The story of Rocky Brands begins in the Great Depression, when brothers William and F.M. Brooks moved to Nelsonville, Ohio in search of work. The town made a shuttered shoe factory available to the brothers and with loaned machinery the company was born in 1932 – with 50 employees making 300 pairs of shoes for men and boys each day. During World War II, the company started making boots and shoes for the military – still a major part of their business through Rocky Boots that houses their Commercial Military and Public Service lines.
Best known in public safety for its Alpha Force boots, nearly a century later, the company is channeling that legacy toward a newer mission: building NFPA-certified boots for firefighters.
Entering the fire market: prototypes and persistence
Rocky knew how to build a quality public service boot from decades of experience building footwear for military and law enforcement, but a fire boot has special requirements.
Four years ago, a potential customer asked Rocky to build a fire boot. Although they’d never done so, Stuart Brooks, sales manager and fourth-generation family member, and senior product developer Steve Nelson dove right in.
The first prototype impressed Rocky’s team – but not the customer, who wanted a cheaper option.
“We don’t do cheaper,” said Brooks. “We build in the middle of the road or higher because we have to stand behind our quality.”
Rather than abandon the effort to create a boot for the fire service – especially after jumping through the hurdles to get the boots certified by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) – Brooks and Nelson were undeterred. “We were left with this very beautiful and well-designed prototype we wanted to move forward with, despite having little to no experience in the fire boot industry.”
They took the prototypes to trade shows and showed them to customers. “We were basically just a couple of guys at that point with a boot and a plan,” Brooks said. “We believed in it so much that we decided to go ahead and build a small inventory of NFPA-certified fire products so we could sample it and get some wear tests on people’s feet.”
Lessons from the lab
Successfully navigating NFPA testing was a milestone – and a learning experience.
“You have to jump through a lot of hurdles to test fire boots,” Brooks explained. “They have to go through an independent testing lab and they charge you quite a bit of money and it takes quite a bit of time. You’ve got your fingers crossed the whole time because if you don’t pass, you have to isolate what didn’t pass and figure out what’s happened there.”
After a few challenges, Brooks and Nelson got the results they had hoped for – but not without a remaining bit of drama.
“The laboratory sent us an e-mail and said that you passed. You made it through all the testing. We’ve lit the boot on fire, we’ve melted it, we’ve torched it,” Brooks said. “We’ve done all the torture tests.”
Then came the twist: “The guy very kindly said, ‘Now where’s your user guide?’”
“What the heck’s a user guide for a pair of boots?” Brooks recalled thinking. Brooks and Nelson scrambled to identify best practices for donning, doffing and caring for the boots, and quickly produced the manual required to finalize certification.
With the consolidation of NFPA 1971 and NFPA 1981 standards addressing structural firefighting protective clothing – including footwear – into a new NFPA 1970 consolidation, Rocky’s team can look forward to going through the next round of NFPA certifications with a bit more experience under their belts.
Listening to the field
Although the first boots passed their NFPA certification, there were still aspects that could be improved.
Early wear tests flagged a few fit adjustments – common for a new line – and validated several comfort features. Firefighter feedback also exposed a durability challenge stemming from tactics on the fireground. During the “nozzle forward” maneuver, firefighters drive forward on one knee, sliding the toe across concrete. That abrasion can tug at a traditional multipiece toe cap, causing separation between the toe and the outer sole.
To address this weakness, Rocky’s answer – which goes into production in early 2026 – is a one-piece, toe-capped outsole that eliminates the separation point and allows a full locking stitch around the forefoot. “We will be the only company in the industry that has a single-piece, toe-capped outsole for fire,” said Brooks.
Maintaining quality
As manufacturing trends shifted offshore in the 1980s and ’90s, Rocky expanded into owned factories in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
That ownership gives Rocky direct oversight of quality and the certification steps that are mandatory to serve the fire service. “That’s enabled us to build this fire program because we have to have a certified factory.”
Rocky Boots’ reputation and experience with law enforcement boots like the Alpha Force line has lent credibility to their entrance into production of both structural and wildland firefighting boots like their Code Red line for men and women.
They continue to iterate and improve on their firefighting boots, with focus on the single-piece, toe-capped outside, a new cold-weather structural boot with an Arctic grip outsole with a fire and ice compound aimed at lessening cold-weather slip risks, and expanding sizes for female firefighters.
Although Rocky is relatively new in the fire market, Brooks hopes fire departments will give their boots a fair try. “We’re here to support you,” he said.
Learn more at rockyboots.com.
