Boondockers are a storied piece of military equipment from World War II, but have their roots in even older footwear. Formally known as the N-1 field shoes, these Navy boots got their nickname from the Tagalog word “bundok,” meaning “mountain.” In the Philippines, bundok is often used to mean the mountainous interior of the country, which tends to be more rural or even outright wilderness. This usage quickly spread to U.S. military personnel during the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 20th century, who began referring to the boots they wore in those mountainous areas as “boondockers”.
Like many clothes that originate from military use, the basic construction details of the boondocker derive from practical needs. These features include a roughout leather, resoleable construction (like a Goodyear welt), unstructured toe and corded soles. Originally, when materials were more plentiful, boondockers also featured riveting to secure the quarters, and a cap toe. These were removed as the war effort ate away at supply lines. Let’s go over those details one by one.
Leather
A roughout leather simply describes which side of the leather faces the foot, and which faces the elements. In the case of roughout, this means the fibrous “flesh” side faces out, while the smooth “hair” side faces in. Horween, who supplied some of the leather for WWII, describes the leather as a “Marine Field Shoe” Chromexcel. Chromexcel in general is a type of leather that is stuffed with oils and greases to offer waterproofing, but is usually smooth side out. The Marine Field Shoe variant had a treatment to give the smooth side a level knap, which made it more comfortable. This allowed the boondockers to be constructed without a lining, saving on materials. This was also advantageous in environments other than the originally envisioned tropical Pacific theater. For example, in North Africa, it allowed troops to more easily turn their boots over to let sand out. Most soldiers opted to add even more waterproofing to the boots by smearing in more oil in a process called “dubbing.” Roughout has extra surface area via the exposed hairy fibers to stuff with hydrophobic compounds, which lets it be even more waterproof than smooth leathers. These practical features helped protect feet from rot in an era before synthetic waterproof compounds proliferated.
Construction
Resoleable construction simply means that the boot is put together with repair and long term use in mind. One process utilized during World War II (and still today!) is the Goodyear welt. The Goodyear welt was actually not invented by Charles Goodyear, who was instead famous for discovering how to toughen up rubber via a process called “vulcanization.” Instead, it was invented by Auguste Destouy, and improved upon by Destouy and a man named Daniel Mills. They did this work under the employ of Charles Goodyear Jr. in the 1860s. The Goodyear welt utilizes a specialized machine, enabling more rapid construction compared to the traditional hand-welting techniques used prior. This machine connects a “welt,” which is basically a sacrificial strip of leather, to all the other pieces of the shoe or boot. One stitch goes horizontally through the insole, the upper, and the welt. Meanwhile, another stitch goes through the welt, midsole, and outsole. Separating these stitches helps improve the waterproofing, because there is not a single channel going from the outsole to the insole. This also allows you to very carefully restitch the upper (typically the most expensive and least disposable piece of any shoe) to a new welt and sole any time the soles wear out. All the damage is borne by the welt and soles. In practical terms, this allows the military to save on material by replacing just the soles of boots rather than the entire boot.
Speaking of soles, the soles of the original boondockers look quite unusual to a modern audience. This is because the rubber shortages at the type demanded creativity to stretch existing supplies. For boot soles, this came in the form of adding pulverized nylon cords or car tires to fill out volume in addition to the new rubber. This gave them the name of “corded soles,” because you could literally see tiny bits of the cord fibers peeking through the rubber. Despite their composite nature, corded soles were hard wearing and offered good grip.
This brings us to the cut features: riveting and a cap toe. The cap toe is a fairly simple cut to explain—while it can offer more protection, it also obviously uses more material. This is true both of the leather used to create the cap toe look, and whatever protective material is placed inside the cap. Cutting down on the rigid cap toe also offered more comfort during long periods of wear, both by adding flexibility, and by cutting weight. The riveting, originally placed in the corner of the quarters near the toe end of the laces, offered extra secure attachment. However, as the war went on, this feature was removed to save on metal. This is not so different from how jeans during WWII ended up cutting the leather patch for a paper patch, and removed the rivets. As a result, the iconic bootdocker that people think of now excludes both of these features.
Last
In terms of shape, the original boondockers utilized a particular shape called the Munson last. While the boondockers were not the first boots to utilize this last (that honor belonged to World War I boots known as the 1912 Russet Shoe), they certainly helped to popularize the shape. Named after the creator, Dr. Edward Munson, the Munson last was one of the first attempts at creating a shape based on human anatomy. Prior to his work, shoes often did not even give a thought to the asymmetry of the foot. Left shoes and right shoes were shaped identically, and people rarely gave much thought to how shoes should fit. Soldiers would simply take the first pair of shoes that they could cram their feet into without immediate discomfort. This led to blisters from overly wide or long shoes allowing excessive movement and friction, as well as cramping from overly small shoes. Dr. Munson ran an experiment where soldiers were allowed to pick their own footwear before engaging in a marching exercise for several miles. These soldiers finished with blistering and foot injuries that sapped morale and reduced their fitness, simply through poor fit! Over a third had foot injuries deemed severe, and many even required hospital treatment. Dr. Munson then had his team, referred to as the Shoe Board, carefully fit soldiers with shoes that were picked based on fit, rather than the soldiers’ own (often ill-conceived) preferences. These properly fitted soldiers had no failure-inducing injuries.
Military Minds Think Alike
The German military had a very similar style of boot known as the M43, not to be confused with the US military’s M43 double buckle, calf height boot. The German M43, on the other hand, was an ankle boot made of roughout leather. This "Schnurschuhe" (literally meaning "lace shoe") was modified several times, but in 1943, took the shape that most resembles a US N-1 field shoe. In 1937, the M37 version had speedhooks for the top few laces. The M43 replaced the hooks with regular eyelets. Originally, these boots were only issued for basic training and fatigue duty (labor which did not require armament). However, by 1941, the Schnurshuhe was authorized for combat units, and by 1943, had become universal to the entire German Wehrmacht. This change is thought to have occurred due to leather shortages making the taller jackboot too taxing to produce. Soldiers would wear these low boots with gaiters (a tube of cloth covering for the ankle, shins, and calf) to ensure complete coverage of the lower legs.
The main external difference between the German M43 and the US N-1 was the hobnails stuck into the soles of M43 boots. These hobnails would help with grip. These days, you rarely see them outside of faithful reproductions for reenactors, as they add weight and the opportunity to damage more delicate walking surfaces. The M43 is also depicted with a range of eyelets. Some reproductions have as many as 9, while others are more limited at 7. Regardless, the close resemblance between the German M43 and the US N-1 field shoe have led to the conflation of the two model names in many reproduction brands. John Lofgren, for example, calls their boondocker an M43, even though they use a Munson last and American N-1 details.