Bates Footwear, a division of Wolverine Worldwide, announced that it will manufacture Temperate Weather Mountain Combat Boots for the U.S. Army under a new U.S. Government contract issued by Natick Contracting Division. Bates will produce 64,000 pairs of the newly designed Mountain Combat Boot within the next six months at their U.S.-based facility in Big Rapids, Michigan. I’ve been to this factory and the employees are top notch folks. Literally, different generations of the same family work side by side to produce quality, Berry Compliant footwear for our armed forces. It’s impressive.
U.S. Congressman Dave Camp noted, “Bates produces some of the world’s most technologically advanced footwear for U.S. troops. Every time I visit the Big Rapids plant I leave more and more impressed by the dedication, commitment and tireless work ethic of the employees at Bates. This is great news for the Big Rapids community and fourth district of Michigan.”
This contract award, combined with the brand’s other recent contract awards for Army Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boots, brings the cumulative value of the Mountain Combat Boot contracts to just over $15 million in 2012.
“We are very proud of our recent Army Mountain Combat Boot contract awards,” said Mike Stornant, Vice President and General Manager of Bates Footwear. “This is a relatively new product for the Army, and we are pleased they have chosen Bates based on our quality performance and ability to respond to the short-term delivery schedules required under these contracts. We remain committed to the U.S. Army and Department of Defense as we provide U.S. troops with the highest quality footwear that supports and protects them in their warfighting efforts.”
Tags: Bates Footwear
Made in the USA and a good company that respect it’s employees. I’m sure Bates is taking steps to make sure the defects that led to the RAT boot recall are corrected. I respect Bates and Welco as employers. Myself I prefer the Danners.
I held my mule on the RAT boot issue but the actions of the officer at MARCORSYSCOM were some of the most unprofessional I have ever seen. You don’t speak that way to the press about a company. What’s worse, when the boots in question were inspected there weren’t a lot of pairs to begin with and some of them weren’t even built by Bates.
My opinion is that his actions were motivated by loyalty to one boot brand over another. Speaking as the Editor of SSD I have to say that time and time again the Marine Corps has shown me that they are beholden to brand names.
But, so am I. I appreciate brands that build a quality product and I can say that Bates is one of them. I’m proud to call them an advertiser. I think very highly of them, their business practices and their employees.
On a functional note, will these be produced in Narrow widths?
Before the Army transitioned away from black boots, I was able to order both Jungle and Leg boots in Narrow. Now, I have been completely unable to get narrows in any other than a very few 670-1 approved styles (clunky Danner Acadias being about the only option).
We were issued sets of these (summer and winter) Bates Mountain boots, of this exact style to deploy with to Afghanistan. My entire company brought zero pairs with us. After wearing them as long as we could during our 3 months of training, we all agreed these were the heaviest and uncomfortable boots we had ever worn. Most of the complaints are around the thick plastic/rubber on the top of the toe (it looks like leather in the photo, but it is an extremely hard rubber). It doesnt allow your feet to swell at all during extended use (patrols). You are forced to either wear a size too large, or deal with your foot being squished inside during missions longer than 2 miles. Also because of the plastic there isnt much flex when you step, the toe of the boot doesnt bend much at all, making it very awkward to walk in. I would describe this as walking around in an armored boot that has no armor value.
I agree with Burmy, these boots are horrible. I never patrolled with these in Afghan. I wonder if that congressman has stock in Bates so he had that contract pushed through..
You do realize that these are new boots?