In 1863, John A. Frye opened the doors of a small shop on Elm Street in Marlboro, Massachusetts. The shoes he made weren’t icons of fashion or fanciful in style. They served a simple purpose: to ease the daily working lives of the hundreds of factory workers in that small New England town.

Frye’s Harness boot is rooted in this tradition and continues to draw inspiration from the American Cavalry. Our classic Harness boot holds a treasured place in American culture, has been featured in international fashion spreads and enjoys strong sales all over the world. Our line still includes many styles (Cavalry, Harness, Campus) based closely on their 1860 originals.

The Campus boot featured a bulky toe and chunky heel that came to epitomize the attitude and styles of the 1960s and 1970s. The Smithsonian Institute, in its search for items to best represent America during the Sixties, chose a pair of Fryes that proudly remain on display today in our nation’s capital.

This is our history and our heritage, told in every stitch of every shoe we’ve made for nearly 150 years: across cultural shifts and changes in fashion, for generation upon generation. Now, Frye boots are accessorized and envied on city streets, worked and roughed up on country roads, and chosen above all others for their inimitable style and uncompromising quality.

And yet, despite our reach and success as a boot maker, our mission – to make the best-looking, hardest-working, longest-lasting shoes and leather goods – hasn’t changed since our days on Elm Street.

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