I'm not saying that everyone wearing these boots deserves your respect.
But, dollars to donuts, they probably do.  These are work boots.

Hardcore footwear, hardcore beer bottles.

Sure, an über rich obnoxious white dudes could just have grabbed a few pairs to go oystering in while on the Cape. But, they don't.  Both because they wouldn't know where to begin looking for oystering footwear and because you can do that particular activity barefoot.

These boots are the harbingers of hard work.  I wore a slightly more puke-green colored pair of these very boots when retrieving a fallen manhole cover from our kibbutz's cement sewer pipes (Yes, I was literally up to my ankles in excrement).  This type of footwear is so heavy duty that it is often provided by whatever work requires them.  Plumbers, firefighters, lobstermen and women. They all layer upon layer their moisture-wicking clothing before loading their legs, like missiles, into the sheathes of these rubber monstrosities.

Some boots were made for walking.  And that's just what they'll do.  But these boots were made for slogging and they're too much boot for you.