Each boot is hand-produced by at least 60 workers of the Borovo factory in Vukovar.
After last year’s remembrance ceremonies in Vukovar, the Borovo factory decided to take advantage of the great interest and produce another series of the popular yellow boots. At the time, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović walked in the remembrance walk in yellow boots similar to those which were worn by Vukovar defenders at the time of the wartime aggression on Vukovar. They are known as “Zenga” boots, reports Poslovni.hr on January 9, 2018.
“Since then, there has been a great deal of interest from customers from all over Croatia, but also from the diaspora, who were interested in those boots. We had inquiries from Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States… Therefore, we decided to adapt our production process and produce another limited series. This time, in addition to male sizes, we have also produced boots in female sizes, which has been met with great interest among the customers,” said Marija Rušnov from Borovo.
The current series of boots are identical to those produced before the Homeland War. They are yellow, hand-made from hydrophobic leather and are watertight. During the production of each individual boot, they pass through the hands of at least 60 workers, which also makes them unique. The only difference is that the new series features a logo of the Vukovar water-tower, which is a symbol of the wartime suffering of the town.
According to Rušnov, this was also done at the request of customers who have asked for the logo to be more visible. “We plan to continue manufacturing yellow boots in the future. We are in constant contact with customers, and we will work on their further improvement, to make them as comfortable as possible,” Rušnov explained.
The production of yellow boots in Borovo started in 1985, at the order of the American company Royce Shoes. They were sold for use in the desert and in mountainous areas where there are extremely high temperatures during the day and low temperatures at night.
The boots were produced at the Poly facility, which was destroyed during the war and no longer exists. Each year, between 200,000 and 250,000 pairs of boots were made for the US company. The final series was not shipped to customers in the United States due to the war but remained in the warehouse.
Translated from Poslovni.hr.
