Mike Strong (Ontario) is a western boot and shoemaker who owns and operates Mike’s Custom Footwear in Ontario, OR. After an extensive apprenticeship with famed boot maker D.W. Frommer of Bend, Strong opened his own shop where he repairs shoes and boots and crafts traditional western boots.
Bio
Mike Strong is a western boot and shoemaker who owns and operates Mike’s Custom Footwear in Ontario, OR. As a boy, Strong shined shoes in a barber shop next door to a shoe repair shop in Weiser, Idaho where he became friends with the repairman, Chuck Jones. After 25 years in law enforcement, he returned to purchase the Weiser shop and learn the trade from Jones. In 1994, Strong attended a trade conference in California where he took a class from the renowned bootmaker D.W. Frommer. Over the next few years, Strong often traveled to Redmond to continue his apprenticeship with Frommer in traditional western boot making and packer lace-up boot making. The latter is a hand-sewn 19th-century style of boot that has wooden pegs instead of nails. Strong recognizes a desire in our society for quality hand-made products. He says, “[Boot making] is gratifying because it’s instant—you take an old boot and turn it into something that looks fantastic in a matter of an hour or so.” Strong also takes on apprentices to pass along the traditions of shoe repair, since there are no longer any boot making programs in the U.S. Strong’s desire is to teach people a trade so they can work for themselves led him to run a shoe repair program at a local prison for five years.
