These New Wolverine Work Boots Have Heels Made From Pappy Van Winkle Barrels
Pappy Van Winkle is still as hard to find and expensive as ever, but now you at least have a chance to own a piece of the barrels in which the premium bourbon is aged. More specifically, you’ll be able to walk on this wood because Wolverine just released a new boot that uses a piece of barrel used to age Old Rip Van Winkle, aka 10-year-old Pappy, as part of the heel stack.
In case you are new to bourbon or are blissfully unaware of the hunt for unicorn bottles, Pappy Van Winkle is the high-priced and highly sought-after lineup of bourbons that is released once a year, ranging in age from 10 to 23 years old. The whiskey has been produced at the Buffalo Trace Distillery since 2002, and the details of this year’s lineup were announced just last month.
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The new 1000 Mile x Old Rip Van Winkle boot is actually the third release in this footwear-whiskey collaboration, and the crossover between booze and design comes in many forms here. There’s that signature heel, of course, which literally uses a piece of the barrel as part of the stack. The color and material of the boot, grey-black Deville leather from Horween Leather Company in Chicago, is meant to evoke the charred oak of the barrels that, by law, must be used to age bourbon. And each pair features a hand-numbered Old Rip Van Winkle tag on the tongue. The boots were designed in Michigan and crafted in Arkansas. In September, Wolverine introduced another collaboration with Buffalo Trace, the Kentucky distillery where Pappy Van Winkle is produced. Those boots were sold via Huckberry and featured the Buffalo Trace logo on the tongue.
These new Wolverine boots are pricy at $415 for a pair, but 100 percent of the proceeds from this collaboration will go to benefit the mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship (yep, the Dirty Jobs guy) and the National FFA Organization, both of which support young people pursuing careers in agricultural science and skilled trades. Head on over to the Wolverine website to pick up a pair now.
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