The son of a cobbler, Oak Street Bootmakers founder and designer George Vlagos apprenticed at his father’s shop where he learned the craft of shoemaking from an early age. Today, George seeks to preserve the heritage of fine shoemaking through thoughtfully designed and attentively crafted shoes.
Oak Street shoes and boots are constructed from renowned Horween Chromexcel leather. Chromexcel undergoes 89 separate processes taking 28 days and utilizing all five floors of the Horween facility in Chicago. Over the past 100 years very little has changed in the formula. Food-grade beef tallow, cosmetic-grade beeswax, marine oil, chrome salts, tree bark extracts and naturally occurring pigments are combined. The mixture is then applied using heat, steam pressure, the hands of craftsman and time. This ultimately yields the soft, supple and durable leather that is used for your shoes or boots.
