Outside's Go Magazine - Travel and Style for Men

By Charles Bethea

The operative word here is “Australian.” Like, Australian for indestructible, indispensable, and, well, indefinable. If you were to choose one boot to pack for a safari, a weekend in the Hamptons, and a fortnight in the big city, you couldn’t do better than the multipurpose Blundstone 550, the newest truly all-terrain stomper from the Australian bootmaker. In the last year, since they came out, I’ve worn mine to a country-club ball, to a muddy music festival, at a handful of five-star resorts, and almost every day at the office. The soft leather liners, and the fact that they have no laces—you pull them on with two loops—make them feel like slippers, while the bouncy rubber-and-plastic soles provide the requisite pop in your step to make it up either a mountain or a fancy flight of stairs. Most recently, after returning from a week in the jungles of Belize, I got mine shined at the airport—just in time for my father’s wedding ceremony. I’d forgotten my dress shoes. Incredibly, no one noticed that I was wearing my 550s. At least, no one said so. $160; blundstoneusa.com