About The Harold Boot Company.
Harold Leather Boots History
The Harold Boot Company History | |
The Harold Boot Company has been specialising in well made and dependable Australian made footwear for over 100 years. We choose the highest quality material and employ the finest craftsmen to produce a truly Australian boot to suit your needs. All our products are made with you in mind. Your needs are what direct us to produce a boot for every use and occasion. When you look for strong and durable well made boots the Harold Boot Company continues its History of putting all our experience into making them for you. When the first world war was over most of the contact with the mother factory in England was lost. Two of Frederick's brothers migrated to work with their brother in Australia and Harold's continued to expand making traditional footwear. This is when they produced their first one piece upper elastic sided boot. A copy of a Chelsea boot made in the old factory in England. (circa 1925) This tradition of quality products has carried through to the current day; being continued by Frederick's son Alexander and to this day by Ian Harold the grandson of Fredrick. In 2008 after 90 years at the old Factory at Abbotsford the Harold Boot Company moved again to new premises at 170 Perry Street Fairfield. The production continued there until 2013 when order where out stripping supply, staff of 40 and 45 years where retiring and replacement staff impossible to find and train. Overhead and labour costs were also increasing making the product very expensive and export very difficult. So in May 2013 the whole factory was packed up and moved to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. They did this as they were unable to to produce the volume and the high quality they required with their current staffing level and overhead costs. This move was accomplished after a lot of logistical work to ensure that the high quality of raw materials was maintained. As a company Harold's is committed to only using the highest standard of raw materials and preferably Australian raw material. They are extremely pedantic about maintaining the quality of their raw materials and therefore still source most of their materials from their Australian suppliers. This was the 6th move by the company since 1650. The quality of the products produced today mean's that Harold's have been able to guarantee their traditional range of footwear for life against any manufacturing fault. A remarkable achievement. To this day they are committed to the Australian market but are selling their boots all over the world. They have expanded their export and have now formed their own company "Harold Boot Company UK Ltd " which stocks and sells their product in the UK and throughout Europe. They look forward to another 100 years of manufacturing quality footwear for you. |