Dunlop Purofort Thermo+These boots were made for stompin
I’ve just started work back on drilling rigs and had to pick up new boots since my old ones were no longer up to the task. The winter boots of choice for righands up here are Dunlop Purofort Thermo+ Safety. I’ve seen them in white, orange and the oh so popular, tacticool OD green. The soles have a super heavy open lug tread, which are not only cushy, but provide much needed insulation when standing on steel flooring at -20°C and colder. The company advertises them as warm enough to -50ºC, but at -35ºC or so these boots are like walking around in downhill ski boots.
Another aspect of these boots is chemical resistance, deep drilling requires the use of invert drilling mud which is a mix of base oil, barite, hydrated lime, caustic, and a plethora of other mud additives. This nasty mixture is so hard on and ruins so much of your gear that the drilling companies pay you an extra daily amount as soon as invert is in the mud tanks. These boots stand up to this attack day after day, week after week.
The boots I had last time I worked on a rig were made by Viking, they were made of the same polyurethane material, and had a very similar heavy lug sole. The only reason my Viking boots were no longer up to the task was a split developed at the top front seam, and due to my inattention and abuse this split carried on down the front of the boot. They’re no longer suitable for the rigs, but have been re-purposed for around the yard. No one else that I seen on the rig that had Vikings seemed to have the seam problem.
If you need a boot that will get you through months of extreme heat, cold, shit and abuse check out a pair of Dunlops, they’re about $200 but worth every penny. I’ve not seen much mention of these boots outside of the oilpatch, so that’s why I brought them up here, more people need to know about these truly kick ass boots.