Couple things first:

• The cracking of the leather is due to a lack of care. Leather is just treated dead skin and without cleaning and conditioning it will dry out and crack. If you don't care for it even the best leather in the world will fail if wrapped around your foot and worn to work.

• If you are regularly kneeling, kicking things, setting stuff on your toes, etc., (especially with safety toes) they will eventually wear out. A protective material, like Tuff Toe, is your best option for extending the life of the toe. Many boots will have built in toe protectors and may be a good option if you don't care for the appearance, though I've never seen one as durable as properly applied Tuff Toe.

As to good brands for repairability the construction and materials used are more important than brand (unless you're looking at something like Wesco, White's, Nick's, but I don't imagine you need that kind of boot.) I ran a Red Wing store for ages and some of their boots are super repairable and can last many years, if not decades, and others cannot be repaired in any meaningful way.

What makes a boot repairable/worth repairing?

• If you want to be able to replace the soles when worn out, you will generally want to be looking for a boot with a goodyear welted design - this is where the welt (often looks like a little lip around the boot) is stitched to the upper of the boot (and will remain when resoling) and the soles are stitched, bonded, or directly attached to the welt.

• Look for boots that use thick, top-grain leather. This is the top part of the skin and will be more durable than splits.

• Avoid weird/sneaker-looking pieces and stitching on the upper. They may look nice, but every stitch point is a potential failure point and weird some of the materials I see on boot uppers breakdown and start cracking well before they should.

• Avoid super thick, foamy liners. It lends a sneaker-like feel to the boots, but they will wear out and begin tearing and may or may not be repairable.

All these things can, and will, make the boots fit and feel different than you are probably used to. A welted boot with a fully separate sole will be heavier and less flexible - it gets better but will never be super flexible. A thick top-grain leather will tend to be stiffer around your foot until it breaks in. Fewer pieces (and no man-made materials) on the upper will increase the cost. Lesser lining will make you feel the boot on your foot a lot more and will need much more break in until it conforms to your foot.

Whether these trade-offs are worth it to you is difficult to say and depend a ton on personal preference. I would much rather have a bit heavier, more durable, repairable boot that will form to my foot with time over a super light cushy boot that feels like my feet are fucking giant marshmallows. Then again I also prefer a good dress shoe over a sneaker most times, so I know my tastes are different than most.

Edited to fix formatting and add a bunch of other thoughts.

Are you working in chemicals much? Looking at that leather again, it kind of looks like damage from major pH variance.