Absolutely do NOT buy them from Loake's official site. I just went there and added something to the cart and went to check out seeing if they would remove the VAT. Not only did they not remove the VAT but they threw a little juice onto the conversion as 292 pounds became $465 instead of $392, and then they tried to add Illinois sales tax on top of it, which is a scam because I'm pretty sure they don't have a brick and mortar presence in Chicago. The boots ended up being $513. At that price point, you could just get Crockett & Jones ex-VAT, with free shipping and an honest currency conversion from Bodiley's.
I'm sure if you looked into it, you could find one of their retailers in the UK who'll sell ex-vat and ship to the US.