The fact that settles it
Blundstone's own support pages state that most of its boots are not made to facilitate resoling, because the soles are applied by liquid injection of polyurethane - a process that produces a soft, comfortable sole bonded to the upper with no clean separation line. Only the Heritage series, which uses a Goodyear welt with a leather layer between the runner soles and the upper, is designed to be resoled.
Thursday's Captain is Goodyear welted. When its sole wears out, a cobbler cuts the stitching and fits a new one. When a standard Blundstone's sole wears out, the boot is finished, whatever condition the leather is in.
On a site about things you buy once, that is not a close call.
What Blundstone is genuinely better at
Everything else about daily wear. There is no break-in at all. There is nothing faster to put on. The elastic gussets outlast most laces. The leather is genuinely good and takes conditioner well. For anyone whose boots go on and off several times a day - school runs, site visits, dog walks - that convenience is worth real money.
We are not telling you not to buy Blundstones. We are telling you they are a three-to-five year boot, so you can budget accordingly rather than being surprised in year four.
Where Thursday makes you work for it
Laces, a week or two of break-in, and a boot that is less obviously versatile. The Captain looks more formal than a Blundstone and less at home with shorts. It is also thinner-leathered than the US-made welted boots, so it creases sooner.
The payoff is the welt and, with it, a boot whose life is measured in resoles rather than years.
The cost arithmetic
Two pairs of Blundstones over ten years is roughly 440 dollars. One pair of Thursdays plus two resoles at about 120 dollars each is roughly 440 dollars. The money is a wash; what differs is that the Thursday gets better with age and the Blundstones reset to new twice.
Which you prefer is a genuine preference, not a right answer. Some people like a boot that records where it has been. Some people like a boot that looks tidy.
The verdict
Thursday if the point is owning one pair for a very long time, and if you do not mind laces.
Blundstone if convenience is the thing you are actually buying - and buy it knowing what the sole is, because the company tells you and most of the internet does not.
