A Chicago Tannery Writes the Next Chapter of Danner’s JOURNAL STANDARD Boot

JOURNAL STANDARD’s next Danner special order swaps suede for a leather built to change tincture with wear, and it lands in Japan this September.

JOURNAL STANDARD has gone back to Danner for a fourth run at the MT RIDGE LOW, and this time the update is entirely about what the boot is made from. Called the MT RIDGEE, Chrome Excel, the model keeps the low cut sil that traces back to Danner’s Mountain Light hiking boot: the same lace to toe front, the same stitchdown build, the same general proportions that have made the MT RIDGE LOW a recurring special order for the Tokyo retailer since it first appeared on JOURNAL STANDARD‘s racks in charcoal grey suede. What changes is the upper, and that change is the whole story.

Instead of suede, this fall and winter edition wraps the boot in a leather from an American tannery with a reputation for exactly this kind of material: an upper that looks one way in the box and another way entirely a year later.

Black leather Danner low-cut hiking shoe featuring Chromexcel leather, rugged lug soles, and burgundy hiking laces.

flow

The leather comes from Horween, the Chicago tannery that has been producing chrome excel since the 1930s. Chrome excel starts life as a chrome tanned hide that gets a hot stuffing of waxes and oils worked into the surface, which is what gives it that pull up effect: press a finger into it and the color lightens before settling back. It is the leather under classic work boots and baseball gloves, chosen less for a clean factory finish than for how it looks after months of actual use.

JOURNAL STANDARD and Danner are using it here in a black colorway built over a brown, or chacoshin, core, which the release describes as a first for a Danner special order. That construction means the black surface will thin and rub at the toe box, the heel, and anywhere the boot flexes, letting the brown underneath surface gradually. It is a deliberate bet that the boot looks better used than new, and it is a different proposition than the suede versions that came before it, which relied on nap and color rather than a hidden layer underneath.

Leather laces run through both feet on this version too, a step up from the round textile cords on earlier releases, and a pair of bordeaux colored spares ships in the box for anyone who wants to swap the look later.

It is worth sitting with why a special order boot would choose this material at all. Chrome excel has spent decades as a workwear staple precisely because it rewards neglect as much as care: a boot left unpolished for a season will still look intentional, since the scuffs and creases are part of how the leather is supposed to behave. For a Tokyo label known for suede heavy special orders, moving to a leather that ages loudly rather than staying pristine is a small but pointed shift in what the connection is asking its customers to want from a boot.

build

Underneath the new upper, the MT RIDGEE keeps the mechanics that have carried the MT RIDGE LOW through its prior special orders. Danner Dry, the brand’s own waterproof and breathable membrane, sits inside the boot, and the whole thing is put together with Danner’s stitchdown construction, the same wide, durable seam that runs through the brand’s mountaineering boots going back decades. A Vibram outsole handles grip, and JOURNAL STANDARD has added an extra midsole layer on top of the standard build, giving the boot a bit more volume underfoot and a softer ride for walking on pavement rather than trail.

That combination, a rugged American construction method paired with a details forward special order upper, has been the pitch of this collision since it started, and the MT RIDGEE pushes it further by making the material itself the thing that develops a story over time rather than the colorway or the hardware. It is also a reminder that Danner’s special order arm rarely touches the internal engineering of a boot when it works with a retailer; the collide is almost always contained to the upper, the lace hardware, and small midsole adjustments, leaving the waterproofing and the sole unit exactly as they would be on a mainline Danner release.

The boot is produced for JOURNAL STANDARD, the Tokyo label under BAYCREW’S, the retail group that also runs EDIFICE, IENA, and Spick and Span among other labels through its BAYCREW’S STORE platform.

hint

The MT RIDGEE, Chrome Excel is listed as a reservation item on JOURNAL STANDARD’s BAYCREW’S STORE page at ¥69,300 tax included, with delivery currently set for mid September 2026, though the listing notes factory production could shift that window earlier or later. The boot is offered in one colorway, black, across Japanese sizing 70 through 95, which corresponds to US men’s 7 through 9.5, and stock per size was limited to single digits at the time of listing.

Because this is a special order tied to a Japanese leather sourcing story and a domestic retailer, there is no indication yet of a release outside Japan, and the listing does not name a production run size. Anyone tracking the earlier suede versions of the MT RIDGE LOW will recognize the pattern: JOURNAL STANDARD tends to sell through these in a matter of weeks once they land in stores and online.