Caswell Bootmakers

Fellow patriots. I have identified, and created, the most patriotic leather boot you can buy. It is not buffalo leather. It is not bald eagle leather. And although there are over 6 million of them in these here United States, this animal's leather is unbelievably hard to create — and harder still to then turn it into boots. But after over a year of trying, the geniuses at Caswell Boot Co. and Gallun Leather have worked with this very pro-American immigrant boot blogger to make the one boot that can unite this country, no matter where you exist on the political spectrum. Because it is your duty — our duty — to rid this great nation of its most diabolical scourge: The Feral Swine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vHXPGf7AfL1w "Why Wild Boar Leather Boots?" In a word: vengeance. This leather is thick, tough, rare, and full of character. You could convince folks they're made of T-Rex skin. Built with an extra water resistant, infinitely resoleable storm Goodyear welt, The Feral Swine will last for years and years on end. Sure, the leather's awesome, but there's more behind these boots. There's patriotism. There's America's farmers. There's saving our country. What am I talking about? Let me list some reasons why exterminating these beasts — by wearing their hides — should be a national priority we can all agree on. 1) Wild boar are terrible for agriculture Wild boar, often interbred with escaped domestic pigs, are diabolically prolific at procreation and these omnivorous-as-all-heck hellions have a uniquely destructive way of feeding: digging and rooting through topsoil, disrupting any efforts to farm the land, and causing 2.5 billion dollars in damage to US agriculture every year. https://youtu.be/DG2OOlkriW8?siZ_ooMWaNew0Ywk_r The USDA made an incredible, six-part series about the problems feral swine are causing the country. 2) Wild boar decrease diversity Sweeping through the nation's heartland like swarms of tusked locusts, where wild boar are found, there is reliably 25 percent less biodiversity. They destabilize their environment in just about every way possible: their poop destabilizes the soil's nutrient balance, their feeding habits encourage weed growth, their bathing pollutes waterways, and the population of native species fall in response. 3) Wild boar are terrible for human health They’re vectors for dozens of harmful parasites, diseases, and pathogens, including salmonella, hepatitis, and E. coli. In fact, there’s every chance they’ll be responsible for a swine flu epidemic any day now. That's a disease academics consider a bioweapon. A bioweapon! They’re coming for you. And your family. What can you do? Skin the bastards with no remorse. But once you've successfully made the leather, it's great. Wild Boar Are Really Hard to Turn Into Leather Wild boar are nothing but trouble when they're alive and nothing but trouble when they are dead. "Boar leather is not made for boots," says Caswell Boot Co's founder Kevin Wilson. "It's a very coarse, dense, porous leather. The hairs are very, very strong. In fact, a lot of the tanners liken them to quills because they're so unyielding and difficult to remove." One of the first steps in a tannery is to remove hair from the hides in big drums full of a substance that's a little like an industrial version of hair removal cream. Except what works great for cow and goat hair does not work on boar's unusually thick, deep-set hair roots. You can see the follicles because the hair is extraordinarily difficult to remove. Ed, the manager of Gallun Leathers, had to develop new and innovative ways to de-hair the hides — and then he had to find ways to manage the unusual oil content, the unusually inconsistent thickness, and the unusually blotchy skin tone. It had to get tumbled many, many times to make it malleable enough to be worked onto a boot's last. But after a lot of work, Ed perfected the wild boar leather boot like never before. We're really proud of this. "It's very consistent in weight and temper, and it's sufficiently malleable to be made into boots now," says Kevin. "Once you hold it up and look at it, you'll see the oil content was able to be really balanced, and it's as clean as I've ever seen boar leather in the past." Ladies and gentlemen: we got 'em. Ordering "The Feral Swine" with Caswell Boot Company Of course, then we had to find a factory that would work with the leather, and that was a whole separate process. It seems everyone hates boars. "Every factory was like, 'why are you sending this to me?'" laughs Kevin. But the product is now ready for orders, for a limited time, in sizes 7 to 13 in widths D, E, and EE. Even though this is the extra water-resistant storm welt version of the resoleable Goodyear welt, and even though it took a year of trial and error to develop the leather, we managed to get the price down to just $379. The blurry dream team: Stridewise, Caswell, and Gallun Leathers Why Caswell Boot Company? Caswell is best known for taking tough and rugged leathers and putting them on dressier lasts, where you don't typically find such leathers. A lot of his leathers are hard to come by, but none are as hard to come by as The Feral Swine. Indeed, there's an extremely good chance this is your very first and very last opportunity to experience wild boar leather boots, carrying them as trophies of victory over the feral menace you helped eradicate for years to come. Check out more details about these and other fantastic boots over at Caswell Boot Co.