Roots & Origin : Red Wing’s Irish Setter

Red Wing’s classic favorite were first founded back in the 1950s, post-war season where hunting became a favorite pastime by many in North America. Red Wing are quick to pick up the growing demand and made a pair of boots for hunting built of leather tanned with Sequoia’s tree bark, resulting to deep, reddish and orange color namely ‘Oro Russet’. It is named ‘Irish Setter’ as the color resembles the coat of a hunting dog breed, and were given number 954 for its style.

Irish Setter went through some evolution and the first are just 2 years from its debut where they replaced its predecessor heel with wedge sole of white crepe rubber, for a much quieter effect to walk in the woods, already set to target the hunting market and were given the name style No.877. The use of the material are the first on tall hunting boots at that time and the comfort it gave was a hit among industrial workers too. Fast forward to the 90s, the No.877 model are called as “Classic Work Boots” while the Irish Setter are put separate to become a branch of hunting boots under Red Wing.
Red Wing 877

In 2011, the Irish Setter were reproduced exclusively for the high-in-demand Japanese market with 3 updated styles. The effort to meet the Japanese standard and vintage appreciation involved re-hiring the retired workers to work on older sewing machine to make the release as close as the original ones released back in the 1952.

Following huge demand over it after the Japanese release, “Limited Series Irish Setter” were launched in July, 2017 worldwide on selected Red Wing stores and sees an instant sold out not long after it is made available for public.

The 2017’s version of Irish Setter, 9875 Irish Setter Moc and 9866 Irish Setter Pecos were looking like it went out fresh from the 1952 with few upgraded features like leather lace and the top band double-stitched. Few and very subtle changes to instill the true, exact replication of the original Irish Setter with the matching color of ‘Oro Russet’, the ‘Gold Russet Sequoia’.

The Collection is exclusively available at CROSSOVER Flagship City Square.