G.H. Bass & Co. are American giants that have been making smart shoes and boots since 1876, which is, for reference, approximately twelve years before bananas were imported and introduced to the UK, approximately ten years before Karl Benz patented the three-wheel motorcar, and, on the same continent, only eleven years after Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head while watching a play in Washington D.C.
Their first shoe, the Weejun Penny Loafer, has barely changed since its inception, which is more than a testament to the power of design. Since then, they’ve developed boots, and those boots, or ancestors of them at least, have found themselves in the hands of the good people at Oi Polloi.
The Clayton 3-Eye Chukka comes in both light and dark brown leather, while the Camp Moc III Ranger Pull Up, which, as Oi Polloi observes, is as equally likely to be the name of a Dirty South affiliated Tommy Wright III mixtape as a pair of shoes, is all black in waxy leather. All three sets of shoes come with rawhide laces, are hand-sewn and conjure quiet afternoons by the creek.
