The Globe and Mail went looking for heritage footwear brands and put Dayton on the list, alongside four others.
The piece asks what it takes to keep making the same boot the same way for eighty years. We started in Vancouver in 1946 and we are still at it. The Black Beauty is still the boot people ask for by name.
Three things from the article worth repeating here:
- Three workshops. Vancouver, Winnipeg and Leon. Every custom and made-to-order pair is built in Vancouver.
- It was a ranch boot first. Wayne Wohlford designed the Black Beauty for Charles Woodward and his ranch hands. The motorcycle clubs came later, and took it.
- Goodyear welted. The unglamorous reason a pair outlives the person who bought it. We have had fourteen-year-old boots back for a re-welt and sent them out again.
The Black Beauty is open for pre-order now. A deposit reserves a pair in the next batch, which closes on November 7.
