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Salomon – Designed for Freedom
Video Reveals American-made Boots, Century-old Technique
February 7, 2013, 2:26 pm / Categories: Footwear, Outdoor Retailer
Handcrafted in the USA, and made to last 1,000 miles with a look that’s vintage, yet stylistically on-point today. All of these attributes drew us to Wolverine’s 1000 Mile heritage boot collection when we scoped them out at the Outdoor Retailer winter trade show in Salt Lake City at the end of January. The attention to detail that goes into the shoes is apparent as they’re built to last and are some of the sharpest we’ve seen.
When the 1000 Mile collection was launched in 2008, the company looked back in its archives to the materials and construction it used in the early 1900’s. Goodyear Welt crafting, a boot-chassis construction technique that dates to 1870, stood out for its durability and flexibility. Not to mention, it allows boots to be more easily re-soled. This video shows that old-school construction and the modern-day craftsman in a Michigan factory that make it happen. Some pretty impressive craftsmanship, if we do say so:
Wolverine 1000 Mile | Goodyear Welt Construction from Wolverine on Vimeo.
—Patrick Murphy is an assistant editor.
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1000 miles? That’s barely half a year for anyone who even gets what my HR program claims is the basic level of walking a day required to be healthy. That doesn’t even speak to the distances walked by people who really go places with their feet. Resoling is a good thing, but if I’m only getting 1000 miles out of a sole, I’d have the boots in the shop a lot.