Oak Street Bootmakers

George Vlagos is the man behind Oak Street Bootmakers but the story of their shoes stretches much further back than him. George himself was an apprentice at his father's shop where he learned everything there was to know about shoemaking. With an eye on keeping the family tradition alive, George continues to oversee the design and manufacture of Oak Street Bootmakers footwear.

All the footwear manufactured by Oak Street Bootmakers comes in the curiously named Horween Chromexcel leather. Chromexcel is a type of leather that goes through dozens of stages over a four week period before it is ready to enter the manufacturing process. Using the Horween facility in Chicago, the process is over a century old. All sorts of weird and wonderful things are combined, including food-grade beef tallow, cosmetic-grade beeswax, marine oil, chrome salts, tree bark extracts and naturally occuring pigments. This heady cocktail is then treated via heating techniques and ultimately top quality, durable, supple leather is produced. If that all sounds a bit mind-boggling, just be assured that the leather is ace.