Bean boot factory in Brunswick is a thrumming hippodrome the size of an airplane hangar, a place filled with the clatter and hum of machinery, the metallic music of cutting, fitting, skiving, stitching, and brushing. Near lunchtime on a Tuesday in January, the L.L. A sampling of comments on Twitter reflects the cornucopic reactions to the boot, from patriotism to nostalgia: It connects us to our past, and partners with us on life's strange journey ahead, enabling our adventures and the "look" we fancy for ourselves. This is the odd thing about the boot: It inspires true emotion. The reconditioning process is a fascinating mix of hard-boiled, practical frugality (the boot's creator, Leon Leonwood, or L.L., Bean thought it silly to throw away five bucks-the cost of the boot in his day-when the soles were worn) and heirloom preservation. Once, a pair of boots in the bin had a return address that specified an exact igloo in Alaska. And when the boots return to where they were made in Brunswick, Maine, to be repaired, each is tagged with its home port for resending: Lawrence, Kansas … Decatur, Alabama … Shelter Island, New York … Staunton, Virginia … Salt Lake City, Utah … Bucksport, Maine … Memphis, Tennessee…. They seem to wander college quads and main streets with equal ubiquity. They've popped up on the feet of Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter, Jake Gyllenhaal, Chloë Sevigny, and recently, as shown on Twitter, the feet of a woman dancing on stage during a Bruce Springsteen concert. Bean Maine Hunting Boot has gone on expeditions to both Poles, and been commissioned by the U.S. If only these boots could talk, one imagines there'd be a gruff clamor of excitement, a cacophony of leather-tongued voices, the drawling Daniel Boones to the Brahmin über-preps, and everything in between. Each boot carries its own landscape of dings and dust, faded in its own peculiar shade, with its own particular history. It's hard not to want to touch them, to trace their wrinkles. Weirdly, the weathered boots piled into a bin, located in a far-off corner of the factory, don't smell so bad either. They won't bite though some have been gnawed upon, chewed, and bitten themselves (mostly by labs and golden retrievers, if social media is the source).
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