For today’s Fade of the Day, we’ve got some combat-ready BMJ52 French Army Boots, brought back to life by Alexandre in France.

Alexandre found these patina’d leather beauties in a second hand goods store, their leather being very stiff and dry from years spent unworn, Alexandre applied some leather grease to soften them back up. Also, the soles were falling off, so Alex went ahead and had them repaired as well. We salute Alexandre for doing his duty in saving the lives of a near-fallen pair of boots!

These particular boots being made in 1957, the leather has had some time to develop a deep chocolate brown color throughout, collecting texture and character along the way. Look at the way the hardware’s changed, with lots of dark coloration on the buckles and rivets, in particular. Alexandre’s been wearing his reclaimed boots for 5 months now, breaking in the new soles, and re-breaking in this beaten up leather.