Product History & Process
Following a long standing insistence for premium grade leather, Baxter Boots are handcrafted to fit you like a glove, guaranteeing the best Australian quality. The quality of a Baxter boot is ensured from the start by a process of traditional examination of the hides as they arrive in the Goulburn factory.
All hides are examined by experienced eyes for pleasing grain and texture and given the old fashion hand test to feel if the leather is hard wearing. Hides that are too thick and inflexible are rejected.
Leather being a natural product will sometimes have small marks, which is a naturally occurring characteristic; however, these will not affect the performance of the footwear.
From these individually selected hides single-piece uppers are carefully cut out and stretched under heat and pressure to form and shape the front of the boot. Then the edges are trimmed and smoothed to create an even finish. Elastic sides and pull-on tags are then double-stitched into the leather upper.
A moulded heal stiffener and a toe stiffener are inserted to create extra strength and comfort.
Now that the outside of the boot is taking shape, attention turns to the inside which is lined with creamy soft leather for extra comfort. Between the inner sole and outer sole, under the toes and ball of your foot, a layer of cork filling is added.
The cork layer starts off flat but as your foot gradually wears the boot in the cork moulds to the shape of the ball of your foot and toes so that ultimately, the boot really does fit like a glove.
Baxter boots are made with fully welted soles. The welted sole is something you should be aware of when considering a pair of boots because the laborious yet crucial welting method ensures the uppers won’t start to separate from the soles, which can happen with cheaply made footwear.
In the welting process, the leather upper is stitched onto a tough leather welting strip. The sole is then stitched onto the welting strip using heavy, specially waxed and toughened thread. The thread keeps the upper firmly attached to the sole for the life of the boot. Next, the leather upper and leather sole are stitched to the tough leather welting strip and attached to the stacked leather heel using buttress heel nails.
In the finishing room, the heel is gently sanded and stained, the sole perfectly trimmed, the boot polished and it then goes through a final inspection.
Before they go in the box, they are given one last inspection and, they are perfect, we wrap them and our inspector includes his or her name-tag with the boots. This means Baxter’s can track the quality of each and every handcrafted boot.