New bipartisan legislation reintroduced in the Senate this week aims to ensure all combat boots worn by U.S. service members are manufactured entirely in the United States.
The Better Outfitting Our Troops, or BOOTS, Act has united a diverse coalition of lawmakers across the political spectrum in proposing that all U.S. military boots are produced from only American-manufactured components. That includes optional combat boots, which are authorized by commanders as an alternative to the military’s standard-issue boots.
Sponsors of the BOOTS Act include Senators Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, as well as Representatives Mike Bost, R-Ill., Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., and Jared Golden, D-Maine.
Defense Department regulations currently allow for the purchase of boots made in foreign countries, which lawmakers contend are not only cheap in quality but undermine the domestic supply chain and American businesses.
“Mandating that all optional combat boots be American made means not only that our troops wear high-quality footwear, it also means we’re reducing our reliance on foreign supply chains, bolstering our defense industrial base and creating good-paying jobs for small and large manufacturers in communities right here at home,” Duckworth said in a statement.
The bill has called into question the reality of U.S. troops wearing Chinese-manufactured boots at a time when the DOD is prioritizing countering threats from China and investing resources in the Indo-Pacific area.
“Belleville Boots has been crafting top-quality military footwear for our service members since World War I. But like so many American manufacturers, they’re facing unfair competition from a flood of cheap, low-quality imports — often from countries like China,” Budzinski said in a statement. Budzinski represents the town of Belleville, Illinois, where Belleville Boots is based.
“This not only undercuts American jobs, it poses real risks to troop readiness and our national security.”
According to the United States Footwear Manufactures Association, American shoe manufacturers currently produce less than 1% of an average of 2.7 billion shoes sold annually in the country.
“Alarmingly, up to 50 percent of our service members currently wear foreign-made ‘optional’ boots, primarily from China and Vietnam, while on duty,” said Bill McCann, Executive Director USFMA.
The BOOTs Act has been endorsed by an array of American companies and associations, including the USFMA, Belleville Boot Co., Glacial Lakes Rubber and Plastics, Worthen Industry and the American Apparel and Footwear Association, among many others.
“Currently, foreign-made boots undermine military readiness and disadvantage American manufacturers, weakening the U.S. supply chain,” McCann said in an open letter regarding the BOOTS Act. “This commonsense change ensures uniform consistency, reduces confusion for service members, and supports the domestic industrial base as manufacturers rebuild capacity.”
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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