all the best boot brands source a lot of their leather from. 

There’s also Horween and Wickett and Craig, but for work boots, Seidel is the go-to. In any case, this 8oz leather is thick. 

Most boots you try on might be a 4oz leather. Some great boots might bump that up to a 6oz leather. And then you have the Pacific Northwest beasts that use 8oz. 

This is exactly what you want if you work a trade that’s tough on boots. Add an additional lineman patch on the inside and you won’t be wearing through these climbing boots any time soon. 

One thing I really liked was that JK shipped their boots with some Obenauf’s Leather Oil. This is a different formulation than the Heavy Duty LP, and is a bit lighter and more for conditioning than full waterproofing. 

I’m probably not going to use the leather oil on my boots because I truly don’t need to. But if you’re working in damp conditions or a lot of rain, you may want to add a layer of boot oil before you get out to work with these boots the first day. 

But that’s not mandatory—the roughout leather and smooth upper are fine with some water and you can always condition your boots in a week or two. 

Sole

The sole is the most impressive part of this boot for me. 

The Climber is made with a 270-degree stitchdown build—common for most Pacific Northwest work boots. 

The insole is oak tanned leather, and the midsole is a fat hunk of oak tanned leather. It’s skived down toward the forefoot but the heel ends up being a full two inches tall. 

There’s a leather stacked heel and the outsole is a Vibram RedX Outsole, which is NFPA Fire rated, so you can wear this if you’re a wildland firefighter. 

The heel counter is a thick piece of leather and there’s also a leather shank which has the benefit of being a little easier on the insole once you start to hit the 5 year mark.

Overall, the sole is really well built and I think it’s the most impressive aspect of this boot entirely. 

Fit and Sizing

I’m a 10.5D on the Brannock and got a 10 average. The boots fit a little large, but JK also shipped some inserts along with the boots and once I popped those in, the fit was perfect. 

I don’t mind the larger size—I’d say it’s still in range of something I’d wear without inserts. I think that’d come in handy particularly if you’re wearing gaffs and you’ve been working for six or seven hours and your feet are starting to swell. 

You can get custom sizing if you have uncommon sizing for your feet. 

Break-in Period

The break in period wasn’t too tough. I figured I was in for disaster with the amount of oak tanned leather in the insole and midsole, plus the 8oz leather. 

But it actually wasn’t bad at all. 

It took me a bit to get used to how heavy these boots are, but other than that, I was able to wear my boots for a full day right away. It wasn’t like putting on a pair of sneakers, but it also wasn’t difficult either. 

My Thoughts Overall

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