Celeris Boots Review

I know y’all have been waiting, and it’s finally here. Welcome to my Celeris Boots Review! I had to see how they broke in before doing a review, but I’m now ready for the big reveal. I’m going to to try to make this really thorough and answer everyone’s questions, but feel free to comment if I missed something  you are curious about!

Celeris Boots Review

Ordering

On Christmas day Celeris ran a special that the first 25 people to pay a deposit would get 25% off their boots. That was the sale I needed to make me finally pull the trigger after looking at the boots for about a year. I created an account and was ready as soon as the special started (like I was counting down the minutes and refreshing my browser like crazy). The website was set to stop accepting orders after the 25 slots were gone, so I didn’t have to worry about paying the deposit (250 pounds or about $344) and NOT getting the discount. I payed my deposit as quick as I could and snagged one of the deals. 25 slots sold out in 47 seconds- so you had to be fast.

Celeris Boots Review

If you remember back to December I was still non-weight bearing on my broken foot, so I waited until late March to actually order my boots. Celeris boots are fully custom, meaning you have to take 12 different measurements per leg to order them. I was definitely a bit nervous about this. My other 3 pairs of boots (all DeNiros) have all only been semi-custom where I selected the foot size and only gave measurements for calf width and height. If you’re curious, here is my blog post talking about ordering my most recent pair of DeNiros. I LOVE my DeNiros, but I honestly just wanted to try something different, and have heard really good things about Celeris.

Celeris Boots Review

Measuring

My hubby isn’t great with tedious tasks such as tiny precise measurements, and I knew he’d be nervous about messing it up so I asked my mom to assist me. Note: you cannot measure yourself. You absolutely need help, and it takes a minimum of 30 minutes (but will likely take more like 45). Since it’s a UK based company and I wanted the measurements as precise as possible we chose to measure in centimeters. Here is the measuring guide if you want to see the required measurements. I found the guide to be plenty thorough, and felt pretty confident about our measurements.

Celeris Boots Review

Zoom Consultation

I had a Zoom consultation with Cate, where she reviewed my measurements and we went over what design options I wanted. They have a fabulous instagram page showing hundreds of color and style options, which I found really helpful. I knew I wanted to be able to show in these boots, so I didn’t do anything too crazy when it came to design. Cate and the other staff at Celeris are so experienced that they can easily spot any possible issue with your measurements. She pointed out a few things she wanted me to recheck, and I set-up another Zoom with her for a couple weeks later. My mom re-did all of my measurements just to be extra sure, and we made a few small adjustments to the areas Cate brought my attention too. The zoom went great, and Cate completely reassured me that the boots would fit and would be fabulous.

Celeris Boots Review

Cost

Let’s talk about the cost, because I’ve already had a lot of questions about that. The base cost of the various models is on their website, but costs vary depending on your selections. I got the Diogo model, which is listed as having a base price of £665 or $917. I ordered top style 9 with faux croc and gloss, and a brogue toe. I also got matching spur guards and straps. The invoice was not itemized, but the total price with my 25% Christmas special discount (including £75 for shipping) came to £637.50 making my grand total for the boots and spur accessories to be $879.39. Keep in mind, that’s the cost with a 25% discount. When they were ready to ship I opted to add boots trees (£15) and a boot bag (£65) to my order as well, adding another $110 to the price, bringing the total to $990. With the discount they ran about the same cost as my DeNiros, but without it they would have definitely been a bit pricier.

Celeris Boots Review

I finalized my order selections and got the invoice on 3/21. The boots arrived at my house on 6/23. They only took a week to arrive once shipped. That’s about 13 weeks from the time I finalized my order until they arrived. The boots are all handmade in Portugal, so I’m not mad about the turn around time.

Celeris Boots Review

The Fit

When they arrived I was blown away by how absolutely stunning they are. I almost cried. They are everything I wanted, they are pure perfection. They also came with boot polish and some care instructions (which I ignored because I was so excited to try them on). But then I put them on… and I kind of freaked. They felt TIGHT in some areas… like they maybe were too small in the foot beds. The ankle was snug AF and I could tell they were going to rub like crazy. All my DeNiros pretty much fit right out of the box, so I was really worried I had measured wrong and my boots were now too small.

Celeris Boots Review

I posted the unboxing on instagram and I clearly showed my hesitation about the fit. They were SUPER snug over left toes, and behind my right heel. I could almost not get the right one zipped up over my heel. Otherwise though, the fit felt pretty good and the height was superb. Celeris reached out pretty quickly to reassure me that they would fit once broken in. In fact, the included paperwork (that I had skipped over in my excitement) clearly outlined that a very snug fit out of the box is to be expected. I was reassured that they knew what they were doing, and told that the fact I could get them on and zipped up right away pretty much guaranteed they would be a great fit once broken in. I also had several wonderful IG followers reach out to me with their own tips and tricks for breaking in Celeris boots (THANKS GUYS) and that really helped me to relax.

Celeris Boots Review

Breaking in

Multiple people with Celeris boots recommended “the bathtub method” to break them in and help them stretch, ie soaking any parts that need stretching in water and then wearing until dry. Other people recommended spraying rubbing alcohol on any tight areas. I have a pair of gel ankle guards I got from Amazon that I normally wear to prevent rubbing, but my Celeris boots were too tight to fit them. So, I did what everyone recommended. I generously sprayed the inside of the foot beds with a water/rubbing alcohol mixture before them putting them on, and then I took it up another notch by stepping into a bucket of water to thoroughly wet the foot bed.

It helped a TON. Once wet, the boots did feel like they loosened and I could walk and move around in them more comfortably. I was feeling super optimistic until abut 2/3rds of the way into my ride. They were drying at this point, and feeling tight and uncomfortable. They were also rubbing like crazy despite me prepping my heels with moleskin. By the time I got off Rio and started to untack I was in pain and my ankles felt raw. I pulled off the boots, and sure enough had some nice blisters.

Celeris Boots Review
Better prepped for ride #2

At this point I was really feeling like the boots might be the wrong size and was low-key panicking. Would they every be comfortable?! Determined to continue the break in process though, I wore them to my jump lesson the next day. Was this maybe a dumb thing to do? Possibly. But riding in them is really the only way to break them in, so I went for it. I MEGA prepped my ankles and heels with about $6 worth of moleskin, then covered that with Elastikon tape. One of my older and wiser barn mates showed me how to twist (yes, twist) the ankles and flex the toe and heel areas to soften up the leather. I also used my water/alcohol spray to coat the inside foot bed again. My feet didn’t feel terrible during the ride. I was feeling VERY hopeful! only 2 rides in and not a ton of pain?! Ok, this was massive progress.

By ride 3 I decided to try to squeeze my gel sleeves into the boots. Mostly because I was out of moleskin and didn’t want to run to the store. The ones I use (picture above) have a nice thick layer of gel concentrated in one long strip. Meant for ice skaters, I turn it around so the gel padding is over my my heel and Achilles area. $12 on amazon, these things work like a charm. It was a bit of a tight fit getting the zipper up over them, but once on, I felt really good for ride #3. I didn’t even wet them this time because I decided they were now close enough to the right fit to let them stretch naturally. It went GREAT! Zero pain or rubbing issues. I was beyond thrilled- 3 rides in and I had gorgeous and great fitting boots!

Overview

Ride 4 went just as well, and now I officially consider them broken in and a perfect fit. So overall, would I recommend Celeris boots? Yes, I absolutely would. If you have someone who is willing to take the time to do careful measurements combined with the expertise of the Celeris crew, I am pretty convinced you will end up with perfect fitting boots. My mom is by no means a boot measuring expert, but we were able to follow the instructions in order to measure me. Cate from Celeris was also very helpful, and the boots arrived perfectly as ordered. I cannot speak to longevity at this point, but they are amazing quality, and already very comfortable. They are doing a buy one get one half off promotion, so I’m going to have to rein myself in before I end up with 2 more pairs!

 

 

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2 comments

  1. Thank you so much for your custom! We are just so happy you love them – now 🙂

    Maybe next time we will look more closely at your foot measurements and possibly tweak them a tiny amount or add a sheepskin lining (game changer).

    Whilst we can’t take responsibility for the sizing (as we clearly state) we have so much experience and it’s super rare for there ever to be a serious issue. It’s almost impossible to get 24 measurements wrong (!) and of course we will alter any boot free of charge (although we don’t pay the shipping) if there is an issue although not the height as it’s the one area we can’t alter.

    Our boots are truly handmade to measure and we are just so proud of them 🙂

    Cate
    Founder | CEO
    celeris UK

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