You guys ought to benefit from the three hours of research I did on the subject. It all started when I walked into
All Saints in SoHo. They had a wall of similar looking boots (see below) with prices starting at $250. I considered making the investment but after a cursory investigation, my suspicions as to the quality (shitty) and lifespan (short) of their products were confirmed.
(I don't trust the London high street shop spin-offs that have been popping up in the fashion district lately. When Top Shop first came to New York, I spent an entire paycheck there because I needed to build a new wardrobe from the ground up and I really liked the clothes. After one wash, the jeans I bought there shrunk to half their size, the corduroy slacks ripped straight across the inseam, the button-ups shrunk and no matter how much I ironed them, they would get nasty and wrinkled a minute after I put them on. This summer I made the mistake of shopping there again and bought some Top Shop brand Sperry Topsider clones, and yesterday the sole came completely unglued.)
Thus, with All Saints' lack of quality revealed, I went searching for an alternative. The difficulty of this task lies in the fact that what I'm looking for is black leather lace-up boots. They can't really be described in any other way (they are styled after combat boots but searching for combat boots turned up actual combat boots). I was recommended a few companies like Buttero, Fiorentini + Baker, and Belstaff, and indeed they make similar boots (see below) but they are all $400-500 and I just can't justify that when I already have a pair of (my favorite) Docs.
Luckily, after a few hours of searching, I found that if you look for "ropers" and (oddly enough, don't ask) "granny boots" on Etsy you can find dozens of the kind of boots I linked up there. Sweet!

All Saints Cropped Military Boot $250

Fiorentini + Baker Bolan
$435 $209

Fiorentini + Baker 745 Workboot $420