Buyer’s guide – European workwear boot brands

There’s no question that the biggest manufacturers of “workwear”, or “heritage”, boots comes from North America, where the largest customer base also is, and many new ones are based in Asia. But with Europe still being the world’s center for quality footwear manufacturing and quality leathers, there’s also a large amount of great boot companies based here. In this guide a bunch of European brands offering solid workwear boots are gathered, several of them likely unknown to many.

 

Astorflex

The Italian company Astorflex, with their own factory in Mantova, is most known for their crepe rubber soled shoes that comes in a wide variety of models and colours, but they also have a nice selection of sturdier boots. These are of course made with the stitchdown construction that the company is so associated with, but for the more solid boots they have added welts, extra leather midsoles, regular lug rubber soles and stacked leather heels, and then they have some styles that are sort of a mix in-between. Astorflex don’t have their own webshop, and unlike their crepe rubber soled shoes the sturdier boots aren’t as common to find at online retailers, but some examples of stockists carrying at least a few of these boots are Jakes Apparel, Hep Cat, Trouva etc. Price for these are at about €350 (all prices listed in this article are including VAT).

 

Boot Factory Cobra

This is a gem of a company, based in Rihimäki in Finland. Boot Factory is founded by Pekka Lahti and has been building footwear since the 1980’s, with focus on various types of sturdy high boots. They began as a cowboy boot maker, but now also offers for example motorcycle boots and lace-up ankle boots. All boots made in their own factory are called Cobra, they then also stock a couple of Spanish brands like Sendra and Mayura. Boot Factory Cobra are built entirely in their own factory, with a staff of three people, and have a great reputation for the durability of their boots. Price is highly reasonable, starting at around €300. Boot Factory only have a Finnish website, but use Google translate and you should make it work, and Pekka is also helping you out over email if needed. They do ship internationally.

 

Bright Shoemakers

Bright Shoemakers is a Danish brands, with shoes made in Spain. They constantly introduce new styles, both boots and low shoes, and many are only available for one round and are never or at least rarely restocked. They use the Goodyear welted construction and leathers from Spain and Italy, rubber soles from among others Dr. Sole, and so on. Some stuff are more stylish things, some are really heavily made that surely can handle tough conditions. The boots starts at around €500 with higher engineer boots and similar being at a couple of hundred euros more.

 

Dog Leap Boots

A company making really sturdy boots in their small factory in Newcastle. Dog Leap Boots is over 100 years old, and got the name from when they originally were based on top of the famous Dog leap stairs in the city centre. They make all boots on Made to Order basis, and have a few base models, which you then can select shaft height (some cases), type of rubber sole (they have ones from Vibram, Itshide, Dainite and Dr. Sole), leather and colour (leathers are from Horween or Badalassi). They are hand lasted, built with real leather heel and toe stiffeners, triple soles as standard, and offer various constructions. Prices start from €450 (£375).

 

Dundas

A norwegian company based in Oslo, Dundas boots are manufactured by the British company William Lennon Co. (read more about them and their construction below). Most boots are sturdy outdoor or combat boots types made with brass screw or norwegian welted constructions, using veg tanned leather from various European and American tanneries. They also have some more sleek Goodyear welted chelseas, chukkas and jodphurs. Prices for the latter starts at €420, the former at about €540.

 

Green Boots

One of the lowest priced makers of Goodyear welted boots in Europe is the Portuguese brand Green Boots. Have a few boots styles and a couple of shoe models offered in various leathers. Maybe not the sturdiest stuff, but price is impressive, starting at just €135 for welted boots.

 

Lanx

Lanx is one of the bigger companies included in this article. The British company from Lancashire north of Manchester has several ranges of boots and shoes, from simpler cemented ones to Blake and Goodyear welted. Lots of different leather options, with focus on pull-up leathers and suede. Price for Goodyear welted footwear starts at €430 (£360). They have two physical stores, one in Manchester and a factory shop in Whalley, Lancashire.

 

Lennertson

Lennertson is a young brand founded by two Belgian Robins, Robin Carlo and Todde a few years ago. Two shoe nerds who I know have spent a lot of time and efforts to get both lasts, models and the level of the production right. They seem to have succeeded, the footwear looks great and they are starting to build a reputation as a really solid brand. The boots and casual shoes are made in Portugal and are all Goodyear welted, they also have a selection of sneakers. Cost from €340.

 

Old Mulla

A Portuguese family running a small workshop started selling boots and shoes on Etsy, the marketplace for small scale crafts businesses. Old Mulla grew continuously, and nowadays they also run their own webshop (even if they still sell on Etsy as well). Maybe not the most refined footwear, but great prices with Blake / Rapid constructed (which for those who don’t know have more in common with Goodyear welted than Blake) boots costing from €160, and Blake ones from €130.

 

Råland

Råland Bootmaker is a Sweidsh one-man operation creating seriously solid boots by hand. The man behind the brand is Adam Persson, based in the city Kalmar. He mainly takes on Made to Order projects from customers contacting him through his Instagram, but also do ranges of RTW for stores like Second Sunrise and Stuf|f. Prices starts from €1,300.

 

Sandmann

German brand, Spanish-made Goodyear welted boots. Sandmann has some great styles, including a bunch of two tone monkey boots, with prices from €400. Heavily inspired by some of the famous American workwear boot brands obviously, but doing it with a European touch for example with fore example models with shafts in British tweed etc. Founded in 2021, but has already a large amount of retailers around Europe and also a couple in the US and China.

 

Sendra

The Spanish factory Sendra is obviously mostly known for their cowboy boots, and lately they’ve also made more and more dress shoes under the brand Andrés Sendra. The factory do also make some more rugged workwear style boots as well, some can be found in their own online shop but a lot of the models are only available through various retailers. Prices from about €300.

 

Skråmträsk

Up in the north of Sweden there’s a small village called Skråmträsk, and since 1989 they’ve manufactured quality leather boots here under the same name. The shoes are built with stitchdown construction and use vegetable tanned leather from the Swedish tannery Tärnsjö. Rustic and classic nordic look and feel. Boots are priced from about €400 (4,500 SEK).

 

Urban Shepherd

Urband Shepherd is a Portuguese brand founded by Tiago Máximo, with their workwear boots made in the city Benedita. It’s a small brand that only have a handful of styles, most made in a brown waxed leather, with some different sole options. They are Made to Order and cost from just €250, which is good for what seems to be solid made Goodyear welted boots.

 

William Lennon & Co.

This is an old player in the industry. William Lennon & Co. dates back to 1899, based south of Sheffield, and back in the days they produced work boots for miners and footwear for the army in the two world wars. In the middle of the 1900’s they went over to make more safety boots and that type of footwear, but with an increasing interest in traditional workwear and army boots they now are back to their basics. They produce footwear with a very special brass wire screwing machine, of which only a handful still exist in the world today (three of them at William Lennon), resulting in very strong boots, and it’s understandable that William Lennon sees a new renaissance now. Prices start at a reasonable €260 (£220).

 

Yanko

Yanko is an old brand from the island of Mallorca, Spain. They were one of the world’s largest manufacturers of Goodyear welted shoes in the late 20th century, when they made over a million pairs of shoes per year. Nowadays they are much smaller, but have a solid reputation. Part of their range is a bunch of nice more rugged boots, like service boots, moc toe boots and NST boots. Goodyear welted with leathers from among others Charles F. Stead, Maryam and Horween. Priced at €285. Yanko don’t have their own webshop, but their boot range can be found at the company I work for, Skolyx.

 

Østmo Boots

Norwegian Lars Jensen, who runs Østmo Boots, does things very differently. He is a self-taught shoe manufacturer who makes boots mainly with an old traditional Norwegian construction method, he decides for himself what shoes he wants to make, and the buyer is then randomly picked by everyone who has reported interest in the specific boot on his Instagram. Nowadays he doesn’t produce that many pairs a year, but has a collaboration with the Chinese brand Iron Boots who makes his style of boots available to a larger group. Original Lars Jensen made boots or shoes starts from about €1,200.

 

Note: Focus in this article is on brands that have a decent selection of, or are fully focused on, the type of boots that are usually called workwear boots or heritage boots. There’s of course a lot of other great European companies offering rugged quality boots as well, but where style is a bit different, for example more country style or similar. In some cases it’s been hard to draw a distinction, but this is how it came out. 

If you have more examples of European brands offering good workwear style boots, please comment below, this list is not a complete one.