I destroy a pair of work boots every 8 or 10 months, and believe me, I am getting tired of dropping $200 for a pair of Danners.  So I've experimented with the under-$100 price range of boots.

So far I've found that you get what you pay for.  These boots don't stand out in any category.  They were $80.

These were only four dollars more than the $76 Bates Zero Mass 6" boots, which I immediately returned due to their obviously substandard quality.

I'll update this later if they turn out to be much better or much worse than the mediocre quality I expect.