A casual search for a pair of versatile boots turned into a full-blown business after Connor Wilson and Nolan Walsh decided to start their own leather boot company. Unhappy with the options on the market, they used their naivete to their advantage by taking a fresh approach to leather footwear production, which was riddled with unnecessary markups and unchanging styles. By shying away from the status quo, they were unsusceptible to the dogma prevalent in footwear, and adopted a distinctive path. To this day, Co-Founder Connor Wilson continues to oversee Thursday’s production process, and took the time to explain how things are done behind the curtain.
TB:
Where do you manufacture your boots?
CW:
We are proud to manufacture all of our boots in North America, in both the U.S. and Mexico.
TB:
Why do you choose to manufacture your boots in North America?
CW:
Our first criteria was and always will be quality. From the beginning, we only wanted to work with people who were as obsessed as we are with creating perfect products. Quite a few of our partners happen to be in our own backyard, and their close proximity allows us to focus our time on in-person visits. To this day, there is always at least one Thursday employee at the facilities where we manufacture to give us first-hand awareness of the conditions on the ground.
That leads to a second key criteria – we place immense value on only working with ethical partners. When you’re working with someone you know is honest and cares about safety and environmental issues, you can allow yourself to specifically focus on product quality. On a personal level, we also just prefer working with likeminded people who are hungry for innovation, interested in constantly raising the bar.
TB:
Do you think there’s a correlation between the working conditions and the quality of the end product?
CW:
Yes. To attract the best employees, you have to be the best company. We’re constantly trying to create signals that we care about our employees, because we want to work with people who care. If you’re a company focused on cutting costs and being efficient, you’re going to end up with employees who are less invested in their work.
One of the advantages of being a young, digitally-native brand is that we’re in a position where we’re really close to our customers by being able to quickly respond to what they want.
TB:
Where do you source your materials?
CW:
The vast majority of our leather and hardware comes from America. That’s a combination of circumstance and luck, but it’s primarily because of quality. We were actually open to manufacturing anywhere around the world. But, we found that — for the parts of the hides we’re using — we get really great quality from U.S. cattle. There are fewer bite marks, scratches, and the cows are treated better than they are in other countries, which translates to healthier leather. The vast majority of our finished leather comes from great U.S. tanneries that are gold-rated by the Leather Working Group. Or they’re historic, best-in-show tanneries.
When I think about manufacturers, I want to make sure that whatever they have is the best. If you start with bad ingredients, you can’t make a good dish. Great materials make great boots. We want to make sure that whatever we’re using is top of the line, which will last long, look good, and feel good.”
TB:
How does your production process differ from your competitors’?
CW:
First of all, our production process is very customer-focused. One of the advantages of being a young, digitally-native brand is that we’re in a position where we’re really close to our customers by being able to quickly respond to what they want. That’s extremely exciting because we can have a dialogue, instead of me just going out and wasting a bunch of time, effort, and resources on stuff that isn’t going to work.
We also manufacture in small batches. For the most part, our competitors produce in massive quantities at extremely low-cost factories, because they’re all about boosting the bottom line. We manufacture in small batches because it allows for the greatest attention to detail. We’re really focused on quality, first and foremost. When footwear’s made in small batches, everything that gets produced on the line receives everyone’s full attention. This is extremely important because we’re not just doing something that’s cookie-cutter. We’re doing something that involves real craftsmanship.
TB:
What’s next for Thursday?
CW:
We want to continually improve by trimming down waste, finding elegant new technological solutions, and inventing new concepts that will allow us to be more efficient. We’re always pushing on that frontier and it’s going to be something that we’ll continue to do. It’s really in our DNA as a business.
