Our Story
Keep The Boots started in 2018 when two farmers got tired of buying the same disappointing rubber boot over and over. They decided to go find the right factory, the right rubber, and the right price — and sell directly to the people who need them.
The Beginning
Matt and Ryan had been running adjacent operations in central Wisconsin for almost a decade when they started comparing notes on how many pairs of boots they'd burned through. Cheap ones cracked by January. Expensive ones were stiff, heavy, and still leaked at the sole seam.
In 2017 they started traveling to rubber boot factories — the Midwest, Portugal, Vietnam — looking for a manufacturer that was doing it right. They found one. Six months of back-and-forth on compound specs, sole geometry, and last width, and the Field Commander was born.
Natural rubber costs more than synthetic. We use it anyway. The footbed costs more to make removable. We did it anyway. Good materials are non-negotiable.
We don't sell through retailers. No markups, no distributor games, no race to the bottom on quality. You buy from us, direct, and you save a third versus comparable retail.
Every design decision is made by people who work in the field. If it doesn't hold up in Wisconsin mud and a Minnesota winter, it doesn't ship.
By the numbers
