Footsore? No More -- Kent Company's Comfy Boot Blazes Innovative Trail

Give George Brown your sore, your tired, your blistered feet yearning to traverse scree.

He will stick them in a pair of One Sport boots. You will smile and tell a friend. And Brenco Enterprises of Kent will be one step closer to heavyweight status in the ultralight hiking-boot business.

Brenco, the brainchild of Brown and partner Ernst Meinhart, already is leaving deep footprints in the outdoor footwear industry. The small company's "One Sport" lightweight boot line - particularly the high-tech, waterproof One Sport Moraine - has influenced bootmaking giants worldwide.

Not bad for a couple of former REI salesmen who struck out on their own in 1982 with little more than determination and a handful of good ideas. Initially, Brenco served as a distributor of European-designed technical climbing, mountaineering, lightweight hiking and ski boots. It also produced boots for catalog distributors, such as Eddie Bauer.

In 1987, the company hit the wall. "We had a really tough time," said Brown, Brenco's president. "We had really good boots, but so did everyone else."

"We were sort of floundering around," said John Connelly, the company's national sales manager. "Most stores were already carrying three or four lines of lightweight boots, and we didn't have anything especially exciting or unique."

The Moraine was both, and the floundering stopped the moment it hit the the feet of serious hikers the next year. Ironically, the

boot now seen as treading on the leading edge of high-performance hiking footwear was created from the price tag up. Its price ($140) fit a market niche between low-cost (under $100) and high-tech ($200-plus) boots.

The Moraine came as close as any boot to bridging an age-old performance gap between comfortable, lightweight hikers and rigid mountaineering boots. Other companies have tried to make lightweight boots both rugged and comfortable, but success has been rare, and usually comes with other tradeoffs.

Brenco took a new - and risky - approach:

-- For stability, the company chose a newly designed, non-slip Vibram sole with a lightweight plastic/steel shank.

-- For comfort, the sole's polyurethane midsole cushions like EVA (the foamy substance used in most running shoes), but never mushes down, even with repeated pounding from heavily laden backpackers. This sets it apart from most lightweight boots. The unique midsole's air-cushioned floor and molded walls cradle the foot.

-- For protection, Brenco sought soon became the hiking-boot guinea pig for Prime WeatherTuff, an experimental cowhide that receives a silicon waterproofing treatment during tanning. The leather, produced in Maine, had been used in boat shoes and other products. Brenco ordered it thicker and tougher, cut it in a one-piece pattern that creates a nearly seamless boot. No stitches, no leakage. Waterproof. It quickly became One Sport's claim to fame.

The components are shipped to a plant in Pusan, South Korea, where they're assembled inexpensively.

Reviewers raved about the boot. Backpacker magazine outfitted a trail crew with Moraines, putting them through years' of abuse in a short time. The boots were far more comfortable, even more resilient, than higher-priced competitors, Backpacker reported.

"The Moraine is very innovative," says Dave Page, a Fremont cobbler considered a national authority on hiking and climbing boot repair. "It's probably the wave of the future: an Italian sole, American leather, and you put the whole thing together with Korean wages. Nobody's ever tried anything like that before."

The boot hasn't been trouble-free. Its water-resistant leather also turned out to be somewhat glue-resistant. Uppers in some of the early boots separated from the soles and had to be reglued. Some Moraines also suffered from soft toes - a manufacturing defect that spelled trouble for mountaineers, who found them inefficient for kicking steps in hard snow. And unlike some of Brenco's big-business competitors, One Sport boots aren't available in specialty sizes, such as wide or narrow widths.

Company officials say those problems have been solved, except the size gap. The Moraine has become Brenco's leading product. Sales of the boot increased 47 percent last year for the company, whose annual sales now are about $6.5 million. Orders can't be filled quickly enough, and Brenco is seeking additional investors to expand the company.

The company already has diversified, building three full lines of lightweight hikers with the Moraine as the highest-priced centerpiece. Its other products have gained worldwide attention. The Everest technical climbing boot, manufactured in Italy, is considered the warmest and lightest in the world.

"We sort of have a reputation as a small, techie company," Brown said. "That's allowed us to be more flexible. But some of our very large competitors are starting to copy us."

The trick is to stay one step ahead. To survive, Brenco knows it must win the race to mate space-age technology with age-old human feet.

Prototype boots for the One Sport 1993 line are being tested now by Seattle-area mountaineers, forestry engineers and other boot-trashers. The line contains new gadgets, such as rock-hard, lightweight heel counters. (They support the heel and make the new boots "look techie," Brown says.)

"We already know what direction we're headed in for '94," Brown adds. Connelly produces a black, wafer-thin, unbendable plate in the shape of a footbed: carbon fiber, the lightweight secret of the Stealth fighter. Insert it in a new sole, replace the traditional steel shank, and boots would be even lighter.

Somewhere in Italy, a bootmaker is spinning in his steel-shanked grave. That's good news in Kent, where Brenco's sudden success has caught a national industry by surprise. "We're not surprised," Brown insists. "But we sure are happy about it."