The Strange Rise of Engineer Boots

Engineer boots are suddenly popular again, but I was skeptical about them. I decided to do some digging into their origins, but everything I could find seemed incomplete and vague. Lazy internet historians will tell you tall tales about locomotive engineers and James Dean, but there's much more to the story. The boot's journey from workboot to motorcycle boot and then to a fashionable menswear staple is circuitous, but we found out how it all went down. The engineer boot became a cultural touchstone and symbol of sex appeal largely because of a Finnish artist and the men he inspired. For more: read Male Impersonators by Mark Simpson and "Tom's Men: The Masculinization of Homosexuality and the Homosexualization of Masculinity at the end of the Twentieth Century" by Guy Snaith. Filmed and Edited by Nikkolas Lopez - https://www.instagram.com/nikklo_films/ Thanks to: Seth Lopez - https://www.instagram.com/seth.lopez/ Brian Truong - https://www.instagram.com/brianthebootmaker/ Rick Mike Liebenson - https://www.instagram.com/spongemike123/ Jim and Sharp The Tom of Finland Foundation - https://www.instagram.com/tomoffinlandfoundation/ And my dad, Raymie Muzquiz, for the end screen (and your enduring support).