Red Wing Shoe

Just head for the basement outlet sale section to get the very best deals. I found a pair of very well made service shoes for $ 53, over twice what I’d pay for work shoes at a Payless or Walmart, but these shoes are made of leather and they are very well constructed and are probably going to last 5 times longer than any cheapo pair of shoes you could buy at a discount store. You might pay more initially for quality, but quality overs value over the long term and will actually cost you less than having to replace inferior cheap shoes several times a year. The only problem I had with the outlet store was the fact that over 90% of the shoes were size 7 or smaller, with a lot of them being size 5. If you are a tiny footed service industry person, this would be your Nirvana. As someone with a clodhopper closing in at size 9.5, there were only about 5 pairs of shoes in the sale section for me. There were also some very well made athletic shoes but some of the color combos were just too garish or too boring and so while they were obviously well made, not a shoe I’d buy, but hey, you might like ‘em.

Great shoe store with good quality shoes. Travis was a great help and went the extra mile to make sure my shoes fit well.

The flagship store of Red Wing Shoes. The biggest shoe in the world was neat, but the prices were expensive. Give people a reason to come to Red Wing and visit your store. How about some decent prices? Is there a factory outlet somewhere?

Fun store, super helpful staff but too pricey for our tastes. Outlet downstairs has some great deals.

A must visit if passing through. There is a museum upstairs, regular store on 1^st floor and outlet center in the basement. I was hoping for better deals in the outlet section but I am still happy with the shoes I got.

Not to many things annoy me more than terrible customer service. I walked around the entire store today and was not even given the common curtsey of a simple greeting by any of the employees. It was maddening and I chose to leave. The shoes came highly recommend by a co-​worker, but with service this poor it makes very little difference about the quality of the product.

I have not been to this location, but I recently picked up a pair of RW Beckmans (model 9011) in and feel they deserve a review…
Its been about 2 weeks, and I’m still very much in the break in period. I actually got a blister on my heel in this process as I did not heed the interweb’s advice to ease into these boots a few hours at a time. This occurred after stomping around the park playing bocce ball for a few hours when I was on day 2.
These are some seriously bad boys, made the old-​fashioned way out of high-​quality materials. I get the feeling that I will never have to buy these again; and having paid retail for them, I hope I never have to. They are goodyear welted and can theoretically be repaired/​resoled ad infinitum, while the uppers just keep getting better with age. In fact I was told that they can even be sent back to the factory for repair if desired.
I work in IT; I want to look good in the office, and these boots manage that just fine, but when I go «into the field» its all over the 2 ski resorts whose networks I manage. This means snow, mud, rocks, bears, marmots etc. I elected this boot because it can handle all that crap yet look totally pimp after a shine. And they do look totally sick; I have received many complements on them already. They just ooze quality. I dropped 3 bills on these things, and that’s a tough pill to swallow, but this product comes with the reassurance that they will last longer than any other piece of footwear I currently own, and get better looking with time. I’m glad I pulled the trigger.
**EDIT** 6 months in and the boots are still amazing, I can go dig ditches in the rocks and mud, yet these bad boys still clean up and are out-​on-​the-​town ready. I also received an email from Red Wings to hit up one of their locations for a free boot oil and laces. Great service!

Great boots. I have a pair I wear non-​stop.

(for work) Best boots you can buy.
I have worn them for 10+ years… (I am on my third pair…)
You can wear the sh*t out of them, be on your feet for 20 hours, get a couple hours in the bag, and wear them for 20 more hours and the boots will be asking for more… Will NOT hurt your feet. Other inferior quality boots will.
I swear by them. They are more pricey than the inferior quality boot but if you want a comfortable boot with great guarantees and outstanding customer service, buy Red Wings.
Take care of your feet, and your hearing, and if you can afford it, buy expensive belts…

I have to say, one of the biggest WTFs of my life was when, in Japan, I was ogling hot Japanese men in a fashion magazine, and they were featuring Red Wing shoes in the photo spread… I was also pretty floored when my Korean housemate went into a near-​apoplexy when I told him I lived about 40 miles away from Red Wing. Who knew?
Indeed, when I finally stopped into the new shop location, there was a family from Japan who had specifically stopped down in Red Wing just to buy shoes and look at the museum… wtf? Ok.
Anyway, the museum is nice and informative, if you feel like swelling with pride over some Minnesota classic stuff. The shop itself has really decent prices on their quality boots and shoes. I will say that the women’s pickins are slim, but they’re good for what they have. The staff is decently friendly and I enjoy how they’ve incorporated artifacts from the old factory into the store displays. The other stuff they sell is very typical of the type of peeps that wear the shoes (hunter jackets, workman’s socks, etc.)
If you have the time to stop in, do. If you have the money to spend on the shoes, go for it. You’ll be wearing them for years and they’re worth the money for sure.

I cringed when I heard that the Red Wing Shoe Company (or as it is known locally – «the Shoe») was going to construct THE WORLD’S LARGEST BOOT in order to celebrate the opening of their new store in downtown Red Wing. It just seemed so «world’s largest ball of twine» or «20 Foot Long Gators!» level of goofy PR to me.
I went to the new store on main street today. Really beautiful place and well stocked. They have done a good job with it, and as for the giant boot, it’s there, but it’s not front and center.
I’ve worn «Red Wings» since I was ten or eleven years old and have known people that have made boots and shoes on the floor of the factory for my entire life. They make a lot more styles now, than they did when I bought my first pair (back then you could buy right out of the warehouse). There was a time in life that a job on the factory floor at Red Wing Shoe was a good position. I know several people who have finished high school on a Friday, started working on the floor on Monday and they work there for their entire lives. In some cases generations of people have done this, which is amazing and a little sad, frankly. But they do come to work every day so …
Having owed so many pairs of Red Wings, my only suggestion is to buy a boot or shoe from them that is made with as much leather as possible. I’m not a big fan of the new leather and mesh designs mostly because in my experience they do not hold up very well.
My trip to the store today was to exchange a gift that I received for Christmas. It was handled well and quickly.

How could you not come in here and take a picture with the big red wing shoe?! The town is named after this place. Main street is lined with them and the largest shoe of all is displayed inside the store before you go up and check out the museum. There’s quite a selection, but I can’t compare prices since I don’t buy shoes of this kind. The staff is friendly though and it’s a neat place to check out.

New location. I love this place. The clearance racks alone are worthy of five stars, but the sixteen-​foot boot is icing on the sensibly shod cake. I can’t wait for them to finish the full museum and open the second floor to the public. Come here and get the coolest looking shoes you’ve ever only paid fifty dollars for.