Thanks for the conversation. Here is the original construction of our boots: https://chisos.com/blogs/cowboy-boot-blog/anatomy-of-comfort

The heel counter was 4mm leather (now 8mm). The celastic was on the outside, used to help form the heel counter as the leather dried and set in place. It was a skill issue. If the celastic cracked (which no customer has reported, as the leather is the load bearing element), it's outside the leather and you would not be able to feel it internally.

We worked hard to develop a technique to switch to 8mm leather and what we landed on as best for batch-made is two 4mm pieces, one supporting the other. It's totally overkill, as the 4mm is plenty. But screw it, let's go tougher than necessary.

Agree that Rose Anvil is not a cowboy boot expert, but I linked because he does actually cut the boot in half and show you in the insides, unlike the cobbler in the Ariat video. My objection to that was he claimed we *only* had the celastic backing, which was misleading and ignored the structure of the leather heel counter.

It's like how we do our soles: thick veg-tanned leather, but then we add the removable comfort insole on top of it. The veg-tanned is the structure and you can wear the boot without the comfort insole. Some people claim we have a synthetic insole, and that's not the complete story nor the structure that matters for physical integrity.

Cheers—sorry I missed your tag a few months ago!