Boston's known for tough winters and good breweries — a combination that proved inspiring to a local footwear startup.
"Craft brew" boots, anyone?
"Before craft brews, people just bought generic beer or imports," said Boston Boot Co. co-founder and Reading resident Joe Lyons. "With just a little more effort, you can have a better product."
Calling their creation Boston's first Micro-Shoery, Lyons and his co-founder/neighbor Joe Prew and designer Chad Gombes set out earlier this year to make a classically crafted, impeccably made line of men's boots.
"We want to make good shoes that we can feel proud of," Lyons said.
To get their project off the ground, the team turned to Kickstarter for funding. They werwe seeking $25,000, but now have more than $178,000 banked.
"We're very excited by our success with Kickstarter," Lyons said. "Like a lot of success, it was a lot of little things and a little bit of luck. And maybe good timing — we launched (the campaign) right after the World Series win.
"I don't know whether that played a role," he said with a laugh.
While Prew has a background in footwear design, Lyons came to the shoe world from investment banking, and the Kickstarter project provided a much-needed contrast to his former career.
"(For Kickstarter) you need a plan and a product and a prototype to raise money and to see if there's a demand. It's refreshing — you can hold up a product in front of people and say, 'Do you like it?' It's just been great," he said.
The shoes, retailing between $179 and $225, are made from high-quality leather with an athletic-shoe backbone, inspired by Boston life.
"We view Boston people as stylish, smart and practical," Lyons said. "You can have very nice shoes, but there's only so many days you can wear them here. They're sensible for guys who have to brave the elements six or seven months of the year."
While Boston is right there in the name, Kickstarter gave the trio major visibility: "Boston weather is definitely a factor, but it's really any Northeast city or anywhere where the weather is tougher. We have people interested from all over the world."
The site, BostonBootCo.com, will start selling shoes in December, Lyons said.
"We are going to be a smaller company for the foreseeable future — we would like to get into boutiques and smaller shoe stores, but that's something that will come over time," he said.
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