Since 1986, SB Foot Tanning Company is most known as the tannery owned by Red Wing, and with good reason: every bit of leather used on Red Wing Heritage footwear is developed and made by SB Foot just a few miles from Red Wing’s US manufacturing facility.
But the tannery itself and its relationship with Red Wing stretch much further back—to the late 1800s. And SB Foot creates leather for far more than just its neighbor in Red Wing, Minnesota—everyone from solo makers, to Russell Moccasin, to the US military.
Lacy Schumann has spent her last five years developing leather for SB Foot. Maybe Lacy was always supposed to make leather—she did grow up on a beef farm—but it took a veer away from a career in the art world to get her there.
I absolutely loved this chat with Lacy, who takes me through SB Foot history 101, what leather development at SB Foot entails (along with the nonstop interactions with Red Wing’s development team), how hard it is to accurately color leather—and let’s not even get started on truly waterproofing the stuff—why she’s in total roughout mode right now, and plenty more.
Here’s Lacy Schumann of SB Foot, on the Shoecast.
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Mentioned in the episode: The Tannery & The Shoe: A Deep Look Inside The Red Wing & SB Foot Factories, by Josh Bornstein