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| Original Pair-A-Trooper vintage boot box. This winged paratrooper logo is also found stamped on the upper side of vintage versions of the company's boots, as seen below |
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| Vintage 1940s-50s dead-stock Georgia Boot "Pair-A-Trooper" Brand work boots. Part of The San Fernando Valley Mercantile Co. collection |
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| Close up of stitching, original leather laces and the painted eyelets and rivets |
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| Stamped Pair-A-Trooper logo |
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| B.F. Goodrich cork sole |
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| B.F.Goodrich nailed heel |
Georgia Boot history. In 1932, William Brooks, joined by his brother F. M.
"Mike" Brooks, founded The William Brooks Shoe Company in Nelsonville,
Ohio, about 60 miles southeast of Columbus. Both men had lost their jobs during the Great Depression when Godman Shoe Co. of Columbus went bankrupt.
In search of opportunity, the brothers set up shop in a rent-free
factory with lent equipment and what would eventually become The Georgia Shoe Mfg. Co. was born.
The company originally employed 50 to 100 workers with a production
rate of 300 pairs of shoes per day. With a newly-constructed addition
and the installation of more equipment, by the mid-1930s the factory
employed 225 people and production output increased to more than 2,000
pairs per day. During the 1940s and 1950s business continued to grow and the company supplied more than one million pairs of shoes and boots for
military conflicts such as World War II and the Korean War.
In 1974 Mrs Elisabeth M. Lott compiled THE HISTORY
OF FLOWERY BRANCH, GA 1874-1974. The information below is taken from
her work.
The Georgia Shoe Mfg. Co. was established in Flowery Branch, GA in May of 1946. Eight hundred and fifty are now employed. It manufactures 7,000 pairs of shoes a day. There are two plants, two warehouses and one main office located in Flowery Branch. They get their leather from Horween, Superior, Lannon, Trostal and Griener Co.
