ON THE PATH TO PERFECTION

Ellis Brigham started out specialising in walking boots, right?

Absolutely. The original Frederick Ellis Brigham opened up a shop on Conran Street in Manchester and he was the expert in nailing patterns. Around that time, boots were just leather – inside, outside, top to bottom. The leather outsole was obviously very slippery. So you had to nail it with bespoke patterns according to what kind of terrain you're aiming for.

Even up to the 1960s our catalogues were advertising the fact that we had supplies of various specific shapes of nail that you could retrofit to your leather-soled boots to give you the grip you needed. That’s what hob-nailed boots were – it’s these special nails, sticking out the bottom of your shoes or your mountaineering boots.

What was so great about leather?

It's quite malleable (once it's broken in), but it's waterproof, durable, long lasting and protective too, so leather is a fantastic material to make boots out of, and it's been used for millennia to create footwear. But construction of boots had advanced quite a long way [by the time Ellis Brigham opened]. It was quite complex and was a real artisan skill. Frederick was a true boot-maker, it wasn't mass production.

What were the earliest brands that started to come out?

The names that we’re still familiar with would be brands like Meindl and Scarpa, who both feature in our catalogues from the late 60s and 70s. Galibier and Dolomite were also popular at that time. And of course we had our very own FEB Mountain Boot.

And how did those famous brands start?

In the early 20th century, there was a flourishing of Italian footwear manufacturing, particularly in the Dolomites region. There were lots of local cobblers, and they understood the needs of people who were starting to spend more recreational time outdoors. They introduced a bunch of boots to service this new market, and ever since then, really, it's been Italian and German leather that’s led the way.

When did the technology begin to develop beyond leather?

The soles were one of the first things to change. Vitale Bramani was an Italian mountaineer who created Vibram. The story goes that he lost six friends in an accident in the mountains because their studded leather soles didn’t have enough grip. He patented a rubber outsole – the Carrarmato – which is still in production now because it's quite a classic looking, functional rubber outsole. That was in 1937, so the introduction of this technology took a while to filter through, but over a period of maybe 20 years or so, certainly by the 1960s, Vibram outsoles were a game changer. There's a note in one of our catalogues from 1961 saying: “Rubber soled boots are well to the fore now.” But even then, in 1961, we were still doing some nailing.

What was the next milestone?

Towards the end of the 70s, GORE came along with their membrane – expanded polytetrafluoroethylene – or GORE-TEX. Danner were the first brand to come out with GORE-lined hiking boots. The benefit is that you get the waterproofness of classic leather boots but use more of a hybrid approach to the upper construction, introducing lighter weight synthetics. Straight away you can strip a couple of hundred grams off a boot that does more or less the same thing; in fact, you get more breathability and instant comfort straight out of the box. Now lots of brands have their own similar performance membranes; it's completely revolutionised the way that outdoor footwear is constructed.

What else has changed?

For a long time, boots had been lacking cushioning – 50 years ago some of them were still being made with wooden insoles to provide rigidity. Now even mountain boots have much more comfortable sole units. There's a real understanding of materials such as EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) and PU (polyurethane) that allow fantastic, long-lasting cushioning, and we've got brands like Hoka and adidas coming up with new foams all the time.

So can you compare and contrast a state-of-the-art boot with a vintage boot from the Ellis Brigham archives?

The weight comparison is the big one. If you take a really capable modern mountain hiking boot from Scarpa, a typical weight would be 660 grams per boot. Back in the day, an equivalent leather boot in our catalogue is listed as weighing 1.13kg, nearly double the weight.

There are a lot of new materials, too; you can see some synthetic fabric where the ankle sits, which is for articulation. It’s super comfortable to walk in and you get flex where you need it. Then there’s TPU – thermo polyurethane – around the toe, which saves a little bit of weight compared to a rubber rand, but still gives you that extra layer of protection against scree and jagged rocks. And it's obviously got a lot of cushioning that you wouldn't have had in the old days.

Things have already changed so much. What will the next 90 years of hiking boots bring?

Good question. Hover boots? Maybe hiking boots will get even lighter and more comfortable, or maybe they’ll use carbon plates to propel you forwards faster – like you see in top end running shoes now – but really: how much lighter can they be?

The bigger problem everyone’s grappling with now is how you create these great shoes and boots with less impact on the environment. It’s a real challenge. I saw recently that 22 billion pairs of footwear were made globally in 2021. So this is really important to everybody connected with the outdoor industry. We all care passionately about sustainability; that what we're selling is built to last. It has to be the best possible quality and comfort and not just go into landfill. And if that can be done while also using recycled or sustainable materials, then that's a worthwhile goal.