There’s a romance to the way a boot fits right at home in one’s everyday kit, right alongside one’s essentials like a knife or a flashlight. Perhaps it’s the appropriate match to a gentleman’s leather watch band, belt, and wallet. Or maybe it’s the enduring quality of leather, and how it reflects both its owner’s and its own personality with patina over time. Regardless, a proper boot is a timeless and classic accessory, and Erem’s new Xerocole Boot adds environmental innovation on top of desert-ready performance.
Erem (“Exceptional, Responsible, Enduring, and Motivated,” also adapted from the ancient Greek word for “desert”) is the brainchild of father and son tandem Jeff and Noah Swartz. Noah wanted a boot built for the desert environments he spends a lot of his time in, and Jeff had the perfect background to execute an innovative new design: he spent decades as president and CEO of another boot company you may have heard of—Timberland, started by his grandfather generations before.
The goal was to create a boot that was “biocircular,“ or able to trace its material construction with 100% proven paths back to nature, all while looking good, and performing even better. The result is the launch of two flagship models, the Xerocole (5.25“ collar height) and the Xerocole Expedition (7.25” collar height). The Xerocole is more the everyday boot, but bears all the features Erem wanted to accomplish, while the Expedition offers a taller boot built for enhanced ankle and toe protection while still remaining comfortable even in extreme conditions.
The Xerocole’s upper is a combination of 18oz woven canvas and reverse, full-grain leather lined with moisture-wicking 100% TENCEL Lycocell, allowing your feet to breathe while regulating temperature and odor. Clever cutouts in the leather sections both offer a unique design as well as expose more of the liner for breathability. Rather than using adhesive lamination for both the upper itself and its connection to the sole, full stitching is deployed to hold the whole boot together, also opening the door for future repairs and resoles through Erem’s Reboot program.
Speaking of the sole, the Xerocole features a single-piece of rubber, with a 3mm toe bumper for added protection. A wood-fiber shank board gives extra torsional support, while 6mm tread lugs ensure steady traction even in terrain with loose substrate. Inside, the insole features a contoured and molded footbed handmade in Portugal from rescued cork crumb, topped with foam for all-day comfort. Paired with a familiar padded collar, the Xerocole makes no compromises for a boot you truly can wear everyday, everywhere.
The Erem Xerocole is the future of sustainable footwear, whose ability to be created and recreated mirrors a family’s legacy for blazing trails across generations. Check out both the Xerocole and Xerocole Expedition from Erem at the link below.
