Mixed feelings
Mixed feelings about this one. I bought the Knee High Leather Lace Up Boots in brown.
Time: ZW warns you these are made in small batches and they might be sent within 48 hours OR within three weeks. That’s fine - I just wish they’d say which, once the order has been placed (mine was three weeks). There’s a tracking option that doesn’t tell you anything about production. A minor issue, but still could be improved upon.
Packaging: I expected the boots to arrive in a box, with an insert to keep the leather smooth. Instead they were essentially in a bag, folded over on themselves, with only an insert in the foot but not the ankle or leg of the boot. For these knee length boots, it meant they were badly creased straight away. Disappointing, but I assumed they’d look fine once they were actually on.
Fit: Unfortunately, they didn’t. This was my biggest issue: the fit looks nothing like any of the photos, to the point that I messaged to ask if the design had changed. These are so smooth and fitted around the ankle in the photos, which was not the case in real life, where they’re quite bunchy/baggy and warped. I messed around with lacing to try and improve it, but no luck. The thing is, they’re still nice boots! They look nice! But side by side with the website photos, they look completely different - if it weren’t for the quality you’d think I’d received a Temu knockoff. I suspect the photos have been heavily retouched to smooth out the shape.
Fit in terms of shoe size etc is fine. They’re a little tight on the calf as-laced, but obviously you can loosen etc as wished.
Quality: clearly nice quality material. Lovely and soft on the inside. No complaints about the finish.
Customer service: I messaged customer service on their website to ask essentially whether the warped/bunchy fit around the ankle was normal or if I had a dodgy pair/they’d suffered for how they were packaged. They responded within 24 hours, which was fine. The CSA said they could see what I meant about it being warped, but then said a lot of stuff about how leather naturally softens and creases over time… so I was like, ‘so is this *unusually* warped or do you mean it’s normal?’, basically, to which they responded ‘creasing at the ankle is a normal occurrence.’ It felt like they were being a bit weaselly here tbh - I know leather creases over time (it is not my first time ever wearing boots), but these boots are fresh out the ‘box’ and they admitted they were warped. Reading between the lines of what the CSA said, it sounded as though the bunchy fit of these was only going to get worse over time, but also that they weren’t going to offer to exchange or anything - that’s just how they are.
Conclusion: I was pretty torn over whether to return these. They didn’t look like I’d expected, but like I said, they’re still good quality boots. I took a few days to think about it and decided to keep them as I’d have struggled to get anything else in time for the trip I had planned. If I don’t look at the original pictures, I’m reasonably happy with my purchase; if I compare them to what I thought I was getting, I’m pretty disappointed.
One final point is that there are no reviews available/opportunity to review individual products on ZW’s website. This should have been a red flag. If I’d known not to expect the smooth fit of the product photos, I would have adjusted my expectations and been less disappointed with what I received. This seems like something they should definitely address.
October 1, 2024
Unprompted review
