Hand-Lasted Goodyear Welt Construction. Gallun™ Waxy Wild Boar Leather. Partially-Structured Toe. Black Dainite® Rubber-Studded Sole. Stacked Leather Heel with Dainite® Toplift. Barbour® Welt. Calfskin Vamp Lining. Tone-On-Tone Stitching. Antique Brass Eyelets & Speedhooks. Cougar #50 Rawhide Laces.
Shop Trench BootDeveloped to embody the character of Chicago, the Elston last is engineered specifically for our line of Everyday Boots, providing exceptional all-day comfort for nearly all foot types with a generous toe box.
Shop Elston LastDainite's rubber-studded soles are as practical today as they were when introduced in 1894. Since then, Dainite continues to make its famously durable soles in Leicestershire, England. Reinforced with Silica and Aluminum silicate, these non-marking soles are highly regarded for all-weather traction and timeless style.
Shop Dainite SoleA heavy-duty and water-resistant boot leather with extraordinary natural character, tonal variance, and pull-up with honey highs and mahogany lows. Thick, full-grain hides are sourced from invasive wild boar but tanned in Wisconsin according to a Gallun family recipe. A chrome re-tan with a toggle-died crust is colored with a “wax wet stuff” process, then roller-coated with several layers of clear wax. The leather then rests in a “hot room” until the wax sets and is finished after several additional flex rolls have leveled the waxy top layer.
Shop Waxy Wild BoarWe are 100% committed to manufacturing all our footwear and accessories in the United States.
All our footwear is 100% recraftable, meaning it can be re-soled again and again.
Trostel & Gallun was founded in 1858. On the bank of the Milwaukee River, they built a post-and-beam workshop, not much larger than a barn, and began making harnesses and other riding accessories. Then, a contract was secured to make leather boots for Union soldiers who made quick work of spreading word of Trostel & Gallun. After the war, growth only increased and founders Albert Trostel and August F. Gallun would divide the business into two distinct and more specialized businesses: Albert Trostel & Sons Co. and A. F. Gallun & Sons Corp. August Gallun would focus on tanning leather for fine footwear and quickly earned a reputation for his world-class calf and game hide leathers—premium and exotic offerings that rivaled the best of Europe’s oldest tanneries.
Throughout the 20th century, A. F. Gallun & Sons, or ‘Gallun Leathers’ as it was known, would expand exponentially under the leadership of Albert Gallun, son of founder August. The once-small tannery would become one of the four largest tanneries in the United States. Such an operation required not just a building, but a 5.7-acre district with 1,047 feet of frontage on the Milwaukee River. The sprawling complex stood proud, flanked on either side by several smaller tanneries on Milwaukee’s ’Tannery Row.’
As the decades passed, market conditions changed as increasingly casual workplaces reduced demand for dress shoes and outdoorsmen began looking to boots made from synthetic textiles rather than leather. Customers were demanding more affordable footwear, but Gallun’s expertise, reputation, and production process were grounded in a 150-year history of striving for the highest quality, not the lowest price. Sales would soften slowly but steadily and in 1993, the Gallun family would reluctantly sell what remained of the Water Street compound. The best-preserved buildings were redeveloped into upscale residences in what is now called the ‘Gallun Tannery Historic District’ in the National Register of Historic Places.
Before the buildings were sold, however, a young and eager Edwin ‘Ed’ Gallun, five generations removed from the founder, was hard at work not only learning the family trade, but archiving the recipes, notes, ledgers, tear sheets of old advertising—everything he could. Since then, he has been quietly and painstakingly reformulating the Gallun tannages in accordance with today’s safety and environmental best practices. The resulting leathers preserve the unique hand and finish of the originals while being more durable and less prone to oxidation, thanks to formulations blended from safer, more sustainable, and more refined ingredients of higher quality and purity than were available in decades past.
After nearly three decades of study and development, Ed Gallun is ready to re-introduce his family’s famous leathers, now over 160 years in the making. The original factory is no more, but Gallun Leathers lives on, still licensed and still tanning as ‘A. F. Gallun & Sons’ in Wisconsin. Oak Street Bootmakers is the first bookmaker to make use of Gallun’s re-issued leathers, but most certainly not the last. Our mission is to preserve the tradition of American shoemaking, but we cannot do this alone. We need partners like Ed Gallun, who share our stubborn commitment to craftsmanship, helping to forge a new supply-chain using links from our past.
