When you buy your boots, make sure they are a good fit. That means your foot should not slide around in the boot, or feel cramped. Since we will be wearing boot socks with our boots during BCT, the boot that fits perfectly with your civilian socks may be too small for your feet if you wear it with boot socks. Usually, you should add at least 1/2 size for the thick boot socks. There should be a 1/2 inch gap between the tip of your big toe and the boot. Your foot expands when you run, so leave some room for it to expand.
The first thing you should do when you bring your new boots home is to saddlesoap it. New boots are covered with a layer of protective stuff called bluing. It is to keep the leather from getting stiff and cracked when it's in storage. However, it prevents the leather from getting soft and shinable. You should buy a can of saddle soap and a small round horsehair brush. They are sold in the same section as shoe care products in most drug stores. Soak your boots in lukewarm water for a few minutes, then make a nice lather with your saddlesoap and brush it into the leather. Keep brushing and add more soap until the water that runs off is a darkish color. Then you should rinse the boot off with warm water. Don't forget to stuff your boots with newspaper so the inside don't get wet.
After your boots are saddlesoaped, the leather will look dull and sort of grayish. Don't worry, a bit of shoe polish will restore its beauty. You should use the canned black shoe polish since it works the best because it contains wax. The liquid stuff gives it a nice shine, but it only lasts a couple days, and then it will dry and chip off, leaving your boots looking like a map of the continents. The good shoe polish comes in a flat little round tin, and it has a key on the side for you to turn to open the can. Kiwi or Lincoln brands are the best. Old t-shirts make the best polishing rags. Find an old t-shirt that you don't want anymore and tear it into long strips about 3-4 inches wide.
Wrap the rag around 2 fingers, and grasp the tip of the rag with your thumb. Smear a generous layer of shoe polish on the rags, and work it into the leather in a circular motion. When the boots are covered with a thin layer of the shoe polish, let it dry. When it's dried, take another piece of soft rag and buff it until it's smooth and shiny. Since only the toe and heel part of the boots are inspected for its shine, you only need about 2 coats of shoe polish on the rest of the boot. For the toe and heel part, repeat the process everynight from now until you leave for BCT. If you did everything correctly, it should look nice and glossy by then. However, as some people pointed out to me, having a mirror shine on your boots attracts attention to yourself on Inprocessing day. So I guess if you just rub a layer of shoe polish on, and let it dry, then give it a light buff so the polish don't wear off, it will hide the nicely shined surface. But later as you need to have a nice shine on the boots for inspections, just add on some more coats, rub it with a bit of cold water and the shine will come out again.
To break in your new boots, the best way to do it is to wear it and walk around it in. After two weeks or so of wearing, it shouldn't pinch in the areas where it bends. It is then okay to go run in, but make sure it don't pinch or you'll get those unwanted blisters. Wear two pairs of athletic socks, since that is about the same thickness as boot socks.
Well, that's all the boot tips I have for ya. If you have any questions, just email me at [email protected]
