{"id":4974,"date":"2026-06-08T13:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=4974"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:17:29","slug":"the-army-wants-to-improve-your-combat-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=4974","title":{"rendered":"The Army Wants To Improve Your Combat Boots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a request for information recently issued to industry, the US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center sought out potential sources which will support the re-shoring of the domestic footwear industry, improve capabilities for the domestic military footwear industrial base, and ultimately provide the best performing footwear technology to the Warfighter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Naturally, this effort won\u2019t just improve the Army\u2019s boots but those of every service as well as potentially commercial footwear manufactured domestically.<\/p>\n

The reality is that the US has a small domestic footwear production capacity belated primarily on military procurement which by law requires US made goods. The Berry Amendment specifies that most textile goods purchased by the US military must be manufactured in the US using US materials.<\/p>\n

Because the industry is so small and caters to military procurements it hasn\u2019t kept up with technological improvements found in many overseas factories which are newer and must be responsive to changing materials and processes.<\/p>\n

The military has been very slow to adopt those same material and manufacturing processes developed for commercial footwear, there\u2019s no pay off for US based companies to make capital improvements. In fact, building a new, state of the art factory could result in failing to capture military contracts due to the inability to build to older specifications.<\/p>\n

While the RFI is open to everyone, the reality is that companies who aren\u2019t already building to US military specs and comfortable with low margins are going to be at a serious disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Specifically, DEVCOM SC asked footwear manufacturers to identify possible gaps and process and\/or equipment improvements to enhance domestic processing capabilities, which may be beneficial to future military footwear systems. This request is part of a research and development effort under the FY24 Congressional Military Footwear Research Initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That last bit is a bit concerning. Two years later and they\u2019re just getting to it. Our procurement system is going to have to move faster and become more responsive.<\/p>\n

However, I am very excited about the focus of this effort:<\/p>\n