Why We Chose Hermann Oak for the M1917 Collaboration

Hi All,

I plan to do a several part mini series around the collaboration and some of the design choices behind it because I get a lot of questions about why we choose certain leathers or what pushes us toward specific builds.

One of the biggest decisions with projects like this is always the leather because it's the first thing people notice. Honestly, we went back and forth on this for months because there were a lot of directions we could have taken it. If you look back at the original trench boots, what was commonly used was a chrome tanned roughout leather that was often hit with waxes, oils, and different types of tallow to improve water resistance.

Originally, we were going to go in that direction, but ultimately decided against it because we did not feel a waxed flesh boot really matched the more polished look we were going for. We wanted something that technically existed during the time period, but with a slightly more refined look.

Even though we did not stay fully true to the original leather makeup, we still wanted the tannery itself to have some connection to that era. Companies like United States Leather Company, Howes Brothers, and Horton Crary, were producing leather at a pretty large scale and today, most of those companies are gone. That story really repeats itself throughout the old American tanning industry. I had a chance to actually see this firsthand when I took a visit to Gallun leather out in the midwest and saw some of the old factories that used to be. Some of the buildings are still in place and converted to modern factories or even apartments.

That is a large part of why we ultimately decided to work with Hermann Oak for this project. They are one of the few remaining historic American tanneries still operating today alongside companies like Horween and Wickett & Craig. Hermann Oak was also supplying leather to the U.S. military during the same period the original M1917 trench boots were being produced, which made the connection feel a little more authentic.

They also still vegetable tanning leather using many of the same traditional methods they have used since 1800s. Vegetable tanning is significantly more labor intensive and time consuming, which is one of the reasons the options are pretty limited across tanneries. I honestly knew it was the right decision once I sat down with the Hermann Oak team last year. Also, we really haven't really worked much with vegetable tanned leather, so this project felt like the right opportunity as most have really moved away from it given that chrome tanned leather does have more of the wow factor when it comes to the different things you see out of modern tanneries. (ex. kudu, chamois, rambler.)

To keep this brief, I do plan to visit Hermann Oak this year as part of my tannery visit series, but I wanted to share a little behind the scenes context on how we ended up here.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin