Information on Rockport Shoes

Every now and then a company comes around and completely reinvents the wheel. You would figure, Hey, the wheel has been done already. Nope. A creative mind with a degree in engineering can look at any product and try to improve it in some way. Ford did it with the Model T, Apple did it with the Ipod and Gibson did it with electric guitars. Rockport shoes is a company just like that. Mens business shoes as we know them prior to Rockport shoes were pretty much unchanged for well over a hundred years. You figure hey, mens shoes are just a leather upper and lining sewn onto a leather sole and heels with maybe a little rubber on the heal. Yep you guessed it. That’s exactly how shoes were made and were. Well shoes made this way can be unforgiving to ones feet when you have stand on your feet all day. Why do you think the first thing Mr.Rogers did when he got home was take his shoes off and put on some canvas sneakers. Well a father and son from Marlborough, Mass decided to literally reinvent the mens shoe as we had known it. Saul and Bruce Katz.

These two men founded the Rockport Shoe company. Rockport shoes became a total recreation of mens shoes to be worn in the office that wouldn’t be torture for your feet. What the Katz family did with Rockports is that they manufactured shoes that were light in weight and used materials that just weren’t used in shoes before. Rockport shoes completely took apart everypart of the shoe and figured out how to make it lighter and more comfortable to the wearer. Remember how I said that shoe soles were nothing more than dense heavy stiff leather with a sole attached. Well the sole was one of the first things that needed to be redesigned with comfort in mind. What Rockport shoes did was lighten the sole by hollowing out some of the leather and incorporating cushioning to make the shoe but lighter and more comfortable. Instead of using leather itself for the sole, Rockport would create a synthetic sole with the cushioning built right in it. So the sole would be light, long lasting and shock resistant. Next thing that Rockport did was incorporate more cushioning in the lining and insole of the shoes providing all day maximum comfort to the wearer. These thing in combination made a shoe that weighed much less but still looked like traditional office shoes that your boss would never notice, all the while feeling like butter on your feet.

It didn’t take long for word to get around about Rockport shoes and their comfort. It made the Katz’s very successful. In 1984 Rockport shoes were bought by Footwear giant Reebok and started incorporating all of the Reebok cushioning technology such as DMX cushioning insoles. Rockport started making walking shoes for sole purpose of exercise walking that would benefit cardio health. These days rockport shoes come in all kinds of styles both made for the office and casual styles as well all following their original mantra of making lightweight comfortable mens shoes.