It’d be annoying at best (and downright unsafe at worst) if every tool you bought wore out prematurely.
Imagine if the tip of your Philips-head driver bit rounded off after driving only 10 drywall screws. Or if the teeth of your brand-new circular saw blade got dull after cutting just a few 2x4s. The durability of the tools you choose has a direct effect on your productivity at work – and on the quality of work you produce.
Your work boots are the only tool you never swap out during your workday. You wear them every day of the week, every week of the year. You count on them for support, comfort, protection, and safety. Sometimes, they even become an active part of your workflow, like when you have to prop a sheet of drywall up on your toe before screwing it in. Choosing durable work boots is an investment in better workdays over the long term.
Think about an average day at work. We’ll use general construction labor as an example, but with some imagination, this could apply to your workday, too. You log thousands of steps on concrete, dirt, and gravel. Your boots are constantly dragging against jobsite materials like pallets, rebar, and lumber. There are thousands of jobsite variables that put work footwear to the test, and what you wear on your feet needs to withstand them all. That’s why durable work boots are important.
It all starts with tough materials, innovative construction technologies, and jobsite-focused design choices. And there needs to be a balance of all three for the footwear to perform well. Here’s what to look for in the work boot you choose for day-in, day-out performance:
You wouldn’t pull on a pair of athletic training pants before work and expect them to last for your whole shift, let alone keep you protected. It’s the same with what you choose to wear on your feet. The materials used in work footwear need to be extremely durable, abrasion-resistant, and able to withstand jobsite hazards like heat and chemicals.
Work boots (and pretty much every other type of footwear) are built with an upper, midsole, and outsole. The upper is the part that covers the top and sides of your foot, plus your ankles and lower legs in some cases. Its job is to act as a protective layer that guards your foot against bumps and scrapes. KEEN Utility uses uppers made from leather, synthetic materials, natural fibers, or a combination of all three.
Leather
Leather has been used in footwear since about 3500 BC, with dedicated leather work boots emerging in the 19th century. Why? It’s one of the most naturally durable materials, it’s readily available, and it’s economically viable to use at scale. Our Barnyard Resistant leather comes from trusted tanneries certified by the Leather Working Group for their environmental and social practices. In turn, these tanneries source only premium cowhides from American ranches. FYI, “Barnyard Resistant” is KEEN speak for a proprietary treatment we use that protects the leather from oleic acid, urea, sodium chloride, ammonium, and other common jobsite chemicals.
Synthetic Textiles
Sometimes, your day-to-day workflow requires the speed, agility, and exertion of an athlete. And what types of shoes are you most likely to see running a marathon or cross-training in a gym? Most likely, ones made with synthetic uppers! This is for good reason. Synthetics, especially synthetic meshes, are lightweight and highly breathable. KEEN Utility footwear designers choose synthetic uppers for many of our athletic work styles, like the Vista Energy and Speedworks.
Natural Materials
Canvas work pants, overalls, coveralls, coats, and vests are extremely common on almost all worksites. This natural material is usually made from cotton but can also be made from hemp or other fibers, and has a well-earned reputation for being tough. It provides a kind of “in-between” wearing experience. More durable than synthetic mesh, more breathable and lighter than leather. It lends itself to versatile work shoes, such as our Kenton collection, which can be used for many different jobs.
Midsole
If a piece of footwear is built with a midsole, you’ll find it between the upper and the outsole. Its job is to provide cushioning and support to your feet, so you’re able to walk and stand comfortably for your whole shift, and then some. Because of its sandwiched, protected location, most of the durability requirements for a midsole come from a need to withstand chemicals and minerals found on typical jobsites. All KEEN Utility midsole types, including KEEN.ReGEN and Luftcell, are formulated to maintain strength and structure through it all.
Outsole
Jobsite surfaces aren’t exactly known for being smooth and flat like a bowling alley. They’re usually dirty, rough, and uneven. And that’s not even including other things you might stand on at work, like rebar, ladder rungs, or diamond-plate steel. It’s imperative that outsoles be durable enough to withstand these varied surface conditions. KEEN Utility uses rubber for a majority of our outsoles because of its longevity and natural resilience. (If it lasts tens of thousands of miles in a car tire, it’ll last for the lifetime of your work boots, too.) You’ll also find KEEN.TOUGHSOLE outsoles in our collection. It’s a unique formulation that’s slightly more durable than rubber, and lighter too.
Over time, building construction has evolved from dry-fit quarried rock, to brick and mortar, to wood, to concrete and steel. New techniques are developed and optimized, and they gradually find their place for certain applications. You’ll find similarities in work boot construction, too. KEEN Utility uses three construction methods for our products: Goodyear welted, cemented, and KEEN.FUSION.
Goodyear Welted
Originally developed in 1869 by Charles Goodyear, the Goodyear welt is one of the all-time classic ways to build a boot. Also known as stitch-down construction, it uses heavy-gauge thread to hold the upper and sole together. This mechanical connection is extremely tough, and creates a boot that’s torsionally stable as well. You’ll find it on our heavy-duty products like the Cincinnati.
Cemented
Cemented shoes have been popular since about WWII. In this method, high-strength contact adhesive is spread on the bottom of the upper and the top of the sole. Then they’re mated and clamped together, forming the bond. Most, if not all, athletic shoes are built using this method, because it’s lightweight and flexible. Likewise, you’ll find cement construction in many of our lighter-duty shoes, sneakers, and boots.
Fused
KEEN.FUSION is our newest boot construction technology. It’s used on all of our American Built products, plus a few other styles, too. This process uses heat and pressure (not glue or stitching) to mechanically bond the sole to the upper. It creates a Goldilocks-like combo of durability and flexibility that holds strong and moves freely.
When you spend enough time on jobsites, you find out very quickly which boot design choices last and which don’t. Our product team is constantly in the field, learning how our boots are actually used out there. They bring this information back to KEEN HQ and integrate their findings into new generations of work footwear.
Reinforcements
In some work boots, we noticed excessive wear on both the heel and toe. To reinforce these areas, we use either a wrapover rubber toe cap (as seen on the Targhee IV Work) or a thin layer of synthetic armoring (as seen on the Skokie and the Camden). These choices add protection and durability while adding negligible weight.
Weight Optimization
Sometimes, it’s possible to balance durability and weight savings by strategically removing material. For example, in the outsole of our Synchro, we trimmed rubber to make it lighter while keeping the same long-term performance.
Lab tests are a great way to ensure durability because they allow for the collection of lots of data in a minimal amount of time. And field tests round out the learning by allowing development teams to gather real-world usage information. KEEN Utility uses both extensively, because it's important to identify and fix any issues before products hit the market.
At every manufacturing location, including our own KEEN American Built facility in Kentucky, we test at both the component and finished levels. A common trial we put our footwear through is the flex test. In it, a boot is mounted on a specialized machine that repeatedly flexes it at the base of the toe, simulating how it bends during walking. We then turn the machine on and let it run — flexing, unflexing, flexing, and so on. ALL KEEN Utility products must reach a minimum of 50,000 flex cycles. But our footwear routinely surpasses this. As a matter of fact, our American Built flagship boot, the Liberty, achieved one million flex cycles with no cracking, delaminating, or failing in any other way. Rumor has it this boot lasted so long it actually wore out the testing machine. We’ll neither confirm nor deny. ;)
Repeatedly flexing a boot in a lab provides valuable data, for sure. But anyone who’s actually worked on a jobsite knows that it’s extremely dynamic. Different types of motion, different surfaces, different temperatures, different materials, different workers. In order to gather real-world data, we send pre-production samples to a network of professional tradesmen and tradeswomen.
Over about 2 months, they wear our products during their workdays. Every 2 weeks or so, we check in and gather feedback. Then, we gather more in-depth feedback at the end. They let us know their likes, dislikes, and suggestions. We then incorporate this data into final design tweaks for production boots, shoes, and sneakers.
Picking the right pair of work footwear is the first step toward productive, safe workdays over months and years. It’s all about finding boots with tough materials like leather or synthetics, long-lasting construction methods like Goodyear welted or KEEN.FUSION, and jobsite-informed design choices like reinforcements or strategic weight reduction. And, don’t forget, it’s important to know that they’ve been thoroughly tested to ensure that every part of the boot will work as designed. KEEN Utility boots are designed, built, and proven to be some of the most durable out there, and they’re ready to support your next workday, workweek, and beyond.
