[Jamin Lau] When I tell my friends, I make boots.

They're like, okay, cool.

How much do they cost?

And then I tell them, the price tag, Oh, six, 700 bucks.

And they think, Who the hell pays six or 700 bucks for a pair of boots?

[Steve Mowe] So, the company started in 1964, and there had been three other owners prior to me, and I bought it in 2013.

It basically was a boot shop and I always thought boot makers were cobblers, but cobblers are sort of shoe repair people and cordwainers are boot makers.

[Michael Hunter] It's a kind of an old world trade.

It was something that families did.

They passed this trade on to the next generation because everybody wears shoes.

[Shuyler Mowe] We probably make things less efficiently and with less automation than were made like 100 years ago.

And so that's really the advantage on like, on a qualitative standpoint that you get with having that handmade component.

Is you can use leather that's a little bit thicker.

You can use midsoles that are a little bit thicker, you can use soles that are a little bit thicker.

And so you do get, you know, a much more robust product.

Of course, at a commensurately higher cost.

[Michael] Well, there's only two of us back there right now that operate a machine called a curve needle sole stitcher.

It's a unique type of sewing machine.

It it operates with a double action to lock a stitch between the pieces of the sole that are laminated to the shoe.

And then the stitching is integral part of the the structure of the shoe to keep this sole attached to the upper.

That's what I do.

On every boot that comes through the shop, pretty much.

[Shuyler] You know, something that's kind of interesting about our boots is that they're really all made the same way.

Different soles, different leathers.

But in terms of kind of the construction process, they're all the same.

[Michael] The boots that we make for construction workers, firefighters, even people who work in an office, those boots are built with, you know, the best quality material we can find.

[Shuyler] They're all natural materials.

We do have some rubber in there, obviously.

But, you know, I think it's kind of interesting in the shoe world because we're all used to shoes that are mass produced and these are made from animals.

And you can still see some of the scars on them.

And the vein lines and that sort of thing.

[Steve] Barbed wire scratches.

[Shuyler] Barbed wire scratches.

But, you know, it's still, in my opinion, you know, one of the best materials to make footwear from is that leather.

[Jamin] It's like the way things used to be done and the way it's been done for over 150 years.

And this area in particular, and just the way things have been done.

That's what drew me to it.

[Shuyler] You know, Spokane has a kind of a pretty well known in the right circles, boot industry.

Which is really unusual.

You're really talking like Texas for cowboy boots.

New England still has a few factories left.

And then, of course, you know, the big work boot makers like Red Wing in the upper Midwest.

But Spokane is kind of this other relatively small but still thriving maker scene.

And I think it's actually a really cool thing that we have in this area.

[Steve] It has a name, the Northwest Boot.

[Jamin] So, our hallmark of our Pacific Northwest boots is going to be our leather shank and our high arch and high heel construction, because we believe that when you stand on your feet, the high heel puts your body in a position so all your weight is on the arches of your feet.

The arch is naturally a strong shape and everybody's foot.

So that's why when you support the arches, you put all your weight on there instead, you can stand there for 12 hours a day and not feel it at all.

[Michael] You know, footwear, it's important.

Man, I think people kind of see that.

And honestly, our customer base is evolving tremendously and has in the past, just in the past few years.

[Steve] We have customers in every State of the Union and internationally, you know, Australia and Germany and UK and Austria and you know, you name it, it just keeps going.

And I'm kind of amazed at how popular we become.

[Michael] Most of the shoes that we made when I started years ago, were for firefighters, actually.

people who are going to put their shoes through the paces every day Now a much larger portion of our market is going to our heritage line, which is more of a casual every day boot.

But you know, it's quite a transformation in four or five days from a raw piece of leather to a finished boot.

[Jamin] I think my thing is I've always liked being the the worker bee, I guess.

There's something very satisfying to me about finishing the product, having done my part and sending it on down the line.

But knowing what these boots go on to do, whether that's logging, doing wildland firefighting, doing major construction jobs, stuff like that, or you know, someone might just be wearing them as fashion, I think that's just as cool.

I like having done my part and then sending that product forward and seeing someone use it day to day.

[Michael] For whatever reason, this trade got in to me.

Some people feel like maybe they're they're born to be something, you know.

I dont know.

I really enjoy it.

I really, really like making shoes and I like making high quality shoes.

I like making something that at the end of the day feel proud of.