Herring Shoes Journal

It’s time to launch some of our new autumn/winter styles and where better to start than a boot – the Mike – that sees four top quality elements collide to create a limited-edition sumptuous style?

The first element is Tricker’s. The oldest established shoemaker in Britain, Tricker’s is still owned by the founding family with shoes and boots made by their expert craftsmen and women in their Northampton factory. Every pair spends eight weeks in this factory, going through around 260 processes. This is British craftsmanship at its absolute best with authenticity and durability key to every pair bearing the Tricker’s name.

The second element is the use of Chomexel leather. Chromexel is the original ‘pull-up leather’ that’s created using 89 separate processes across 28 days. Pull-up leather is an oil and wax rich leather that is very durable yet soft and supple to the touch. It has a unique natural appearance which lightens in colour when stretched during wear to produce a unique worn-in effect with time. Do not under-estimate how incredible the colour depth is on these boots!

Element number three is the expertise of the Horween Leather Company where the Chromexel leather is produced. Founded in 1905 and based in Chicago, this is another family firm that has seen five generations work towards making the world’s best leather. They use time-honoured techniques to produce Chromexel using a proprietary bark recipe to help the leather retain its strength and pliability before being hot stuffed with a secret blend of natural oils and greases.

The last element? *Cough, cough* We modestly think it is us! This is a chukka design we chose to be made exclusively for Herring for our discerning customers. The Mike has been custom-made using a lightweight and light-coloured Vibram chunky wedge sole. So, it offers that classic Tricker’s boot shape with the modern feel of a lighter sole. We have two colours to choose from: the natural Chromexel or the navy.

Hopefully, I have communicated just how much work has gone in to producing the Mike boot, starting with 89 processes in a family factory in the US to the 260 steps taken in another family factory in the UK. While a chukka boot can be a casual choice, there is nothing casual about the effort that has gone into bringing them to our British-made collection.