Customers come in asking for boots from brands we don't carry. The question we get most often is some version of: "why don't you have [brand]?" Three reasons usually, and they're worth being honest about.
First reason — the boot is fashion-cut work-styled. There's a category of boot that looks like a work boot, gets photographed in magazines and Instagram, and is built for casual wear, not for the jobsite. Pretty leather, soft sole, no real shank, no welt. They cost a lot of money. They fall apart in three months on actual job sites. We don't carry them because the customer who wears them to work brings them back to us angry, and we can't honestly recommend them in the first place.
Second reason — the brand has a thin distributor network and we'd be one of three retailers in 50 miles. That sometimes sounds like an advantage. It isn't. Thin distribution means parts and exchanges go through corporate, which means a defective boot turns into a four-week wait. We'd rather sell you a brand whose rep can be in our shop the next morning if there's a quality issue, because that's what brick-and-mortar service actually looks like.
Third reason — the brand sells direct online and undercuts retailers on price. Some brands run sales online for less than wholesale, which means we'd be selling you the same boot for $40 more than the brand's website. Even guys who want to buy local won't pay $40 to do it, and we wouldn't either. We don't carry those brands because we can't compete on a price the brand itself is undermining.
What we carry instead. For each gap, we carry an alternative that does the job equivalent or better. Asking for a fashion-cut work boot? We'll show you the Thorogood American Heritage moc-toe — same look, real construction. Asking for a brand with thin distribution? We'll show you the Red Wing or Wolverine equivalent that has full repair and exchange support. Asking for the direct-to-consumer brand? Try the boot on first — half the time it doesn't fit the way you think, and the size you'd order online would have been wrong.
We're not against any specific brand on principle. We're for boots that hold up and a customer who comes back happy. Sometimes those goals push us away from a brand other shops carry.