Best Dress Boots For Men Under $100

What To Expect From Budget Dress Boots

Although shoes are an essential commodity, they can also be particularly pricey. Unfortunately, we don’t all have the luxury to be able to splash out on new footwear for daily use or special occasions.

However, we understand the difficulty in being able to afford premium dress boots and much higher prices. Therefore, let’s take a look at what you can expect from dress boots under $100.

Leather Uppers

An major factor that contributes to pair of shoes’ final retail price is the raw materials used to make them. Hides of premium leather are very expensive as they’re graded and sourced from the best specimens. Similarly, each hide has graded areas with their own levels of quality.

Therefore, how do you make boots for less than $100? Usually, shoe manufacturers will rely on the deceptive wording of “genuine leather”. Whilst this does sound quite reassuring, genuine leather is actually one of the lowest grades.

Although genuine leather is perfectly adequate for smaller objects, it isn’t robust enough for footwear in the long-term. This is because the fibres are quite loose and will lose both their form and damage easily over time.

As an alternative to leather, some manufacturers turn to synthetic or “man-made” materials. However, cheaper man-made materials usually of poor quality and damage easily. They also don’t breathe and can be hazardous to your feet’s health.

Meanwhile, premium mad-made materials that cater to the growing aversion towards leather are very costly.

Cemented Soles

One of the most common techniques for attaching a shoe’s upper is achieved via welting. This is a term that applies to various techniques such as Goodyear welting or Blake stitching.

Whilst the Goodyear welt offers the best quality, it’s very time-consuming and impacts the final selling price. Meanwhile, the Blake stitch is faster but still quite expensive for sub-$100 boots.

Sometimes it possible to find cheaper boots that use both of these techniques. However, you’ll usually encounter cemented soles. This is the most common technique that’s used on cheap and athletic shoes where an adhesive putty-like paste will glue the two together.

Although cemented soles are perfectly functional, they don’t last for very long and the shoe will soon begin to split. Furthermore, welts allow shoes to be resoled. However, cemented soles can’t be replaced and the shoes must be thrown away.

Rubber Soles

Finally, the materials of the soles used on cheaper boots tend to reflect the price. Sometimes it’s possible to find leather soles with stacked heels. Nevertheless, most of them will be made from rubber.

Rubber is a broad term and there are high-quality specimens out there. For instance, Allen Edmonds often use Dainite rubber soles. However, these are made in the United Kingdom and offer both exceptional quality and long-term wear.

Generally, cheaper boots will rely on rubber as the main material for the soles. Sometimes they’re relatively decent quality but considering that the sole is cemented anyway, they might be on the cheap side.

Still, there are exceptions and sometimes cheap boots will go the extra mile on the sole quality given that it isn’t necessarily a huge impact on cost.

Are Sub $100 Boots Worth It?

Overall, we believe that footwear should be perceived as a long-term investment rather than a short-term expense. By spending a little more, your shoes or boots will last exponentially longer. Therefore, you benefit from a greater return and lower expense in the long run.

Of course, this all depends on the brand itself as sometimes you pay for the logo. Nevertheless, there are some makers that accurately price their footwear according to the time and cost for their production.

In order to be able to sell their footwear at low prices, manufacturers are obliged to cut corners and use cheaper methods and materials. Consequently, the shoes or boots will be good for a while but won’t necessarily last as long as something that’s only a little more expensive.

Whilst the dress boots above offer the best quality and variety that we could find on this budget, they’re not going to offer the same experience as boots under $200. In fact, by just increasing your budget by only $30, you’ll likely find some excellent footwear that will last exponentially longer.

As much as we stress the importance of spending a little extra to guarantee quality footwear, we realise that this isn’t always possible. Therefore, we put together this series of dress boot guides in order to cater to all budgets.

Yet, we feel that it’s important to stress the reality that dress boots under $100 won’t always offer the best value for money in the long term.

What Next?

Now that you have read about the best men’s dress boots under $100, consider checking out some of our other related shoe guides:

• Best Men’s Dress Boots Under $200
• Best Men’s Dress Boots Under $300
• Most Comfortable Dress Shoes For Men
• Bespoke Unit Shoe Homepage