Samelin
Boots From the Factory That Shoes Five Armies. We Imagine Your Commute Will Be Fine.
Samelin has been making footwear in Tartu, Estonia since 1945, which, to save you the arithmetic, is a very long time indeed. It began when four local shoemaking firms joined forces, and it is now the largest footwear manufacturer in the Baltic states. The early education came from working alongside Italian, Finnish and Norwegian firms, and the standards rather stuck. We should say this plainly, because it has become unusual: this is a real factory, run by Estonians, in Estonia, at a time when most "European heritage" boot brands are European mainly in the font.
The credentials, for which we apologise in advance
What follows is essentially showing off, and we are sorry, but there it is. Samelin makes the combat boots worn by the Norwegian, Estonian, Latvian, Finnish and German armed forces, built to the NATO AQAP 2110 standard, with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification besides, audited by independent people whose entire job is to remain unimpressed. The M77, known as the Norwegian military boot, enjoys a cult following among those who take boots terribly seriously. For everyone else, the translation is simple: full-grain leather, proper construction, and footwear engineered for a Baltic winter, next to which a wet Tuesday in Britain is, frankly, a spa day.
The casual collection, where things loosen up a bit
The same factory, the same hands and the same slightly alarming standards are then applied to a casual collection: real leather shoes and boots in colours cheerful enough to have livened up Estonian streets and wandered onto the occasional fashion stage. These are, we suspect, the only fashion boots you will ever own that are over-engineered rather than the reverse. There are hiking boots too, for those whose ambitions extend beyond the postbox.
Where to next
See more in our men's footwear and women's footwear collections, or kit out the rest of the walk from camping and hiking. You will also find it among our Baltic brands,
