What is the Vasque Story?
A. In the early 1960s, The Red Wing Shoe Company began to sense a reoccurring theme in their consumer correspondence. Numerous consumer were writing Red Wing suggesting they should create a boot that offered the superior construction, function and fit as their world famous work boots, but could be used by consumers on the weekends for outdoor recreation. They wanted a boot for play. Remember this was the decade when the young baby boomers began their quest to get back to nature. So sensing an opportunity to serve an untapped market; Red Wing conceived the outdoor boot line in 1965. When searching for a name for this new line of hiking and backpacking boots, it looked to its own backyard; Minnesota and the Mississippi River. The mighty river flowed right past the corporate headquarters back door and some 300 miles north of Red Wing, laid the unspoiled boundary waters of northern Minnesota. Both of these famous waterways were once home to the original North American backpackers: the Fren
