reliable work boots - ALTAI® Footwear

The History of Footwear for Labor

altaidev on August 22, 2017

If you’ve ever worked a tough job, 10 or more hours on your feet, hauling, grinding, or patrolling away, you can appreciate what difference your favorite pair of work boots make. It’s quite the wonder, then, to take a look back at where footwear for laborers started and its evolution through the ages.

Around the 16th century, sabots were the common “protective” footwear for steel workers and the like, all the way up through the Industrial Revolution. The word sabotage originated from the known act of workers’ throwing a sabot into factory machinery, in order to shut down production.

However, as you can imagine, wooden sabots were protective only to a degree and mobility was gravely compromised. Leather boots came out on the rise but without any real protective qualities, protective toe components became the compromise to satisfy performance capability and safety.

Seeing how far work footwear has come over the years, we are proud to be part of the newest generation of footwear innovators. From space-age material SuperFabric® to world-reknown Vibram® soles, we will continue to outfit the hardest working people with the hardest working boots.

ALTAI™ Toughest Jobs Spotlight: Wildlife Enforcement Officers

altaidev on June 20, 2017

Wildlife Enforcement Officers – You can’t begin to imagine the variety of terrain wildlife officers have to face on a regular basis; not to mention, the amount of steps they can rack up in a day! (The average person puts in approximately 10,000 steps per day, so you can safely triple that for these men and women!) Whether they face marsh, desert, or bad stormy weather, these professionals’ feet are practically their main vehicle.
Keeping feet dry is tantamount to being able to keep performing on the job well. But many waterproof boots do not use breathable materials and, ironically, can cause a moisture problem from within the boot. This, of course, leads to quick failure: smelly boots mean bacteria growth and that lands those pair of work boots straight in the trash.
Once again, the super-material SuperFabric® saves the day and a big reason we are able to engineer a superior work boot. Locally hard (protective) and globally flexible (breathable), our work boots don’t have to compromise between thick, heavy leather for protection or delicate meshes for air flow.
If you or someone you know works in the grueling profession of wildlife enforcement, do them or yourself a favor: get the ALTAI™ experience.