About B.A. Mason
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About B.A. Mason
B.A. Mason Catalog is named after one of the founders of Mason Shoe, Bert A. Mason.
Bert and his father August Mason, started the company back in 1904 in a small logging town in northern Wisconsin called Chippewa Falls. Over a hundred years later, the company is still located in Chippewa Falls and is still owned and run by the Mason family. At one time Chippewa Falls had the largest lumber mill in the world.
In northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, lumber was king and in a small factory, Bert established his reputation by making sturdy leather boots for the lumberjacks and rivermen who harvested the huge stands of white pines. Those men demanded a lot from their footwear, and Bert made sure those demands were met.
Their boots had to stand up to mud, snow, rain, sleet, and an occasional dunking in a cold Wisconsin river. Bert's boots did that and more. Soon the name "B.A. Mason" spread up and down the Chippewa River and around the many lumber camps as one of the finest bootmakers in the Northwoods.
In 1915 Bert expanded into a larger factory and Mason started to add other work and some dress styles. Power for running the shoemaking machinery was drawn from Duncan Creek, which ran next to the factory.
In 1922 Bert started marketing through catalogs with a selection of styles for both men and women. Those original women's shoes were constructed like men's welt shoes ... not very stylish for Saturday night dances, but they were solidly constructed for a full day's work.
In 1925 Bert's two oldest sons, Ned and Owen, joined the "family business," followed by a younger brother, Victor, in 1945.
Mason Shoe made it through the depression and the leather rationing of World War II.
During the war, people weren't real fussy about the style of shoes they received, they were just happy to get a pair of shoes. Often they would just ask for a men's or women's shoe in their size and they didn't care what it looked like.
Today, Mason employs more than 450 men and women in the Chippewa Falls area.
The B.A. Mason catalog contains more than 350 styles for men and women. You'll find leather dress shoes, western boots, work shoes with guaranteed soles, Fin & Feather® sporting boots, sandals, service shoes, steel toe footwear, shoes with Velcro® straps, and of course, their full line of comfortable WALKABOUT® walking shoes.
We offer sizes from 4 to 17 and widths from AAAA to EEEEEE.
B.A. Mason is also an innovator, developing such unique concepts as CUSH-N-EEZ® multi-layer, energy-return construction ... and RESPONDER® soles with multiple layers to cushion as well as resist abrasion to name just a few.
Mason is the largest mail order footwear cataloger in the world.
If you are interested in receiving a FREE copy of the B.A. Mason Catalog you can call TOLL-FREE 1-800-422-1000, or write B.A. Mason, 1251 First Ave., Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin 54729.