made in usa work boots?

Falcon Shoe, which is near where I live, makes very nice safety shoes, but may be difficult to find. The seconds show up in the local salvage store regularly. I've seen a few pairs with the metatarsal plate that were otherwise similar to a regular pair of steel toes I have.

Last I knew Chippewas were still made in USA.

Ned Simmons

Danner? $$$ though. Metatarsal protection? Whatcha doin'?

I can relate to the search. I went through a lot of trouble to replace my old pair of work boots, a pair of J B Goodhue Foresters. The pair I had was made in Canada, felt like sex for my feet from the first day I put them on, and were supple but tough leather.

I finally tracked down the model and make, ordered them in special... and got a pair of made in Vietnam boots that felt like they were hardened cardboard leather and started to chafe right off the bat. Yeesh!

Hope the penny saving fuckup of a CEO that decided to source these somwhere cheaper gets a nice severence cheque when the company goes t*ts up!

Now I have to find a decent built pair of boots again. No more J B Goodhue for me.

I too look for the homefront first if I can, though our domestic manufacturing vase is small and growing smaller.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Well, here in Chippewa... there used to be at least four shoe and boot factories. All are closed, and the machinery shipped to China. They even used to make some of the Redwing shoes here in town. No more.

If someone dropped a BOMB and blew the factories all to hell, someone (in management) might have cared. As it was they all made millions, and sent the workers home.

The Chippewa Shoe factory eventually became an assembly plant for electronics. Celestica bought it up, as they did any other assembly house they could find. They bought it to get the contracts, and moved production here form another plant they had aquired, and were closing. Then they bought more assembly plants, and got all the electronic assembly contracts associated with them. Then they shut them down, once they had all the contracts, and had destroyed all the assembly plants they could touch, they had moved all the manufacturing to China, which was their overarching plan all along. And people think that products can't be produced here. YIKES. Pete

Try Wesco, handmade in Scappoose, Oregon:

GWE

ED

Another poster child for the deindustrialization of America, and yet another example of how our fearless civic leaders define "a man with a paper a** h***."

Desperate situations justify drastic remedies.

The following is just one way that municipalities can take charge of at least part of their own economic destiny rather than setting around whining and waiting for the money truck from Washington to roll in. However it does require local politicians that will act, in addition to posing, posturing, and blathering. An old saying accurately observes, "If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem."

The politicians have no difficulties in using eminent domain to seize isolated individuals' homes when the city *MIGHT* get some increased taxes, if a business park is constructed, and if the business park is assessed at full value and if it pays full real estate taxes, and if the taxes collected are sufficient to cover the increased services for the business park, and the schools for the new employees, etc. etc. [And if my aunt had some cajones, she'd be my uncle, but she doesn't and she never will...] (In case anyone missed it the operative word is "if.")

I am not sure about Chippewa, but most localities have a requirement for full assessment/valuation of real property. This presents a golden opportunity for the municipal politicians to exercise their right of "eminent domain" and take ownership of the complete shoe/boot manufacturing operation, paying the full currently accessed valuation. If the corporation balks, and pays off a judge to obtain a higher purchase price, then the municipality can file for back taxes, interest, and penalties based on the new "more accurate" valuation, most likely more than offsetting the new higher "fair" price.

Revenue and Industrial Development bonds are widely used to attract new industry to an area. I see no reason that the capital available through these mechanisms should not be used to "nail on-going and existing industries feet to the floor," via eminent domain if it can be used to fund some unproven start-up. Indeed, nailing the feet of existing local industry to the floor is far more logical in that existing industry has a proven track record, proven products, proven processes, etc. and will most likely produce at least a small positive cash flow from day one.

"Municipalization" through the eminent domain process may also allow the abrogation of executive/managerial contracts, eliminating golden parachutes, disproportionate "performance" bonuses, and excessive compensation. Elimination of the so called G&A [general and administrative] charges collected by the parent corporation for nebulous and ill-defined services of little or no worth [also known as "revenue upstreaming"] will also improve the immediate cash flow, as will the re-negotiation and possible termination of existing "sweetheart" purchase contracts, complete with "kick-backs." ["Hidden commissions" for our UK readers.]

Revenue/IDB financing is another are where "municipalization" may result in great savings, and increase cash flow. Typically, corporations moving their production overseas have a "pump and dump" or "bust-out" business plan that relies heavily on "high yield" [junk bond] financing at usurious rates. Assuming a reasonable municipal credit rating, collateralized [by the factory] revenue/development tax exempt bonds should carry ¼ or less the existing high-yield interest rate, and most likely will be much lower in face value amount than the pro-rata share of the existing corporate "high yield" financing. If these bonds can be sold locally to individuals, so much the better, as the interest paid will circulate in the municipal trade area.

The conclusion is not that "nothing can be done," but rather "nothing can be done that won't make the "new world order transnational entrepreneurs" [previously known as "robber barons'] howl with rage at being "cheated" out of all that money they expected to make.

Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

Damn another dissatisfied former Red Wing customer. I used to enjoy the thought of getting a new pair of Red Wings until the ass wipe that was running the place stopped making the good stuff and went to a complete line of junk.

I wish you luck in your quest.

The problem is, that real estate assessements are based on market value of the real estate.

When industry is growing, there is a constant demand for more industrial real estate and the assessments keep going up and cities are happy.

When industry is stable, the demand flattens off and the existing properties trade hands so seldom, that the assessor cannot determine the real market value and the assesments get depressed.

When industry is declining the assesments fall through the floor.

However the cost of running a city has gone up. Cities have increased their reliance on other revenue streams (retail sales tax and fees and fines) but they still get a large amount of their income from property tax.

Here's their dilemma. They can't increase everyone elses taxes, because those people are voters, industrial real estate is depressed, manufacturing does not bring in sales tax revenue, and, what's worse, manufacturing attracts blue collar workers. Blue collar workers are net tax consumers. They send their kids to public schools.They expect the city to pick up their garbage, and police their streets. But, they supply less sales tax revenues then their white collar counterparts and they keep property values low in the neighborhoods where they live.

In order to bring in more money, cities need to increase their net assessed value and spread it over a larger number of taxpaying entities (so they don't get voted out) and increase their sales tax revenues.

Our big cities picked up on this early. In their opinion, the best use of any piece of real estate involves high density luxury condominiums with retail shopping on the first floor.

I do not agree with this, and I think it will kill all our cities, but I will save that for another rant.

Paul K. Dickman

I bought my last pair of Redwings a couple years back. They were the most uncomfortable boot I have ever owned! I have resorted to buying Hi-Tec,

I have not bought a pair of Red Wings in a few years, what happened to them? Quality go down hill, or did they also move everything overseas? I have had a lot of Red Wings, and have been very happy with every pair . The only trouble I had is with a pair of the 6" uninsulated "air sole" or cushion sole, whatever they call it. I stepped on a piece of hot metal and burned through the sole, not there fault, but I wont buy anymore air soles. Just curious why your dissatisfied, Craig

Back in the early 70's Red Wing opened a store in my neighborhood. I was drawn to the sign in the window stating that they carries sizes from AAA to EEEE. I talked my mother into bringing me there for my next shoe purchase as I had wide feet and I was always miserable after a few hours in the shoes that I had been wearing.

The salesman knew his stuff and I was fitted with a pair of shoes that were comfortable from the day I left the store untill I wore them out. I continued to ne a loyal customer of Red Wing until they had a change in company philosophy that dictated that the quality shoes that they had beem making were too expensive to produce and that they wanted to make more profit by changing to cheaper methods and materials.

They discontinued wider widths and standard shoe lines that they had beem making for years. Gone were the "sweat proof" leather insoles that set on a bed of ground cork, gone were the solid Goodyear welted construction that could be re-soled. In its place were shoes made from thinner leather, insoles made from foam and soles that were injection molded and glued on to the cheap leather uppers.

No longer could they claim that they were the sure cure for 5 O'clock feet, now they were the cause.

I called up the factory in Red Wing MN and talked to the president of the company. He was the heir to the legacy of a great company and my complaints were met with comments like it costs so much to make the shoes the way they used to make them, and he believed that the modern technology was better. He could not explain why my feet hurt and why the damn shoes were falling apart.

I was willing to buy quality and pay the price. Good shoes is like good paint, it is not so much the price you pay but the value you receive in exchange for your dollar.

The conversation I had with the know it all clown was about 10 years ago. I now tend to avoid jobs where I have to spend a lot of time on my feet and I am still pissed off.

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 04:30:14 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "Roger Shoaf" quickly quoth:

I need to find out how to fit myself for hiking boots. My current pair of Hi-Tecs seem to fit great but start chafing me after an hour of climbing or hiking.

He was no doubt the person responsible for putting the lousy changes into place at great profit to himself.

My dad handed down some custom-made SAS shoes to me before his death. They're very comfortable since our feet were nearly identical in both length and width, despite his 4" height advantage.

I finally found an inexpensive alternative. Reebok Nylon Classic tennies for $25-35 a pair. I have nearly an inch of foam sole to stand on and they really fit my arches so I can stand on concrete for long periods without getting cold feet or a sore body. They're not steel toed or shanked, but they're some of the most comfy shoes I've ever worn.

My biggest complaint about any shoes or boots I can buy today is lack of arch support. Most are basically just flat in there. The arch supports you buy always slide around and the usually only last abut a month, plus they take up room. There is a place here in SanDiego called the Good Feet store that makes some semi-rigid hard plastic inserts that really support the arch but they cost 50 BUX. that's more than my boots cost. Guess I'll just have to suffer. I do have some boots here that I think were made for the military by the ADDISON shoe company. Thrift store $10 never worn.

Greetings Roger, I used to wear Vasque boots. Vasque is owned by Red Wing. The Vasque boots I wore were made in Italy and fit like gloves from day 1. Then, when shopping for a new pair, I see that they have started making these boots in China. And even though the cost of labor for making these boots was now almost free the price didn't go down. In fact they had gone up in price. No more Vasque boots for me. I e-mailed Red Wing and complained about the chinese boots and the high price tag. They e-mailed me back and said that for 50 bucks more I could still get an Italian made pair. The a-hole just didn't get it. I now buy Alico boots. They also fit very well. The italians sure know how to make shoes. ERS

It doesn't matter if they cost more than the boots. The only thing that matters is the cost-benefit of the inserts. Think of it this way - if you had $300 boots, would the inserts be worth it? If so, then they're worth it with any price boot.

My $.02, Bob

I pick up Redwings at second hand stores..and always look for the oldest pairs of slip on boots. The newer ones tend to do exactly that..hurt my feet and fall apart. I spend a lot of time standing in oil..so Im hard on all boots.

Dont bother having Redwing put soles on..last quote I got for a simple resoling...direct from Redwing was $120.

I took em to the Vietnames shoe repair guy up the street, got Goodyear oil proof (resistant) soles installed out the door for $45. I still wear em everyday.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

After eight hours on my feet, they hurt like hell! The boots also took a good two weeks to break in. I did not bring an old pair the first day I wore them. I damn near had to go home to change boots my feet hurt so bad! The Redwings never did get comfortable. after two years of everyday use the looked bad enough that I did not feel bad about tossing them. Also I paid ~$150 for the RW boots. The Hi-Tecs cost me $60 at Sportsman's Warehouse and last a couple years of every day wear. I had bought some Columbia hikers that were well over $100, but the soles would be gone in six months. The cheaper Hi-Tecs have been holding up pretty good. I noticed my last pair of Hi-Tecs were made in China, the ones I just bought were made in Vietnam! I home the quality is still there, so far it seems so. I bought a pair of "CAT" boots a couple years ago. The fell apart in about 3 months! I hope their machinery is not that bad!! Greg

Not sure of your location but White's are second to none. Follow the link below and cllick on boots, then Hathorn Boots and scroll to the bottom, there are two that meet you specifications. These are hand made boots that will cost you in the neighborhood of 3+ bills, they are rebuildable if you take reasonable care of them. For the man who spends time working in country where the most important piece of equipment is his boots Whites are very good. I have no connection to the company..