Michael Black wrote
Rod Speed wrote

What everybody agrees upon, experts and laymen alike, is that boots
or shoes that start uncomfortable will never become comfortable.

That is just plain wrong. One pair I got was a bit tight across
the top of the foot with one foot, and the wore in fine.

The reason I persisted with them was because I got that pair
for free as a warranty claim when the soles split and I got the
exchange by mail in and I didnt get to try them on.

But that's a different case.

No its not with his silly claim that they will never become comfortable.

A shoe or boot, you don't have the option of taking back once you've actually used them.

That varys, some do allow a return if you arent completely happy with them.

But I wasnt even talking about using them, I tried them on,
found they were a bit tight across the top of the foot, decided
that given how much effort it had taking to get them replaced
the first time around, it wasnt worth the hassle to get them
replaced again, and so decided to see how they would
wear in and found that they did wear in fine.

The original exchange was quite complicated. I had originally
bought them and then found that the soles were too deeply
patterned and that too deep pattern ended up with mud in
the patterning and was a pain to use for that reason.

I just didnt wear them, use different boots with a better sole
that did not have that problem. When those wore out, I then
went back to the originals and discovered that the soles had
split and come apart etc. That was something like 30 years
after I had bought them and I couldnt even remember where
I had bought them from so I couldnt return them to where I
had bought them from. So I returned them to the manufacturer.

They tried to fob me off because they had not made
them for a considerable time by the time I returned them.

Since I had never worn them for more than a few days,
I wasnt happy with that and they were stupid enough to
have their MD named on their web site, so I rang him up
and chewed his ear about them. He initially just ran the
same line, but I wasnt going to accept that and kept
telling him that other boots from that time from other
manufacturers had not had that sole decomposition
and that since I had not worn them in that time because
of the mud problem, that he should replace them.

He did eventually agree with me, likely to just get rid of me.

So when the replacements were a bit tight on one foot,
I decided that it wasnt worth the hassle and expense
of returning the replacements, so decided to see how
they went since they were free anyway, and they turned
out fine and in fact are by far the most comfortable boots
I have ever had once they wore in.

These are elastic sided leather boots that I wear all
the time except in summer when I wear what we call
thongs and you barbarians call flip flops as I recall.

So the best you can do is take them home, wear them inside to get a feel for them, and then take them back if they
don't fit.

Thats what I basically did, but it wasnt practical to return them.

Once you wear them outside, they are actually used and I doubt many companies will take them back.

A few do and state that explicitly. Corse they are the most expensive too.

If you have nothing to lose, you might as well persist.

Yes, thats what I did, and proved that he is just plain wrong.

But if you have doubts, then the time to deal with it is before you irreversibly wear them outside. They may improve
with time, but if they don't, you are stuck with boots that you can't take back.

Sure, but with that particular imperfect fit, with
real leather, they likely will fit fine over time.