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Horween Leather Company
Horween is a Chicago tannery, working since 1905, famous for shell cordovan and Chromexcel leathers, and rare in being named on other brands' shoes.
Horween has tanned in Chicago since 1905 and is the tannery most associated with shell cordovan and with Chromexcel, a combination-tanned, heavily stuffed leather. It is one of very few tanneries named on the products that use its leather.
Named in the supply chain
Leather supply is normally invisible: a shoe says where it was made, not whose hide it was made from. Horween is an exception, named by shoemakers and boot brands because the name carries weight with buyers, and because Horween's own reputation is then at stake in the finished product.
Shell cordovan is the leather it is best known for: a months-long pit tanning process on a dense membrane from a horse's hindquarters, yielding two shells per animal. Chromexcel is the other: a combination-tanned leather stuffed with oils and waxes, which pulls up when flexed and takes on a distinctive worn character.
Why the name appears
Tanneries are almost never named on finished goods. Horween is, because a generation of American boot and shoe brands found that customers had learned the name and would pay for it. The consequence is unusual accountability: a shoe that names its tannery has put a second reputation behind the material, and the tannery has a reason to care about how it is used.
Chromexcel
A combination-tanned leather (chrome first, then vegetable retanning) heavily stuffed with oils and waxes in a hot-stuffing process. The result pulls up when flexed, lightening at the crease and darkening again as the oils redistribute, and it develops a distinctive worn character quickly. It is a working leather rather than a dress one: soft, forgiving, and impossible to keep looking new, which is the point.
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- An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art