At this point, America produces 100 million pairs of shoes a year. That sounds like a big number, but when you consider the 1.1+ billion pairs of shoes purchased in the United States every year, it’s minuscule. An ACL reader (many thanks Derek) recently sent me a link to The Boot Pro. The online retailer (and Defense Department supplier) sells 112 different styles of American made boots by the Wisconsin based Weinbrenner under their various brands. Naturally, there are plenty of fugly designs offered, but there are some real winners too. Not to mention the prices are great. Worth a look if you are in the market to be that one percent.
These are fine but let’s see the boots you bought in Japan.
They are at my apartment and my social life has been preventing me from taking photos. Will post, latest, this weekend.
what 1%? isn’t 100m approx. 10% of 1.1b?
Yes! I was just making a point. Good catch though.
This is a great source to look into. Those American heritage look pretty good. If you came across this site on your own you wouldn’t go digging around
based on the appearance of the majority of the boots.
Weinbrenner/Thorogood has some goodlooking
workboots and workshoes and these styles I’m referring to I’ve only seen in Japan of course
at Beams +. You can find photos of them on there blog if you go to previous posts.
Weinbrenner used to manufacturer boots for Filson though my understanding is that Filson changed vendors due to quality control issues.
I’m still waiting to see some of these Weinbrenner styles produces in scaled down (but not overly “feminized”) sizes for women.
Hmm… does every American, man woman and child, actually buy between 3 and 4 pairs of shoes per year on average?
wow, interesting….i’m sure patrick that there are people who buy WAY more than that — they’re probably skewing the average. i probs buy three or four a year. great post, mw!
Actually I noticed that the bootpro opened a new site that ONLY shows their American made boots. The site is http://www.theunionbootpro.com. I purchased boots from the bootpro, but now it’s easier to find just the American made ones on their new site.
By the way – your American List idea is great! I agree that lots of the American Made sites look pretty funky! Keep up the good work!
PS – I live in Wausau, WI – only about 1/2 hour away from Merrill! Great to see our Wisconsin site on the web!