In 2004 Mainland Boots was formed to take over and relocate the Boot manufacturing division of J.B.Frame & Sons. Frames had been making boots in Dunedin N.Z. since 1890, when John Brown Frame arrived from Scotland with two men called Craigie and Thompson. The three men made boots for the local farmers. John Brown Frame decided to set up on his own account and called his company J.B. Frame and sons, making boots for the army. He was later joined by son Max Frame. The family tradition was carried on by his sons Jack and Peter, making the same boots for the army plus children shoes, ice skating boots and motor cycle boots. In WW2 Frame made boots for both the N.Z. and the American GI's. Murray Frame, Jack's son carried on the manufacturing right up to 2004, when he reluctantly sold the manufacturing plant to concentrate on footwear retailing with Peter's two sons, Greg and Mike. Our company, rather than let these boots dissapear from the N.Z. market, bought the plant, relocating to our Christchurch facility. With tuition from "Old Charlie" who had worked at J.B. Frame's for over 40 years, our staff, experienced in other footware manufacture, have faithfully copied the original boots and produce them to the same high standard, that old John Brown Frame would have been proud of. Joe Burdis |
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Little has changed since John Brown started in 1890. In fact we are still using a Puritan wax thread sewing machine dated 1895!
The heart of our boot making process is the brass screwing machines, one of these is dated 1916! That is our secret, this process is so old the emerging footwear manufacturing nations i.e. China, Vietnam and India cannot copy our product because they do not have the equipment.
Our process is slow, we only produce 20 pairs a day. This enables us to give special attention to our customers needs. If our customer requires some adaptation from an existing model, it is very easy for us to fit it into our production.
All our boots have genuine leather uppers, leather insoles, leather midsole or runners and either leather or genuine rubber soles. This makes for long lasting and strong boots, it almost makes for healthy feet, as leather breathes, especially good for people who perspire heavily. No more smelly feet!
Got big feet? No problem. We go upto NZ Size 16, USA Size 17.
Got small feet? No problem. We go down to NZ Size 3, USA Size 4.
We have made a special size of NZ Size 17 for one of our clients.
Extra width fitting on request.